Civil War Adventure: Real History: Stories of the War That Divided America

Civil War Adventure #1

by Chuck Dixon, Gary Kwapisz (Illustrator)

From the smoke-covered battle field of Mannassas to the dueling ironclads on the Mississippi, Civil War Adventure tells stories of courage and cowardice, bravery and death set against the real history of the American Civil War. A father and son reluctantly leave their farm and family to join the Stonewall brigade in “Tainted by Blood.” The young, brash, Union general, George Custer, makes his first stand, against the Confederate cavalry in “The Boy General.” These and seven other stories are brought to life in this, the first volume of a continuing series of American history graphic novels. Masters of the comic book medium combine beautiful, detailed art, with maps, timelines, and fact pages into historically accurate stories that will make history as exciting and relevant as a movie or video game.

Genres: War, Graphic Novels, Comics, History, Civil War, Short Stories

144 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2010

About the author

Charles "Chuck" Dixon is an American comic book writer, perhaps best-known for long runs on Batman titles in the 1990s.

His earliest comics work was writing Evangeline first for Comico Comics in 1984 (then later for First Comics, who published the on-going series), on which he worked with his then-wife, the artist Judith Hunt. His big break came one year later, when editor Larry Hama hired him to write back-up stories for Marvel Comics' The Savage Sword of Conan.

In 1986, he began working for Eclipse Comics, writing Airboy with artist Tim Truman. Continuing to write for both Marvel and (mainly) Eclipse on these titles, as well as launching Strike! with artist Tom Lyle in August 1987 and Valkyrie with artist Paul Gulacy in October 1987, he began work on Carl Potts' Alien Legion series for Marvel's Epic Comics imprint, under editor Archie Goodwin. He also produced a three-issue adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit for Eclipse with artist David Wenzel between 1989 and 1990, and began writing Marc Spector: Moon Knight in June 1989.

His Punisher OGN Kingdom Gone (August, 1990) led to him working on the monthly The Punisher War Journal (and later, more monthly and occasional Punisher titles), and also brought him to the attention of DC Comics editor Denny O'Neil, who asked him to produce a Robin mini-series. The mini proved popular enough to spawn two sequels - The Joker's Wild (1991) and Cry of the Huntress (1992) - which led to both an ongoing monthly series (which Dixon wrote for 100 issues before leaving to work with CrossGen Comics), and to Dixon working on Detective Comics from #644-738 through the major Batman stories KnightFall & KnightsEnd (for which he helped create the key character of Bane), DC One Million , Contagion , Legacy , Cataclysm and No Man's Land . Much of his run was illustrated by Graham Nolan.

He was DC's most prolific Batman-writer in the mid-1990s (rivalled perhaps in history by Bill Finger and Dennis O'Neil) - in addition to writing Detective Comics he pioneered the individual series for Robin , Nightwing (which he wrote for 70 issues, and returned to briefly with 2005's #101) and Batgirl , as well as creating the team and book Birds of Prey .

While writing multiple Punisher and Batman comics (and October 1994's Punisher/Batman crossover), he also found time to launch Team 7 for Jim Lee's WildStorm/Image and Prophet for Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios. He also wrote many issues of Catwoman and Green Arrow , regularly having about seven titles out each and every month between the years 1993 and 1998.

In March, 2002, Dixon turned his attention to CrossGen's output, salthough he co-wrote with Scott Beatty the origin of Barbara Gordon's Batgirl in 2003's Batgirl: Year One. For CrossGen he took over some of the comics of the out-going Mark Waid, taking over Sigil from #21, and Crux with #13. He launched Way of the Rat in June 2002, Brath (March '03), The Silken Ghost (June '03) and the pirate comic El Cazador (Oct '03), as well as editing Robert Rodi's non-Sigilverse The Crossovers. He also wrote the Ruse spin-off Archard's Agents one-shots in January and November '03 and April '04, the last released shortly before CrossGen's complete collapse forced the cancellation of all of its comics, before which Dixon wrote a single issue of Sojourn (May '04). Dixon's Way of the Rat #24, Brath #14 and El Cazador #6 were among the last comics released from the then-bankrupt publisher.

On June 10, 2008, Dixon announced on his forum that he was no longer "employed by DC Comics in any capacity."

Reviews

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of Civil War comics. There are a couple of stories that have humor, and one that almost seems like a Tales from the Crypt tale, but mostly these are historically accurate and well researched accounts. The art is great and the stories are compelling. They don't seek to glorify the war but instead present it as it really was.

If you have any interest in Civil War History you should check this one out, whether you are a fan of graphic novels or not.

[Killian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure what to think of this graphic novel exactly. On one hand I can see what it was probably going for: making history more accessible, maybe even aimed more at those who are already civil war buffs. I'm not as sure that it succeeded.

This is a series of vignettes, some longer than others, but all taking place during some point of the civil war.



They are interspersed with historical notes that range from humorous anecdotes...



...To full-fledged history lessons.



Overall I think I would have enjoyed this more if it had seemed more certain in it's purpose. As is, it just seemed a little like a civil war fact/story scrapbook.

That being said, I would LOVE to see more historically based graphic novels come out. I thoroughly enjoyed March: Book One and recently bought Part Two which I need to get around to reading. It makes learning about history so much more accessable to me since I won't be sitting down and reading a textbook on these times... Ever. But a comic book? Totally!

Copy courtesy of Dover Publications, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Civil War Adventures, Book One' is a series of illustrated retellings of stories from the Civil War. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

The stories are told in no particular order. The book provides a timeline of the war and shows when the stories take place there. There are stories of snipers and farmboys and fathers who find themselves in the path of war. There are letters to loved ones. We meet Mosby who made a famous raid behind enemy lines. We meet deserters who only want to get home to sick family and failing crops. We meet Darnel Dingus who seems to have managed to make it into a famous painting for his lack of brains.

Many of the stories are prefaced with brief information. It seems like the stories are more from the Confederacy side of things, but I think a lot of the experiences were not uncommon. It feels a bit like these were cut out of a larger work and pasted back in a different order. It gives some of the stories a strange or abrupt ending, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment. I loved the art. It's very detailed and at times has a bit of caricature feel, but it brings everything to life very well.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Dover Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

[Googoogjoob · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a bit of an oddity. It's a revival of the long-unfashionable genre of war comics, which largely died out in the 80s (this was initially published in 2009). It features an atypical application of the war comics format, historically mostly covering America's involvement in WWII and subsequent wars, to the American Civil War.

It's the only fruit of the short-lived History Graphics Press, an independent venture by comics industry veterans Chuck Dixon and Gary Kwapisz. Other historically-themed comics by other creators were apparently mooted, and Civil War Adventure was intended to be a running series, extending to a dozen issues or more- but it only made it to two issues, published two years apart, before folding. This is the first of those issues.

The book has an anthology format. It's comprised of stories of widely varying lengths (from about 4 to 40 pages, with some single-page interpolations with snapshots of people or events, trivia, and jokes) and settings (from before First Bull Run to the Siege of Petersburg), from the perspective of both Union and Confederate soldiers, in no particular order. The stories range in tone from heroic to comical, mordant to melodramatic; and they are heavily oriented towards an ant's-eye, common man's view of the war- the focus is generally on the privations and perseverance of the common soldier, and the political and economic aspects of the war are usually almost totally ignored in favor of the raw military aspect. Heroism and sacrifice on both sides of the conflict are highlighted and lionized, as well as the brutal, arbitrary way death can find a soldier.

This is the Civil War as beloved of dads and uncles nationwide- a dirty, exciting, dramatic, yet curiously de-ideologized struggle; a vital part of America's national mythology, and an inexhaustible source of thrilling stories and fascinating minutiae. It's not wrong, and this is pretty typical of war comics generally; and it's consistently entertaining. But it's inevitably an incomplete picture of the war, and what educational value the book has is thus limited, while it never rises, artistically, above enjoyable escapism.

Nearly half the book (something like 60 of 140 pages) is taken up with two episodes covering the first year or so of the military career of Ty and George Campbell, Virginia farmers (not slaveholders) who enlist in the Confederate Army in 1861. They're in a serious, realist mode, which emphasizes the difficulties of shaping men into an army, the brutality of combat, and the hardship imposed on the soldiers' families. Other stories feature episodes from Shiloh, Memphis, Gettysburg, Petersburg, and elsewhere, in varying tones, as noted above.

The art is all in effective, gritty black-and-white. There are, unfortunately, a good number of typos in the text- missing punctuation, erroneous capitalization, etc. This is the only aspect in which the small-scale, independent nature of the project really shows.

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This did not look well at all on my first gen Kindle Paperwhite. Unreadable.

[Joe Sergi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have this huge stack of stuff I pick up at shows. Occasionally, I actually get to go through some of it. Well, last year, at the Virginia Comiccon, I picked up Civil War Adventure from History Graphic Press. History Graphics Press was conceived in 2008 to publish entertaining, historically accurate graphic novels set against the background of American history. With the example of the old EC Comics in mind, they planned modern graphic novels that were character driven and using the best art and stories available to draw the reader into the history and make the past come to life. As you tell from my normal reviews and discussions, historical comics aren't really my cup of tea (unless they are wearing capes). I picked this up for one reason: Chuck Dixon. Chuck Dixon is a comic legend. He created some of the best Nightwing and Robin stories ever written at DC, great Punisher stories at Marvel and he's currently churning out top notch GI Joe stuff at IDW. More importantly, he, along with artist Gary Kwapisz, is the founder of History graphics Press.

Civil War Adventures is meticulously researched. In addition to the sequential art, there are is text pieces, maps and period pictures. The stories feature a variety of the everyday experiences of men and women caught up in the war that decided the fate of our nation including: the 5th Virginia as it marches toward its first conflict at Bull Run; George Custer and his fabled cavalry as they face impossible odds; an armed riverboat as it drifts into range of waiting batteries along the Mississippi. These stories are designed to make real. Dixon’s writing is strong and Kwapisz art is solid. Together they tell engaging stories that are also educational. You should pick it up.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reprint of a book with a limited run originally published in 2009. This graphic novel is a series of short stories that combine to tell the story of the Civil War mostly through the viewpoint of a father and son serving under Stonewall Jackson. It's an incredibly readable history volume with real facts except for the fictional father & son. Different presentations are used throughout from single pages of text to maps to frames of comics with only narrative to full comic style with speech bubbles. Interspersed between the story of the adventures of Ty and his father as they join the Confederate Army and go off to war are shorter stories of famous people (ie Custer), other events (ie an ironclad) and letters home from various soldiers in the field. This is a harsh look at war, death, disease, depression, desertion. While there are a few episodes from the "Federalist" side, the book decidedly shows the war from the "successionist" point of view and makes a point of making slavery *not* the point of the war for the average volunteer farmer or mountain boy who signed up. Also of interest are one-page history lessons on such topics as certain guns in use, the birth of the sniper, certain famous people, battles, and campaigns. I enjoy reading about the Civil War, especially of the South, and fully enjoyed this. It's not in-depth but gives a good overview for a student or is simply entertaining and informative for any age.

[April Damon · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Civil War Adventure”, by Chuck Dixon and Gary Kwapisz, is a graphic novel about the Civil War that does exactly what you want this type of book to do--bring history alive for the reader. Through the use of both short and long stories, the novel personalizes the war by focusing on the plight of the everyday soldier and their families. There are also some interesting looks at battlefield tactics on land and on the water that will introduce many readers to Civil War lore that they may never have learned in school before now. I found myself drawn in with the first story, “A Choice of Targets”, which immediately humanized the conflict and never let me forget that every tale of glory was another man’s death and every death was a choice between two men. I also want to point out that the illustrations by Gary Kwapisz are gritty but poignant. The entire novel is in black and white but that only highlights the grey areas of the conflicts, the causes, and the results of the war.

*Recommend, as a teacher, for supplemental use in the classroom: grades 6 and up

*Some spelling errors present in the e-copy outside of history usage

*Received an e-copy of the book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

[David Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a lover of history I hate to hear people say that history is boring. I always reply that history is not boring, historians are boring. Some noble attempts are being made to make history approachable and enjoyable. Chuck Dixon’s Civil War Adventure is one such project. This is an outstanding piece of historical writing. Dixon builds a series of interlacing stories to tell the story of the Civil War. The stories move around all over the war. He uses both fictional and historical characters to tell the stories. The writing is masterful and is paired with the outstanding art work of Gary Kwapisz. I started reading Civil War history when I was 12 years old. I would have devoured this book at that time. I highly recommend this to anyone, but in particular this is the kind of book that you can get for a younger person and turn them into lovers of history for life. I hope that Dixon will continue to write more such books.

[Si Braybrooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Civil War graphic novel mixes history, story telling and fantastic artwork to create stories of everyday people in civil war America.

Using historical accounts, detailed research, maps, timelines and fact pages Chuck Dixon creates stories that show how the war affected not just the Generals and Lieutenants but fathers and sons, families and friends.

Each story takes in an aspect of the war, be it recruitment, training, everyday life, desertion, battles, key figures etc. with some insights into the terrible cost of war.

It's very heavily biased towards the point of view of the Confederate army with little insight into the Union army. However, having read only the first in the series I can't say whether this is addressed in subsequent issues.

Overall this will serve as an excellent introduction to the civil war

[Elle Markov · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a fun and education read. This semi-graphic novel combines illustrations and text to education young children on the Civil War. The book reads as if targeted for children ages 7+, however it doesn't feel dumbed down or anything of that manner that might detract from it's educational merit.

We get a presentation of events and then followed by an illustrated story that incorporates what was just read. My absolute favorite was the map of the U.S. at the time and the war's timeline; it presented key points that were easy to follow without becoming boring or tedious. If you're looking for a fun, educational read, my inner child recommends this one.

[Jezire C Akin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book from netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

I read this quickly and enjoyed the stories. Lots of historically accurate accounts and great details. A bit of humor and genuinely will be enjoyed by Civil War enthusiasts, history buffs and even someone who just likes to read war stories.

I would say that maybe it wasn't for me as it was just battle stories but the art was great. awesome black and white with lots of detailing. Definitely think this will be enjoyed by many!

[Paul Allard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories from the American Civil War

Black-and-white comic collection of stories from the American Civil War. For those unfamiliar with this bloody conflict, like all civil wars, it raises many controversial issues as brother fights brother. These stories illustrate this war and tell a lot about the history of the conflict if you are not familiar with it.

Because the drawings are black-and-white, in some stories, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish Union soldiers from Confederate ones – but perhaps this is the intention.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are looking for a quick introduction to the grit of the American Civil War for upper elementary/middle school students, Civil War Adventure will be one of the books to recommend. There is a nice mix of adventure with vignettes of history nicely illustrated in black and white. The book recommendations provide an opportunity to discuss viewpoint and authorial bias in history. In all a much better collection than I first thought.

[Theediscerning · Rating 1 out of 5]

Practically nobody in the UK has any working knowledge and/or interest in the US Civil War (heck, hardly any of us have any working knowledge and/or interest in the UK Civil War) so a collection of episodic, inconsequential graphic short stories is not going to change anything. Regardless of that, this seems poor, and while reasonably drawn, incredibly bitty.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

History mixed with some historical fiction in the vein of EC Comics' Two-Fisted Tales.
Another one I wish I could get into the hands of my Military History students.