From Where All This Got Started

-





I got so tired of reading about how great "Maus" was that in 2012 I started drawing a comic I called "Chat", about Dien Bien Phu, cats vs. mice, the Furry Legion, France against the Viet Minh.  This was the last major paratroop battle.  Airborne has it's uses but full scale divisional assault is not one of them, to say the least.  To go a little further, such attacks have always failed.  The best executed of them all was Crete, and the Germans never used airborne troops again after that.  Had General Freyberg concentrated on protecting the airfields instead of scattering his forces the Brits would have won hands down.  General Freyberg, VC, was a great officer but his command decision turned out to be wrong.  C'est l'guerre.  In this drawing Marcel Bigeard discovers that a Major Hubert Lysenfeldt has been overseeing a critical counterattack with his radio set tuned to the wrong frequency.  The French are being chopped to pieces and their commander is sitting in a dugout deaf to their pleas for help.
My comic sucked but the furry thing stuck with me.  And, Maus is great, make no mistake about that.  I just wanted to show an aggressor take on warfare.  I very quickly realized that drawing comics was much harder than I realized.
My rabbit was originally a cat with the Furry Legion but in order to give the story some oomph I made him a bunny among carnivores, and some very mean carns at that.  He used to drive Traction Avants for Pierott le Fou, and needed a place to lay low.  He may have miscalculated!






Billie Le Chat, soon to be Billy D. Bunny.






The Traction Avant Gang.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Loutrel  


There was such a person at Dien Bien Phu and he was a Sergeant.  My primary source of info is Hell In A Very Small Place, by the French/Anglo writer Bernard Fall.  Fall, as a journalist, joined the French Foreign Legion and parachuted into Dien Bien Phu.  He died when he stepped on a land mine during our Vietnam war, eerily reminiscent of the death of David Douglas Duncan and Robert Capa.  40 years old.  It should be obvious that I cannot speak too highly of this man.  Oh, yeah, he also fought with the French Resistance.
Talking about putting your money where your mouth is.





Bernard Fall with American troops in Vietnam.





Citroen 11, Traction Avant.  (Front Wheel Drive).  The '34 Ford of it's day.



Au revoir.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Two Angel Forms Were Seen To Glide

-
Image
’Twas on a lofty vase’s side, Where China’s gayest art had dyed The azure flowers that blow; Demurest of the tabby kind, The pensive Selima, reclined, Gazed on the lake below. Her conscious tail her joy declared; The fair round face, the snowy beard, The velvet of her paws, Her coat, that with the tortoise vies, Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes, She saw; and purred applause. Still had she gazed; but ’midst the tide Two angel forms were seen to glide, The genii of the stream; Their scaly armour’s Tyrian hue Through richest purple to the view Betrayed a golden gleam. The hapless nymph with wonder saw; A whisker first and then a claw, With many an ardent wish, She stretched in vain to reach the prize. What female heart can gold despise? What cat’s averse to fish? Presumptuous maid! with looks intent Again she stretch’d, again she bent, Nor knew the gulf between. (Malignant Fate sat by, and smiled) The slippery verge her feet beguiled, She tumbled headlong in. Eigh
Read more

Where In The World Is Billy D Bunny?

-
Image
''The plight of Davis Paul'' ''Dam you to Hades Billy! why are you setting fire to my Wardrobe with your Cigarette!!?''...you would hear on occasion some kind of verbal anger often from Davis - shouting out in abstract Frustration, 'just because Billy Thought Davis Pauls Clothes were lame'' oh yeah, Billy D was the Dude.........Davis put up with so much crap and nonsense from the rebellious Layabout - come would be antisocial super hero, ''the enabler''...Davis Paul was literally at the end of his tether..all those worrisome late nights... Davis would often shout at Billy, during one of Billy's Trash rampages, ''Aunt may never has this problem ever with peter parker !'' and then the rest of the time, Davis Paul wondering where Billy was? and what was Billy D up too? then after hours and hour of worrying,  Billy would just rock up - staggering through the Front door, Gladiator outfit on, covered
Read more

Two Sides Of The Same Coin

-
Image
 It was a lovely day in November.  At least Tom thought it was November, the air was crisp and cool and it felt Novemberish.  There were no calenders here, while he had a clock he rarely looked at it.  He never had to be anywhere at any particular time in any event, when he had to be somewhere he always showed up on time, if that's the word for it.  Anyway, it was a nice Fall day. Tom stood on his porch that surrounded the small field stone house, he could see and smell the smoke from his neighbor's fires, someone was cooking fish and the big cat was salivating.  Since he had had his coffee he wasn't hungry, but the fish really smelled enticing.  Odd, he thought, I haven't had meat since I got here.  When did I get here?  he thought to himself, I don't remember.  Maybe someplace in town sold meat, although he had never seen such a shop.  It didn't matter, what with the bread and potatoes and butter and honey he was never hungry.  Tom lit a cigarette
Read more