Canada at War - A Graphic History of World War Two

The graphic history: a new genre?           

When it came time to choose a title for the soon-to-be–released history of Canada in World War II, the good people at Douglas & McIntyre and the book’s two creators were briefly flummoxed.  Just what is this book?

It’s not a traditional graphic novel.  The book is a history of Canada’s war effort from 1939 through 1945; unlike other recently published graphic novels about Canadian military history, it does not follow one person’s or one family’s story through a war.  It doesn’t really fit into the category of novel, graphic or otherwise.

            Nor is it an illustrated history; that term’s already been used to describe a book that is primarily text but which has been copiously illustrated with maps and photographs [or artist’s drawings].

            I’m not sure who at D&M deserves the credit for the final title of the book, but it was definitely an inspired choice.  Canada At War: A Graphic History of World War Two conveys perfectly what this book does: it presents the history of Canada’s struggles in World War II in one volume in graphic form.  This acknowledges that a new form of telling and teaching history has appeared: the graphic history, which may well emerge as a primary way of presenting popular history in a rapidly expanding digital age.

            We live in times in which the image is supplementing, and perhaps superceding, the written word.  This is particularly true amongst males, especially younger males under 25.  I’ve been teaching history since 1989, and it’s been interesting to watch how textbooks have changed in those two decades.  Older texts are text-heavy, with more complex paragraph and sentence structure; modern texts are much more lavishly illustrated, with more colour, more pictures and more graphs, and less complex written content. Whether we like it or not, we have to adapt to changing times, while doing what we can to retain and strengthen the best of traditional ways.

            As reading goes, so goes society’s overall understanding of history.  We live in historically illiterate times.  Again, it’s been interesting to note how general knowledge of a major event like World War 2 had faded, as is only natural, over the last twenty years.  When I started teaching, World War II was still relatively familiar to students, especially at the high school level.  Now, knowledge of World War II is scanty at best.  As we are living at the end of the post-World War II era, this is dangerous for us all; those who have never learned their history don’t know what they have to do to avoid being doomed to repeat it.

Canada At War was created to try to meet both.  We wanted to present Canada’s military history in a format accessible to younger generations, especially those who grew up with military gaming.  We wanted to introduce that history to people that had never learned of our accomplishments and how they resonate, even today.  We wanted to encourage readers to explore that history in more depth by looking to other works that are only text-based.  Over the years, it’s been demonstrated that males who are introduced to reading through comics or graphic novels are much more likely to read traditional books as well.

Were Mike and I were successful?  That’s up to readers to judge. Please let us know.