Tag: war comics

To help prepare Navy medical corpsmen for the stress and danger of Afghanistan deployments, the Navy has turned to a modern form of popular culture: the graphic novel. Although graphic novels fill several shelves at most large bookstores, their use by the military is relatively new and represents a break from the usual training material that is heavy on the didactic and light on anything that could be labeled as entertainment. That’s where “The Docs” comes in. It follows four fictional corpsmen as they deploy to Iraq and encounter combat, blood, death, and emotional tumult — elements common to graphic novels. The emphasis is on storytelling and realism, including drawings of Marines and sailors gravely wounded by sniper fire, roadside bombs, and artillery rounds. The hope among Navy and Marine Corps officials is that the 200-page “The Docs” will be ...