I had the pleasure of reading in advance the first chapter of Primitive War, a comic book adaptation of Ethan Pettus’ novel, here as a screenwriter and assisted by artist Babisu Kourtis and colorist Maja Opacic.
The original novel follows a squad of soldiers, known as the “Vulture Squad”, on the trail of a platoon of US Green Berets who were deployed in the valley to locate and investigate some USSR activity deep in the jungle of Vietnam and disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The fact that I’m talking about it on this site only means one thing: the valley is infested with dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles!
“War is Hell”, without making spoilers, serves as the introduction with effective storytelling, presenting all the elements that will be developed in the next chapters. Warning: many scenes are pretty violent, and the dialogues are strong, so it must be said that it’s not suitable for kids or impressionable readers.
Although the dinosaurs, Utahraptors in particular, are introduced as lethal creatures, the theme that permeates this first chapter is the inhumanity of man during one of the craziest conflicts in history, well present on all sides. As in much modern fiction on the subject, it is not a classic struggle between good and evil, but various shades of gray are shown right away, or perhaps it would be better to say red, given the abundance of fire and blood. In this regard, the palettes used by Opacic define each environment well, creating the right atmosphere and enhancing the panels.
Kourtis’ style makes a great contribution to the novel-to-comic transition, with rough inks that sometimes reminded me of Stephen Bissette and nice framing. The tension while crossing the valley is palpable, and the very design of the Utahraptors, with the green of the feathers (you read that right, there is a plumage and it is well distributed) that allows them to blend into the jungle as did the xenomorph between the ducts of the Nostromo, amplifies this feeling: you will find yourself looking for the dinosaur among the dense vegetation, and in doing so you will be able to appreciate the environments in detail. For paleo-nerds, there will also be references to the predatory behavior of the Dromaeosauridae, and certainly, today’s birds such as the shoebill have been inspiring: the result is a natural ferocity against which human ferocity will have to do its best/worst.
To make the project become reality, a crowdfunding campaign will be launched on Indiegogo, scheduled for March 2022. If you want to receive updates and exclusive content, subscribe to the campaign pre-launch page!