Review of "Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel," by C. M. Butzer

Review of

 

Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel, by C. M. Butzer ISBN 9780061561764

Five out of five stars

One of the best features of this graphic novel is that it is not all that graphic in terms of depicting the blood and other gore of the battle. Drawn in subdued tones of light blue and light gray with black and white, Butzer keeps it solemn, which befits the horrific results of the battle.
He also is very specific in keeping within the bounds of historical accuracy, after the last panel there is a section where he gives his references and admits when a conversation has been “invented”, albeit within the bounds of what is known about the principals of the situation.
 I was very impressed by this as a work of history as well as art. Butzer is to be commended for his attention to historical detail; this book could serve as a primer in history classes when the subject is the battle of Gettysburg. One of the most intriguing points is that an image on page 18 has a bullet hole in a window. This was a tribute to the only known civilian casualty of the battle, Ginnie Wade, struck by a stray bullet while she was baking bread. The sequence of captions depicting the history of the nation and the struggle for civil rights that includes the passages of the Gettysburg address is a work of genius.