Invisible Wounds: Interviews with American Vets by Jess Ruliffson Review

In Invisible Wounds: Graphic Journalism, cartoonist Jess Ruliffson transcribes/illustrates the real-life stories of 12 US military veterans and their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, their time in the military, the effect on their lives, for better or worse (mostly the latter), and the transition from military to civilian life.

The stories are generally engaging and informative in a brutally honest way but I also found them to be a little pat in how neatly wrapped up they each are, and truncated in a style that you only get a brief glimpse into these people’s lives so that they’re not very impactful on the reader.

As the title suggests, much of the vets’ stories revolve around psychological problems after their experiences, with several soldiers experiencing depression, suicide attempts, and substance abuse/addiction. One soldier’s mental trauma is so bad that, in civilian life, he loses hours in a trance, simply frozen in place, and then wanders about in a fugue state!

There is some balance to the stories though so they’re not overwhelmingly negative. Some soldiers transition well into civilian life (one even transitions to another gender!) and find fulfilling careers as writers, poets, and detectives that they wouldn’t have found if they hadn’t enlisted. But even then those stories aren’t without an element of regret and pain and more than a few are as worse off, if not more so, than they were before they joined.

The book is almost entirely an oral history so Ruliffson is either quoting the vets directly from audio or email. I think this is why some stories are clearer than others as everyone has a different way of speaking and some are better storytellers than others. One soldier’s story of being threatened by another leading to a twisty tale of closed ranks at a senior level was so convoluted I wasn’t sure what to make of it.

Some of the points being made aren’t surprising or revelatory: how Hollywood dishonestly glorifies the military in movies like American Sniper and Zero Dark Thirty; how US citizens are bizarrely allowed to serve in the military years before being allowed to drink; and generally questioning the entire point of the US being in the Middle East to begin with.

Ruliffson’s art is pretty decent. It’s nothing that’ll make you sit up but it’s serviceable for the book. At times it’s a little too scratchy/thumbnail-y, but these are few and far between. The character design of one of the vets was really murky to me. I thought it was about an older man and learned at the end that it was actually an older woman instead!

Some of the stories here were fascinating regardless, some less so, but I think the book is important in showing the various perspectives of the military experience and presenting a more rounded take on its realities. I imagine it would be valuable to people thinking of joining up to get a better idea of what they’re getting themselves into, or to people with vets in their families or friend circles to help them understand them more. Though uneven, I found Invisible Wounds to be a sometimes compelling and thoughtful read.