SMEDLEY
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Major General Smedley Butler is one of the most decorated Marines of all time and is a legend among the Corps. Coming from a background of privilege, he became a Marine to prove his worth. Through conflicts like the Philippine-American War, the Boxer Rebellion, the Banana Wars, and the War to End All Wars, he helped define what the Marine Corps is today. Smedley begins in the Summer of 1932. Butler is retired from the Marines and has lost his bid to be a Pennsylvania senator. When he is invited to speak at the Bonus Army encampment in Washington D.C., he arrives early to mingle with the other veterans, who press him for stories about his legendary exploits. How did he win his Medals of Honor? What was it like in China? Smedley is a man in his element as he recalls his toughest scrapes to an eager audience of World War I veterans, who we discover have a few war stories of their own.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Outside of Leatherneck circles, the name Smedley Butler (1881 1940) may not ring many bells, but this spirited graphic biography aims to bring broader acclaim to the gung-ho Marine general whose service stretched over several wars and took a late turn into political advocacy. McComsey (Son of Hitler) uses the framing device of Butler arriving to speak to the 1932 "Bonus Army" the Washington, D.C., protest march by poverty-stricken WWI veterans demanding bonuses only to get sidetracked into trading war stories and solidarity with the marchers. Butler lands in 1898 Cuba as a callow new Marine, then ships out to put down uprisings in the Philippines and, a couple years later, the Boxer Rebellion in China. Later, the lean, quippy, hardboiled Butler follows the Marines into Mexico and Haiti for missions whose purpose he does not question ("I go where I'm told") and earns two Medals of Honor. Drawn with dense sepia-washed tones, McComsey's larger-than-life characterizations crackle. Butler's Bonus Army speech is a rousing stem-winder, while a postscript details his surprising retirement crusade against the military-industrial complex, when he published his treatise War is a Racket. McComsey uncovers a key historical military figure in this graphic narrative; but with ripping combat yarns bookended by shorter-shrift examples of Butler's activism, it delivers an overall muddled message. .
