Garth Ennis on “Battlefields”
Over at CBR, Kiel Phegley has provided the highlights of a nice conversation with writer Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Boys) about Dynamite Entertainment’s upcoming "Garth Ennis Month," which will feature the debut issue of a nine-part limited series titled Garth Ennis’ Battlefields. The World War II-themed series will unfold in three connected stories this October, the first of which will be titled The Night Witches and feature art by Russ Braun.
Here, Ennis explains the ties that bind the three stories together:
“If there is an element that unites the three stories — this is something I like to leave up to the reader, so I’ll keep it vague — it might be a look at various ways of approaching conflict, depending on who you are, where you come from, what you’re up against,” Ennis said. “How the Russians fought the Germans was not quite like how the British fought them, for instance, and how the British in turn fought the Japanese was different again.”
It would seem that the subject is a near and dear one to Ennis, as the writer offers up quite a few thoughts about his plans for the series, his creative process with regard to the each story’s schedule and the artists with whom he’ll share creative credit. He also gives credit where it’s due with respect to the subjects of the stories.
“If nothing else, the stories in Battlefields highlight the courage of people whose time has almost passed and whose stories are fading. ‘The Night Witches,’ for instance: young women in their teens and early twenties, flying obsolete biplanes at night against the most lethal military machine in the world, facing potentially catastrophic consequences should they be captured alive. Or ‘The Tankies,’ men going into battle against heavy odds, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that the enemy has them outmatched and outgunned on every level, but doing it anyway. That, to me, is heroism, and that deserves to be acknowledged.”
For more on Battlefields, including some art from the series and the cover to issue #1 of Night Witches (a small version of which is posted here), head over to CBR.