Thursday, August 16, 2012

District Comics: March of the Bonus Army (Brother, Can You Spare 27 Minutes?)

August 7, 2012, saw the publication of the anthology District Comics: An Unconventional History of Washington, DC,  edited by Matt Dembicki, published by Fulcrum Books.  For the book, I wrote the story "Skip Dillon, Son of the B.E.F," illustrated by Rand Arrington. The PBS short documentary March of the Bonus Army, narrated by Gary Sinise, provided us with valuable insight and visuals.  You can read about and see photographs of tanks and cavlary in the streets of D.C. and the teeming masses of veterans and get a sense of events, but when you see those tanks rolling and see those masses teeming, it becomes more visceral.  This thing happened.  Below, you'll find March of the Bonus Army in three parts, totalling twenty-seven minutes, posted to YouTube by Disabled American Veterans. The documentary was inspired in part by The Bonus Army by Paul Dickson and Thomas B. Allen. You can read my interview with Mr. Allen here.

Quick sales pitch/reminder: if you live in the D.C. area, you can find District Comics at Big Planet Comics.  You can also meet 20-plus creators at the District Comics launch signing at One More Page Books in Arlington, Virginia, Sunday August 19 from 3:00 to 5:00.  As an extra incentive, the purchasers of the first twenty-five copies will receive a free pass to Small Press Expo comics convention September 15 and 16 in Bethesda, Maryland!