Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately it’s not the book for me. DNF @ 14%.

Whoa, I wish I had this book when I was studying WW1 trauma narratives in college. While I didn't get to enjoy this fully, I do understand that this is an in-depth and wonderful collection on a subject that is in need of much thought and scholarship.

Using models of trauma theory, grief, and human development, Earle explores pieces of art created from artists processing or expressing their traumatic experiences. This is a stunning and broad look at how pain can speak through art across centuries.

I took a day to consider how I felt about this book. I still came to the rating of 2.5.
Comics, Trauma, and the New Art of War isn't exactly what the summary makes it out to be. This is not a conclusive look at comics and trauma, but a look at a subset of comics and a very particular kind of trauma.
Harriet E.H. Earle looks at war comics and how the artist portrays trauma in their works. There is no look of the allegory that mainstream comics and superheroes stories and how they represent trauma. There is a small discussion but only at how superheroes can not change anything historically and that these comics are just used a escapism. I was left with the impression that she missed the depth and insight that many of their stories have.
The book focusing on comics in relation to 9/11, the Vietnam war and World War II, and Earle does a great job of showing how these comics portray the trauma and what psychological ideals hey are manifesting In fact, the book is basically a trauma of psychology 101 handbook within its comic criticism. This will be helpful for readers who do not have a background in psychology while other can just skim those sections.
At the end, Earle does go off on a tangent about how women are portrayed in comics especially when compared to trauma. Her I became disengaged. While I agree that women a have not treated well in comics, it seemed interesting that she herself only used two tales of women: one is how a female solider find her place and a post -911 story about being a widow after the event. It seemed a disservice to women and for the public, for her to not even mention that women have started using comic to take control of their own personal non-war/terrorism related trauma. Comics have become a huge way for women to discuss sexual abuse, mental issues and a variety of other traumas.
The conclusion spends a lot of time on a deviantART user creation combining X-Men with high culture. The piece is striking and thoughtful but seemed too mainstream for the author's intent. This is also juxtaposed with a small discussion on censoring of digital comments which really seemed out of place.
Overall, I was left confused. Do only certain comics deserve to be considered art? Why does she hate Frank Castle so much? How do you leave out the allegory of superhero story and how they deal with how people handle trauma? But I do know that comics are a powerful tool for expressing trauma in modern culture.

There are a lot of good ideas to chew on here. Will definitely recommend.

This is a technical description of the way comics changed more or less from the WWII. Some of the theses I understand were about the powerless of the superheroes in front of chaos, where they are only witness. The psychological part was to me pretty clear, unluckily my knowledge of the comics world was less than enough, but I still enjoyed this book a lot.

Questa é una descrizione piuttosto tecnica di come i fumetti siano cambiati, piú o meno dalla seconda guerra mondiale in poi. Alcune delle tesi principali portate avanti dal libro hanno a che fare con la mancanza di potere che hanno anche i supereroi stessi di fronte al caos, di cui sono solo testimoni senza capacità di intervenire. La parte psicologica per quanto mi riguarda era piuttosto chiara, piuttosto era la mia scarsa conoscenza dei fumetti che mi ha impedito di godere appieno di questo saggio, che peró mi é comunque piaciuto molto.

THANKS TO NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!