His name maybe Eazy and he may seem to try to live up to it but cross him and you’ll find the only easy thing about him is how he dispatches you to the next world.
What They Say:
Major Eazy is a maverick soldier in a dirty war, caught up in the Allies’ invasion of Italy in 1944 and determined to see justice done. Even when that means taking on villains on his own side, he doesn’t pull any punches!
More movie star than military, Eazy was the most laconic and indeed British officer ever to grace the pages of a comic. This volume starts from the very beginning of Eazy’s story.
The Review:
Titan Books has been bringing a number of collections of serials from a British comic series/anthology magazine that went through a few name changes over the years (at various times it was Battle Picture Weekly and then Battle among some other similar name changes) and this time the lens turns and focuses on a particularly gifted man who may help in changing the course of many a battle if he can just wake up or survive various encounters with superiors ready to have him court-martialed for his lack of military decorum.
As the interview with author Alan Hebden at the beginning of the book presents, Hebden invented the character of Major Eazy (as well as having been inspired in some of his other stories written for BPW) in part through inspiration he got from a number of the war based films that were being produced at the time. This is particularly important to note as that inspiration shines through in this work, especially as the main character is one that at times possesses skills that boarder of the superhuman while at the same time also possessing the kinds of traits in how he conducted his life that would never have allowed him to stay in the military, let alone become a Major, even during the severe state of need that WWII created for troops.
Basically, if you are looking for a faithful representation of battle conditions, events or even just realistic fiction that even remotely faithfully adapts conditions from that era this is not going to be the book for you. On the other hand if what you are looking for is a larger than life character who is willing- and very able- to cut a swath through one of the biggest conflicts of all time while remaining faithful to himself and his standards- which might not always comply with the standards set out by treaties such as the Geneva Convention- then this is almost assuredly a release that you should consider paying attention to.
In many ways Major Eazy is practically a super soldier who is capable of taking charge of any situation and assessing the best course of action to turn the tide in the direction of his squad- or at the very least of making sure as many members of his squad survive which seems to be the one rule that Eazy operates by in all his actions. In order to carry out his tasks of advancing through Italy with his troops Eazy uses all the skills he has from his unbelievable marksmanship with just about any weapon the battlefield can provide to his superb handling of his personal Bentley that he uses to move about the front as the allies advance through the country from July of 1943 through the end of the hostilities in 1945.
But those expecting to find a gung ho, flag waving leader who rallies the troops to the cause of King and country will be in for a bit of a surprise as most of the time he is the antithesis of such a character as he seems to be more interested in sleeping and making it through the war alive than the “win at all costs, even self sacrifice” mentality that such charismatic, jumping out front to lead type of personalities that characters often are imbued with. While he is gifted and skilled he has no love for war itself or belief that somehow he can change the course by himself and his actions often leave a bit of mystery as to just what he feels his role in the conflict to be at times as he certainly tackles any challenge in front of him but he doesn’t ever exhibit the desire to advance at an accelerated pace to the next round of fighting.
In the comics contained in this release Eazy is the centerpiece of all the action as he uses every skill he knows to fight those troops in the opposite uniform while attempting to limit the casualties of those under his command as much as possible to the point where he is willing to take extraordinary steps to help them when under fire. While his loyalty to his troops is unquestioned, beyond that there are plenty of events that could have found a real Major in front of a firing squad as at times his respect for his enemies outweighs anything he shows for some of his superior officers or erstwhile allies in the course of the stories in this book. At times Eazy will be seen in various activities from playing cards with the German troops during lulls in fighting to fighting with his superior officers or civilians over the proper treatment of German captives while at other times returning fire to an ally (knowingly) who engaged in a mistaken case of friendly fire or even setting booby traps for German troops to trip across knowingly breaking the rules of war but justifying his actions to himself, troops and the readers with the rational that the enemy did so first.
It is in these actions that the enigma that is the main character is really showcased as Eazy is very much the type of character that can only exist in fiction where the positive results of his actions outweigh the negatives that he brings with him. In many ways Eazy is the kind of character whose actions can be fit into the pattern that has developed over the past couple decades of the authority bucking anti-hero whose popularity is derived from an equal mix of results and personal ethics as his actions are of the kind that would drive any superior officer- and probably more than a few subordinate ones- completely out of their minds.
For better or worse though the series and its 3 or 4 page (typically) structure places the majority of the burden on Eazy to carry so if one doesn’t particularly click with his methodology then there will likely be a rather large hurdle to climb when it comes to the enjoyment of the stories as they are largely tailored to the specifics of Eazy and his responses. To that end the stories here are so largely focused on Eazy that outside of Sergeant Daly none of his troops ever gets named or are distinguishable in their sameness- and many times they aren’t even seemingly present during the course of events which can create some questions as to just what kind of a leader Eazy is.
This is probably one of the few issues I have with the book as at times Eazy goes from a leader of troops to almost a sort of British Captain America at times (though Eazy uses his guns more than engaging in fist fights), charging into events with enemy troops with just his faithful sidekick at his heels to provide backup (though truthfully most the time the role of the sidekick turns out to be as a stand in for the reader, asking questions that the reader might as to the reasoning for actions which allows the hero a chance to expound without appearing to talk to himself). This even more than some of Eazy’s actions make it a bit harder to really place the stories in their proper setting as a leader of a specific number of troops though it does play up the larger than life aspects of his actions.
What is clear is how much difference time brings to how characters can be presented as somehow one doubts that this comic could have been written the same way at the period it was set as British citizens who were still recovering from Germany’s bombing of their cities would likely have not been in a mood to see a number of the enemy German soldiers established as men not all that dissimilar from their allied opponents in that heated period- nor would Eazy’s lackadaisical attitude likely have been a favorite either. Any yet decades later it is possible for Eazy to treat enemies around him with higher levels of respect than he gives his own chain of command as such at various times as he attempts on a number of occasions to end encounters with as little bloodshed as possible, even when most or all of the bloodshed averted is likely to be from his countries enemies.
It is really in the treatment of the various forces Eazy goes up against that the book finds its distinctive voice as his actions create a character that is a bit of an enigma as to just what motivates him and most of his actions come more a place where his is reacting to events around him rather than being proactive in his actions. This makes for some high drama at times and separates the book from some other tales of war as the sides aren’t always black and white and neither is the stories scruffy lead. While the stories in this book doesn’t go greatly into any moral ambiguity about the war itself, they do delve into that area at times with some of the individual tales, though they reality that many of these attempts are set up more in how they will play off Eazy then seeming to be more organic and springing from just the setting can be an element that throws a bit of a wrench into the flow of the narrative if one looks at it hard enough. Still the book is a rather interesting collection of tales of one very complicated man set against perhaps the greatest background for his skills and ambiguity to take the center stage and it gives plenty of chance for its lead to shine.
Release Notes:
Produced by Titan Books the release is particularly stunning as it is presented in a rather oversized manner which really allows for the illustrations to fully show off the lines and depth of the images which were created for this work. The art itself is rather remarkable and though the large format doesn’t present as many panels as they could using this size, it looks like the decision was made to recreate the panels faithfully from their original appearance which really helps bring in the impact both of the machines and other background items but it also really works well in giving a large field that really helps show off the expressions of the characters.
The release is bound relatively well into a more traditional type of book binding/cover which doesn’t use any images of its own and only has the title, author, illustrator and publishing company on its spine to give an indication of what lies within black colored binding. To alleviate this, the release has a dust jacket/slip cover which features the only color images of its lead character, who is tinged red inside a sniper scope with his pistols raised on the front cover while the back offers a larger image of him pointing a gun that show off and represent fairly well the rather Hollywood inspired character that the stories within follow.
What really stands apart with this release beyond its oversized nature though is the quality of the paper used for the pages. I have been reading comics and graphic novels for better than two decades and this is some of the best presentation I have ever seen as the pages are an incredible glossy white which really shows off the artwork and it is a type of paper which I can’t recall coming across very often- if at all- in the past. The paper really helps to create a vibrant background which helps the inked images really stand out and the restoration of these images is largely and incredibly spectacular as the printing process looked to have been generous in its use of ink to fully let images stand out.
Unfortunately on occasion the printing press used seems to betray the material slightly as sometimes the dialogue lettering has the ability to get much softer or darker in the middle of sentences like there was a lack of consistency used with the press and on a few occasions some of the brilliant artwork looks like it was over inked and some of the subtleties get lost in a minor blur. There is also an oddity found in a number of the early stories where the first two pages of each tale look a bit softer and the lines are a bit thicker and less detailed which I can only presume had something to do with the original release and the possibility that these pages were printed on a different type of paper to make the pages stand out necessitating a change in drawing style for these pages in their initial run as the comics later in the book stop presenting this issue. One final note is that the review copy received has a bit of a bowing problem which is a bit noticeable both when setting it on a hard surface as well as at times when handling though given the number of titles I have from Titan Books that don’t have this issue I imaging this is more a limited manufacturing error that I was just unfortunate to come across. Over all most these flaws are minor in nature and seem a bit picky most of the time but when so much care is taken in a presentation some minor flaws stand out more than in more pedestrian work but they still shouldn’t stop anyone from buying this spectacular release.
In Summary:
Major Eazy: Heart of Iron brings a hero with a very Hollywood sort of attitude to a comic set in Italy during the Allied Forces campaign there. What the book brings is some high level action at times and mixes these moments with some more shades of gray events that the series enigmatic lead creates as he goes about leading his troops in his manner. What this creates is a lead who isn’t quite hero or villain in his actions and principles but who always operates according to the dictates of his conscience and cannot be cowered to follow the path someone else or even the military guidelines would have him follow. While this would make for a lousy soldier in reality, here it creates an opportunity for some very entertaining tales to be told as well as some ethical questions to be asked. Those who enjoy the exploits of such characters on the silver screen should defiantly not miss this chance to see an intriguing example that came from a similar spirit but is certainly not a stock product as he storms across the battlefield fighting a war by his rules.
Content Grade: B+
Art Grade: A
Packaging Grade: B
