By Doug Murray & Russ Heath (Marvel/Epic Comics)
ISBN: 0-87135-699-6
This simple tale tells of a half-caste French/Vietnamese peasant girl whose husband is killed by proselytizing Viet Cong Guerrillas, but who finds a kind of love with a green American College drop-out trapped in The Draft and sent to kill Commies for Uncle Sam. Of course it doesn’t end well…
1965: Despite himself Lieutenant Jim Brett is fitting in. He has an aptitude for the soldier’s life and has found his One True Love in the Officers Brothel. The half-white Nhi is overjoyed to have been purchased by the handsome young Lieutenant and looks forward to her new life in America as Mrs. Brett. But when the Viet Cong stage a successful assault on the city of Hue she discovers that her husband is still alive and now a fanatical Guerrilla leader. Just then the frantic Brett bursts into the house…
The examination of the greater conflict through a doomed romance is both subtle and evocative, and the hyper-precise drawing and bright happy colours of the artwork savagely underpin the oppressive brutality and doomed futility of the tale. Hearts and Minds is an anti-war tale with all the punch and poignancy of an artillery round, favouring no side whilst counting the human cost and yet still managing to balance blazing action with passionate intensity.
Concerned parents should note that if this is a novel for adults with graphic nudity and violence.
© 1990 Doug Murray & Russ Heath. All Rights Reserved.