Preview: Crogan’s March

By Eden Miller

In 1912, Peter Crogan has found himself at the end of his five-year term in the French Foreign Legion. Now, if he only makes it out alive. While maybe not exactly, all of our families have stories such as these in their history.

Chris Schweizer continues his stories of the Crogan family in Crogan’s March from Oni Press (in comic book stores Feb. 3). While it is a follow-up to 2008′s Crogan’s Vengeance, it can and does stand alone as its own self-contained tale.

Framed by a father telling his two sons about their relative’s experiences, Crogan’s March is one part history lesson, one part adventure story and one part meditation on the choices we make to help others.

Pete is dealing with his own internal conflicts (we’re told he was once a boxer) as well as the ones that are thrown his way — loss of comrades, a new commander, attacks by the Tuaregs — but he copes with it with grace, resourcefulness and a large amount of humor. Pete still remains somewhat of a mystery throughout this graphic novel, but all I know is that I liked him. He make a great center for this graphic novel.

Pete is accompanied by a cast of colorful characters — an egotistical captain, a no-nonsense drill sergeant a boy who’s probably too young to rightfully be in the Foreign Legion. Schweizer does a wonderful job of communicating each character’s personality in his artwork. The rotund captain’s bushy eyebrows and pointy chin gives him a larger-than-life appearance while the boy’s round face emphasizes his youth. While the cast is large, that I could recognize each character instantly made this into an easy read.

But still, it is a little complicated and dense. Even so, Schweizer never bogs readers down. His art has a playfulness that keeps the story moving — all the characters have exaggerated, cartoony features and action scenes are punctuated with plenty of onomatopoeic words bouncing off the page. Although some of the battle sequences can be intense, they’re not graphic. Schweizer suggests horrors rather than showing them outright.

Even though the story ends a little inconclusively, I understand where Schweizer was going with it. This is just meant to represent a pivotal moment in Pete Crogan’s life and supposed to be a lesson for the two brothers in the framing story. I like where we left Pete and it shows that life isn’t always full of neat resolutions.

While I wouldn’t quite call it all-ages — I wouldn’t be handing this to a 6-year-old — I think this can be enjoyed by everyone from older children to adults. I love the idea of families reading these graphic novels together and then exploring their own family histories.

I know I will definitely continue to follow the Crogan family’s stories. Chris Schweizer is doing something really fun and original here with this series. I have yet to read the first, but I’m going to go back and do that. I am going to look forward to the next one.

A PDF copy was provided by Oni Press for review.