Comic Review: War Stories - Castles in The Sky 1&2

  All-American college boy Leonard Wetmore is sent across the Atlantic to serve his country. While getting used to his new life, Leonard meets a beautiful young British widow and her grieving, angry son.
 But culture shock isn't Leonard's worst problem.  You see, Leonard Wetmore is a gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress. And before he can go home again, there's an awful lot of dangerous missions left to fly.

 I've been eagerly waiting for this comic to come out ever since I found out about it. I'm a big fan of Ennis's 21st century take on the classic War Comic so I was curious to see how he'd approach the savage air battles between the Luftwaffe and the 8th Air force.  

 Things open gently, with young Leonard waxing poetic on his journey across the USA.

Then meeting the locals

The lovely Paula Pritchard. Very, very British.  

Then just to remind us that this is  war comic...

 I think that's one of the reasons I've liked the War Stories/Battlefields comics so much. Garth Ennis takes a bit of time to make his characters human so when things suddenly get brutal and ugly, it hits us harder.
 Issue two sees more of the same, albeit with more action.

  Leonard also finds time to get to know Mrs Pritchard a little better, leading to some interesting commentary on America's and cultural differences, all over a nice pot of tea.

 As you can see from the snippets above, artist Matt Martin isn't bad at all. Maybe better at dogfights than he is at people, if I want to be picky, but definitely getting the job done.
 I like the way the story moves along too. Bursts of action broken up by quieter personal moments. You could maybe describe the combination as "jarring" but I'm sure that's deliberate. From everything I've read, the life of a WW2 airman was a strange blend of domesticity and deadly peril.
 If like me you grew up reading the old British war comics then this is a nod to the past and at the same time, moving away from the cliches and into something more grown up.

 So to sum up: I enjoyed these two issues a lot. Not my favourite Ennis war story ("Nightingale" or maybe the heartbreaking "Dear Billy", if you're interested) but definitely worth a  read.

 The thing is, I'm looking forward to issue 3 but at the same time, I have this horrible feeling I'm about to get punched in the heart yet again...  

That's all folks.