Arts Innovation for Memorial Day: UC Pioneers Comic Way to Preserve Veterans Stories

A University of Cincinnati fine arts instructor has come up with a “comic” way to preserve and share veterans’ stories.

Nationally recognized graphic novelist Carol Tyler, UC adjunct instructor of fine arts, has mobilized the 16 students in her current “Advanced Comics & Graphic Novels” course to connect with veterans in an unusual way. The students are creating graphic (comic) short stories of at least two pages each detailing the experiences of individual veterans as a means of helping the veterans better communicate their military experiences.

For instance, fine arts student Lucy Carey, 20, of Fairfield, Ohio, hopes that Iraq War veteran Brad Wenstrup, MD, will use the comic short story she’s created when he speaks about his military experience: “I know he’s spoken a lot in public about his experiences as a surgeon in Iraq as a member of the U.S. Army Reserve. I have a vision of him showing the comics panels and pages as part of his presentations.”

• See a SLIDE SHOW of sample panels from the students’ projects.

STUDENTS AS RAW RECRUITS

For most of the students in Tyler’s class, this is their first opportunity to listen and learn in-depth from veterans’ experiences.

“I’m learning and creating an artistic and communications piece about military experiences from

inside

the military point of view,” said UC fine arts student Caitlin Candy, 19, of Fairfield, Ohio, who partnered with Robert Snow, a United States Navy veteran. In her comic short story, Candy represents Snow’s experiences on board the aircraft carrier, the USS John F. Kennedy, in the tense days after two F-14 Tomcats from that carrier shot down two Libyan fighters in January 1989.

Added fine arts junior Kira Loertscher, 28, of Midway, Utah, “The best part of the project is connecting with people you didn’t think you’d connect with, seeing in depth into someone else’s experience. Anthony Pangallo (a Korean War veteran who partnered with Loertscher) told me so many stories from his military service, the people and experiences of basic training and of life overseas.”

One of the panels Loertscher created for the book she’s made for Pangallo, who served in the U.S. Air Force from 1951-1955, includes depictions of life during basic training.

For interdisciplinary studies senior Dan Wolff, 22, of Anderson Township, the experience was his first in meeting someone who felt that military service was a “calling.”

He said, “I’ve known people who went into the military for the educational benefits, but (U.S. Army National Guard) Sgt. First Class Michael Prows (an Iraq War veteran) joined the armed forces as a calling in the same way others are called to be teachers, doctors or artists. For me, that’s a new perspective on the internal motivations for someone to serve in the armed forces.”

VETERAN'S VIEW

“I hope UC keeps this project up,” stated Sgt. First Class Michael Prows, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran currently on full-time active duty in the Army National Guard.

He added, “When the veterans and students first met, I thought it was so cool that we had veterans from so many different generations.”

PROJECT INSPIRATION: A 91-YEAR-OLD COMBAT VETERAN

The inspiration behind this unusual UC effort was Carol Tyler’s 91-year-old father, who served in combat units in North Africa and Europe during World War II. For 60 years, Chuck Tyler was not able to talk about his experiences, but now his service in the war is the subject of a graphic novel series, “You’ll Never Know,” by daughter Carol.

The first book in that series, “You’ll Never Know: A Good and Decent Man,” was recently nominated for two Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. The Eisners, awarded each July during international ceremonies in San Diego, are the "Oscars" of the graphic novel field.

GRAPHIC (COMIC) NOVELS HIT A SERIOUS NOTE

Comics are an appropriate tool for weighty subjects, given that graphic novels are not just kids stuff anymore. After all, comics have grown up into full-length books (graphic novels) that deal with such subjects as the Holocaust. Museums now collect pages of comic art, and The New York Times regularly reviews graphic novels (including Tyler’s “A Good and Decent Man”). Many graphic novels have been best sellers, and one has even won a Pulitzer Prize.

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