I read the first of Sam Glanzman's A Sailor's Story a while ago, and wanted to see how the second volume compared.
Glanzman served on the USS Stevens during the Second World War, and as such, saw a fair amount of action on the Pacific, including surviving kamikaze attacks.
Like with the first book, Glanzman takes an episodic approach to the war, sharing anecdotes and taking time to teach the reader about the ship's various weaponry. There aren't really any themes that he explores, and aside from a recurring bit about his difficulty finding a quiet place to sleep under the stars, no real narrative progression.
What the reader does get is a good sense of both the monotony and terror of life on a Destroyer while the War was going on. Glanzman's art is capable without ever being flashy, and holds the reader's attention.
There are some strange end pages where black and white battle scenes are liberally splashed with flat red ink, that look pretty dated now. Aside from that, this is a great document.
I know that there is a new publication of both of Glanzman's graphic novels, and I would be curious to see if they have updated the colouring or left the book as it was originally published.
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