Polite Dissent

5 Responses to “ A Matter of Rank ”

1. Shawn Levasseur
   June 6th, 2007 at 10:48 am
   

   I’m tempted to make a crack about anti-war leaning people not willing to research any facts, but where I actually haven’t read the book. I’ll give it a pass.

   My fears about it being a reflexively military-bashing story was what kept me from reading the book. I felt it was going to make an argument about the military, using strawmen created in this piece of fiction. Given the odd premise of the book it could actually NOT have anything to do with contemporary debates about the military. But I wasn’t about to lay down money to find out. (Being far away from a comic shop browsing before buying is not an option)

   So is the book any good beyond the insignia?

2. Scott
   June 6th, 2007 at 11:14 am
   Official Comment

   I’ve enjoyed the book so far. It’s not stellar, but it’s comfortably above average. I don’t think it’s Veitch’s best work — but it definitely is his work, so if you’re not a Veitch fan, this is not the book for you.

   It doesn’t come across as anti-military as much as anti-war and anti-people-who-run-the-war. Similarly to DMZ, it envisions war as corporate run. However, unlike DMZ, which has corporations more or less running the military campaign, Army @ Love has formerly civilian middle-managers (who were drafted) running the war as if it were a corporation. It’s also much more a satire — if not a farce — than DMZ.

   Here’s an Army Times article about the book (hat tip to Journalista).

3. David C
   June 6th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
   

   “I’m tempted to make a crack about anti-war leaning people not willing to research any facts….”

   This does seem to be pretty much true as a general proposition. Facts about war and military life are a vector for Evil War Cooties created in a secret Halliburton lab, and thus must be avoided whenever possible.

4. Arkonbey
   June 7th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
   

   I hate lazy artists. There’s no excuse, even before Mr. Goolge, to make mistakes like that. There are more books on military uniforms than most people would believe.

   Of course, some professionals make that mistake as well. When I was in USCG aviation school as an enlisted non-rate (E-3), we were at MCAS Cherry Point to go through the pressure chamber. When we were walking to the PX later, dressed in our working blues with no insignia other than our USCG emblems on our ball caps, we were saluted numerous times by enlisted marines! I think our strange uniforms confused them and the nickel-sized USCG emblem could look a little like an oak leaf if you were already confused. I’ll tell ya, it sure felt weird, as an enlisted non-rate, to be saluted by coporals and sergeants.

5. Eric the .5b
   June 8th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
   

   Careful, Scott. Judging by angry threads I’ve seen on military-oriented boards about similar and far worse inaccuracies in portrayals of the military on film and TV, military mistakes in comics probably outnumber medical mistakes. :)

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