In October, Garth Ennis re-enters familiar territory.
That month, Garth Ennis’ Battlefields kicks off from Dynamite Entertainment with Night Witches #1. Fans of Ennis’ War Stories
at Vertigo will recognize what the writer is doing – traveling back to
lesser-known, or out and out forgotten conflicts and soldiers of the
World War II era, and telling their stories.
Case in point - Night Witches, which features Russian
female bomber pilots who would go on night bombing runs in planes which
were near obsolete. Given the death that was always at their wingtip
due to the condition of their aircraft – not to mention the fate that
would await them if they were ever captured, Ennis takes these plain
women of Russia, and shows them for the heroes they are.
Following Night Witches (illustrated by Russ Braun), Ennis will present The Tankies and Dear Billy (three issues each) to round out this volume of Battlefields. We spoke with Ennis about the series, and his fascination with World War II history.
Newsarama: Garth, Battlefields appears to be a continuation of the type of stories that you were exploring in your Vertigo War Stories
a while back. What was the reasoning to get back to them? As Nick
Barrucci said , you suggested this pretty quickly when he asked if there
was anything else you wanted to do at Dynamite...
Garth Ennis: War stories are pretty much my favorite genre, and
I've had these three ready to go for some time. In terms of theme and
tone they are indeed a continuation of the War Story series I did at Vertigo.
NRAMA: We spoke about the story selection of War Stories
at Vertigo a few years back, but let's touch upon that again...how do
you find the settings & characters for your stories? You've said
before that you're a pretty voracious reader of WWII history...are we
seeing, for the most part, your discoveries in Battlefields, and previously in War Stories?
GE: Yeah, that's about it. The more I read the more occurs to
me. It can be a particular setting, like The Tankies, or characters,
like The Night Witches, or sometimes it'll be just a single incident
that sets me off - as in Dear Billy.
NRAMA: That said, what turns a historical account of a
lesser-known setting/battle/group of soldiers, etc from an academic
curiosity into fertile ground for a story? Using the Night Witches as
an example, what made them and their experiences fertile ground for a
story arc in Battlefields?
GE: Sometimes you want to do stories about the ordinary, run of
the mill soldier and his experiences - the Tankies, for instance,
features a crew of fairly unexceptional tank men struggling to survive
the brutal fighting in Normandy post D-Day. Not a tale of elite special
forces, just the regular soldier doing his thing- because what happens
to the regular soldier in his tank or foxhole can be just as
fascinating as the exploits of commandos and paratroopers.
In the case of the Night Witches, however, I was drawn to the
exceptional nature of the characters involved. Young women in their
late teens or early twenties, piloting obsolete biplanes on
night-bombing missions against a vastly superior force, that's
interesting enough- but when you consider the bullshit they had to put
up with from their male counterparts, and even worse, the potentially
ghastly consequences of capture that they faced, the story becomes
downright fascinating.
NRAMA: Where did you first find the accounts of the Night Witches? How much information is available about them?
GE: I first ran across the notion of Soviet women combat pilots
in a strip I read as a kid, "Johnny Red", which appeared in a British
weekly called Battle. It was probably my favorite story when I
was young; I also first encountered the concept of camships and
Hurricats there, which eventually led to me writing Archangel
in the second series of Vertigo war books. I had a similarly astonished
reaction, too- "They didn't let girls fly planes, did they?" But as I
discovered when I did a little further reading, yes, they most
certainly did. So there you go, comics are good for something.
I think there's a fair amount of information on the Night Witches
available, in print and online, but it still seems to be pretty much
specialist knowledge. No one I've spoken to is aware that the Russians
employed women in combat roles- not just the Night Witches, but as
bomber and fighter pilots, tank crew, medics, line infantry, snipers
etc.
NRAMA: When does this arc take place during their active period?
GE: The story follows the first women to see service through
their initial six months of combat, in the latter half of 1942. The
characters are fictional, but their experiences are roughly based on
those of their real-life counterparts.
NRAMA: Through your War Stories and now in Battlefields,
what are you looking to leave readers with? If I recall correctly, part
of this all was/is to just tell good war stories, but at the same
time...your stories show these regular men and women with a great level
of courage and nobility, all the while keeping them very real...
GE: I can't deny that I write these stories largely because of
my own fascination with the war genre, and hopefully some of my
enjoyment will come through for the reader. I certainly feel like Battlefields
represents my A-game right now, the very best that I'm capable of. But
beyond that, I'm hoping to keep alive some stories that might otherwise
fade from the world that might disappear along with the men and women
who lived them. If nothing else, stories like The Tankies and The Night
Witches are a chance to acknowledge the courage of some pretty
exceptional people.
NRAMA: You’ve been mentioning them, so let’s get into them a little - what battles/soldiers are coming up in the other two arcs of Battlefields?
GE: Dear Billy is set in the far east, beginning with the
Japanese invasion of British-held Singapore in 1942 and finishing with
their defeat in 1942. The story follows Carrie Sutton, a young English
nurse who survives Japanese captivity by the skin of her teeth, and
goes about seeking revenge in perhaps the worst way possible. The
Tankies follows an inexperienced tank crew through one day's savage
warfare in the Normandy bocage country, as the allies struggle to break
out of the beach head they established on D-Day.
NRAMA: With your war stories, you've stuck mostly to the
European theater (albeit with stories in North Africa and the North
Atlantic and Russia)...have you considered more stories set in the
Pacific front?
GE: You bet. I want to keep on doing these stories indefinitely,
and I'd like to get to the Pacific sooner or later. The U.S. Marines in
the island campaigns, maybe, or B-29 crew over Japan, or perhaps
something involving the Kamikazes. The list is pretty endless.
NRAMA: Likewise, you've remained in the WWII era, generally speaking. While you've explored Vietnam somewhat in Punisher: Born, can you see yourself moving your focus to Korea, Vietnam, the covert wars of South America, or even the Desert Storm(s)?
GE: I did a story about the Spanish Civil War in the second Vertigo series, Condors,
with Carlos Ezquerra. Certainly all the conflicts you mention are of
interest, particularly Korea, which I think is something of a forgotten
war. If it continues, Battlefields will probably focus on WW2 for the most part- but I imagine I'll get to the others in time.
NRAMA: Finally - drop a few names and pull back the curtain a
little bit - for those who're interested in the same view of WWII as
you are, who do you recommend hunting through the History section in
the library for?
GE: I like Richard Overy, Anthony Beevor, John Keegan and
Richard Holmes, but my favorite is probably Max Hastings, who achieves
an objectivity that I've always been greatly impressed by. There's
another guy called Stephen Bungay, who wrote an excellent history of
the Battle Of Britain called The Most Dangerous Enemy. I think
guys like Stephen Ambrose and Rick Atkinson are good, in that their
books are filled with all kinds of useful anecdotes and first-hand
accounts, but they're rather lacking in objectivity (to be fair,
Atkinson's a lot better than Ambrose in that department).
I hate to say this, but the view of many American historians seems to
revolve around the notion that the USA did the lion's share of the
fighting in WW2, and saved the day almost single-handedly. The British
historian will say, "Hold on a minute, old chap, I think you'll find
there's a bit more to it than that". The Russian historian, presumably,
will roll his eyes and leave the room
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