Cartoonist Jess Ruliffson spent five years traveling across the country interviewing veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, from kitchen tables in Georgia and libraries in New York City to dive bars in Mississippi and back porches in Vermont. What she finds is that the real experience of soldiers at war is a far cry from depictions in popular media like Zero Dark Thirty or American Sniper. In these illustrated interviews, Ruliffson shares the stories of men, women, and non-binary ex-soldiers who struggle to reconcile their wartime experiences with their postwar lives. Identity lies at the heart of these stories, as they grapple with their gender, their race, and the brutality they've witnessed and caused. In this compassionate, probing book, Ruliffson reveals how America's endless entanglement in wars have affected the psyches of the people who wage them.

Author: Jess Ruliffson
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
Published: 11/01/2022
Pages: 178
Weight: 1.6lbs
Size: 9.30h x 7.70w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781683961901
Audience: Young Adult


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 07/04/2022
Booklist 07/01/2022 pg. 32
Library Journal 12/02/2023 pg. 1

About the Author
Ruliffson, Jess: - Jess Ruliffson teaches comics, gouache, and drawing at The Sequential Artists Workshop in Gainesville, FL, and The School of Visual Arts in NYC. Her work has been featured by Buzzfeed, the Boston Globe, the Nib, and Pantheon books. She was shortlisted for Slate's 2017 Cartoonist Studio Prize.