Sgt Rock: The Lost Battalion by Billy Tucci Review

1944, post-D-Day, and a battalion of US infantry is surrounded by German troops in the French Vosges Mountains - they have to hold on while the Allies, in the form of Japanese/American soldiers (the “Nisei”), try to break them out.

Sgt Rock is a fictional DC character but that’s about the only made-up aspect of this otherwise factual retelling of this episode from WW2. And, while I do enjoy war comics, particularly Garth Ennis’ War Stories and Battlefields books, I couldn’t get into Billy Tucci’s Sgt Rock: The Lost Battalion.

The writing is verbose and the story is unclear. I had to read a lot of material outside of the comic to understand what was happening in the comic itself as I’m not familiar with this particular battle. It’s always vague as to what’s happening as Tucci switches from the Allied group trapped in the mountains to the Allied troops outside and, even though it was usually clear which parts were German, I didn’t really understand what they were doing either. Obviously trying to kill the Allies but in what way, what were the obstacles, etc.? It’s just really bad storytelling.

Beyond the titular character I couldn’t tell you any other characters besides the war artist and one of the Nisei soldiers, Barney, at the end - and this book is full of characters. Even Rock is just another grunt, basically - you wouldn’t know what made him so special or why he has his own books going by this one.

The art doesn’t help as everyone’s wearing more or less the same thing, same colours. I appreciated the level of detail Tucci put into the visuals but it felt like he spent too much time on that rather than streamlining the story and making it a more effective narrative.

I did at least learn about the little-known bravery of Japanese-American soldiers who, despite being looked down upon for sharing a bloodline with the enemy, nonetheless gave as much as anyone in service to the Allied effort. And there’s no denying Tucci’s art skills or the amount of time and research he obviously invested into this project.

Which is why I feel bad for not liking this more. I wanted to love Sgt Rock: The Lost Battalion but it’s too messily constructed and, well, boring. What should be a tense and memorable chapter in the greatest of wars is, here, little more than a blur of forgettable and generic war images - unfortunately I can see why this one is not well-known.