Page 45 Review by Stephen
Four-panel strips taken from seven months of cartooning, following B.D.'s journey from the road outside Fallujah where an RPG blows apart his Humvee and takes off his leg, through the wards of the American Army hospital and up the newly constructed ramp outside his home. It's a remarkable collection in that the strips exist at all, but also in that they avoid any sense of sensationalism, any element of political commentary or point-scoring, and just concentrate on one man's slow road to recovery and his friends' and family's reaction to his plight.
Also, it's funny! I've noticed that there's often a beat after Trudeau's punchlines, which rounds them off beautifully. Here's one after he's returned home, where B.D.'s sitting with his daughter beside the Christmas tree:
"Know what, Sam? Now that I'm home, it's really starting to sink in just how much of my old life I've lost… Like walking you to school, and kicking a ball around, and having wicked snowball fights on the pond. I'm going to miss all that."
"Seriously, Dad?"
"Yup."
"You miss stuff we never used to do?"
"Well, the option was always there."
Earlier on, while B.D. is getting used to his artificial leg, a whole group of them are taken out in a van:
"Okay, folks, a few words before we head off for Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steakhouse… where every Friday, the restaurant throws a free feed for WRMC Amps and their caregivers! First of all, if you lose your prosthesis, you will be held responsible! Repeat, you will be held responsible!"
"What kind of idiot loses his…"
"That brings me to the open bar."
