The conceit used in the story is one that would happen, and has happened, in today’s world already. When something big happens, people are usually there with video recorders, digital cameras, and cell phones with image-capturing functions (the recent Barry Bonds homerun and all the amateur photographers in the stand comes immediately to mind). The American people know they can usually sell these images or digital footage to media corporations. In fact, there have been shows on television that specialized in live footage shot by amateur photographers.
Overnight, Jimmy becomes a media superstar. The news corporation, Global News, pushes Jimmy into the limelight. And that’s exactly where Jimmy wants to go. However, Jimmy isn’t prepared for what the news corporation is going to do to him. He – and we – find out that they’re not that interested in what he has to say. He’s just part of the show.
But that doesn’t mean they’re going to be able to control him. And that’s going to cause all sorts of problems.
The preview ends there. But the back-story is intermingled with scenes from the Iraq front line where Jimmy looks haggard and desperate. I know that the authors have a political agenda with their story, and I’m fine with that. But they’re also going to be telling a coming-of-age tale that looks to be filled with adventure and heart. That’s plenty to keep me turning pages.
Although this preview is only sixteen pages long, it’s whet my appetite for the rest of the story. November can’t get here soon enough.
Article comments
1 - Old Mayfly
Attention, Anthony Lappe, love your work but--please make one correction if Shooting War comes out in another edition. About midway in the book (why aren't the damned pages numbered?) you have Dan Rather talking to Jimmy Burns and quoting from the novel Appointment in Samarra. As the real Dan Rather knows (and I know because I'm the same generation) Appointment in Samarra was written by the American novelist John O'Hara--not by Somerset Maugham.
One of the ideas I get from your graphic novel is that reality matters. So, please, fact check! It is neoCons who don't need to.
2 - Anthony Lappé
From Wiki: The title is a reference to W. Somerset Maugham's retelling of an old story, which appears as an epigraph for the novel.