Reviews

The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby by Marek Bennett

Only show reviews with written explanations

armaget's review

adventurous funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

First of all, Marek Bennett is very chill and nice. He came over to my high school almost exactly a year ago and taught a couple of us young nerdy aspiring cartoonists how to fold a piece of paper to make an 8 page mini book. I then taught this ingenious approach to my little brothers, which inspired many amazing collaboratory works, such as-

-Kipchy and the Vampire, volumes 1-10, which makes me want to turn myself in to prison and then shoot myself in the head
-Pregnant at McDonalds
-Death Slide

Needless to say The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby tops all of these and it was extremely enjoyable and informative, and makes me wonder how I could have such an extreme range of comics I enjoy. (Pregnant at McDonalds will always be a classic.)

The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby is by far the most interesting primary document about the civil war I've ever seen. In all, he's a normal guy. Just old as hell, and that's why it's interesting to read about him. Here's a part of the dedication Marek makes-

"To Freeman's generation, and all their stories yet untold and undrawn."

By just telling this one story, extremely loyal to the source material, it feels like a privilege and something really, really exciting- By adding the cartooning element it just makes it the more accessible. Relics from the past are cool as hell! That's it.

Something I really liked about this too was that it was the more mundane side of the Civil War- I mean not really, but there was no active fighting here at all, and maybe 10 deaths, but it still showed the way less glamorous side of the war.

For example, most of the book was Freeman, his brother Newton, and their friend Jonas trying not to get cold and wet, but getting almost deathly sick 2 or 3 times each. My dad told me one time that a disproportionate amount of deaths in the civil war were just from the soldiers just getting sick or injured and just never recovering, and here's when I really believed it.

There was no active duty recorded in this diary, but I understand the next volume consists of letters Freeman wrote while he was in battle. This volume definitely focuses on the beginning of the war, the camps, and picket duty.

Overall, very neat book, some sick cartooning, learned a helluva lot. Go check out www.marekbennett.com and see what interests you.

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