DOG TAG #1: War Is Fictional.

Tom Fuller was a Private hoping to cover the very real war happening in Europe and instead found himself playing pretend. While he wrote fake stories about a fictional ghost army, the real war was being fought on the shores of Normandy. But what happens when the war suddenly becomes real, and Private Fuller finds himself in the middle of it all?

Creative Team: Mark Russell, P.J. Holden, J.P. Jordan, and Buddy Beaudoin.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The Story:

Mark captures something that I have some personal experience with, and that is seeing the young guys wanting to experience war and the realness of war. There is often an over-romanticized view people have of war built up by heroes in the media, and Tom Fuller is no different. In this story, his job is to mislead the Germans with a false narrative, and to him, it is boring and not a real war. What he doesn’t know is that this job is the most crucial and allows the Allies victory on the beaches of Normandy.

I love how slowly, throughout the book, the war becomes a little more real as Tom is collecting the dog tags from those who have arrived at his location wounded from D-Day. A line that stuck with me is how Tom thinks they lost, the Doctor says that no, this is what victory looks like. Victory has a price, and it can often come at a costly price. As a Veteran, I never took bullet fire or things like that. I have been deployed, and there isn’t much romance about anything. Seeing the glass shatter for Tom was eye-opening, and Mark did an incredible job with this first issue.

The Art and Letters:

Holden and Jordan bring World War 2 to life in this issue. The inflatable tanks and the false war are a story not told enough, and the way they managed to bring a sense of realism to them was thought-provoking. The amount of blood and the hat full of dog tags hit home, and capturing the look on Tom’s face, you could almost see him age across the panels. Buddy’s lettering brings a rugged emotion, and what starts as a bored Fuller transitions to something more, in part to his lettering. Something was haunting and beautiful about the panel where Fuller is walking on the empty beach in Normandy that struck home with me and was so well done by the team.

Final Thoughts:

Dog Tag #1 is a powerful tale of the realities of war. There is a romantic view of something that is ugly and primal, and the team at Mad Cave Studios does an incredible job of bringing that to life in this first issue. I very much cannot wait to read more!

Overall Grade: 10/10

Be sure to let us know your thoughts below and check out more reviews by Matt!