A MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL
 
By Sam Glanzman (Marvel)
ISBN: 0- 87135-298-2
Inexplicably, many superb creators who dedicate a lifetime to producing a volume of work are never rewarded for their efforts. Probably the most shamefully neglected of these hidden stars – at least in the American comicbook industry – is Sam Glanzman. With a solid, unique and rough-hewn style he has worked since the 1940s on a variety of titles for a number of companies, mostly on anthology material for fantasy, mystery, war and adventure anthologies, but also on the occasional serial characters such as Willy Schulz, Hercules and Tarzan for Charlton, Kona for Dell, and The Haunted Tank and U.S.S. Stevens for DC.
It is this last series of guardedly-autobiographical tales, derived from his tour of duty on that eponymous American Destroyer in World War II, which formed the precedent for the superb pictorial autobiography I’m discussing here. And if anybody from DC is reading this, those U.S.S. Stevens strips are so-very-long overdue for the trade paperback treatment, too!
In 1987 editor Larry Hama made the bold decision to publish Glanzman’s simple, matter-of-fact account of his days as a young man aboard a Pacific Fleet Destroyer as part of Marvel’s original Graphic Novel imprint. The spectacular result was a high point in American sequential narrative and even spawned a second volume (A Sailor’s Story II: Wind, Dreams and Dragons: ISBN: 0- 87135-556-6).
Glanzman is a natural storyteller, with the ability to make dry fact entrancing and everyday events compelling. With his gritty art style and powerful sense of colour he weaves memory into magic. His depiction of ship-board life is informative and authentic, and his decision to down-play action and concentrate on character is brave and tremendously effective. He also knows how to make a reader laugh and cry, and when.
A Sailor’s Story is a moving and obviously heartfelt paean to lost days and lost people, a war story that glorifies life, not death, by a creator who loved the experience and loves his art-form. When you read this superb book you will too.
© 1987 Sam Glanzman. All Rights Reserved.