Review: Last Day in Vietnam

Last Day in Vietnam is a collection of short stories written and drawn by the late Will Eisner, a man whose prominence in the field is well recorded. He was one of the inaugural members of the Comic Book Hall of Fame (which is named after him), and the Eisner Awards, which recognize special achievements in the comic field each year, are named in his honour as well. In other words, the guy’s more than a big deal. It only seems fitting that this week, which would have marked his 95th birthday, should be marked by the Hardcover re-release of this classic collection first published in 2000. So, given the momentous occasion and the inarguable depth of talent of the creator, Last Day in Vietnam has to be an instant classic, right? Well, let’s just say you should keep reading before you invest your hard earned cash on this collection.

Before I say anything else, it would be remiss of me to not mention the downright gorgeous pencil work on display here. Will Eisner is an incredible artist in every sense of the word, and Last Day in Vietnam is no exception. Every detail is drawn perfectly. The art reflects the tone of each piece as if one never existed without the other. The facial expressions especially stood out to me, as each character embraced a unique, almost cartoon-y design that is so undeniably Eisner, yet still hold some of the most realistic emotions I’ve ever seen. If nothing else, the book is incredible to look at, and if you just want to see more perfectly crafted Eisner art, feel free to skip the rest of this review, as none of the other things I’m going to discuss will matter to you. Just go buy it. For art alone, you won’t regret it.

While the art is as close to perfect as man can hope to achieve, the actual stories leave a bit to be desired. It’s not that any of them are bad; they’re just very average. I’ll break them down one by one to give you a better idea of what I mean.

Last Day in Vietnam: The titular story is presented in the second person (something that would be pretty cool if the same trick was not repeated in three of the five other stories), with the reader taking on the role of a pervious war veteran who now serves as a reporter investigating the situation in Vietnam. This story is the only one based directly on Eisner’s own experiences, and one can tell when reading it. It’s the longest story presented and easily carries the most weight. That said, what should have been a rather emotional piece fell flat to me. I get what Eisner was going for with the tone of the piece, and it does come across, but in the end, I didn’t feel for the main character in the way I knew I was supposed to. This is perhaps just a disconnect on my part, but I feel as if the first half of the story undermines the second somewhat, as I was left feeling apathetic due to my previous conceptions of the character. That said, it is still a good story, just not as great as I think it could have been.

The Periphery: This is moralizing at its dullest. Yes, media tends to focus on sensationalism instead of focusing on the tremendous personal losses accrued on both sides. And I agree that it’s an awful shame; you can check my Twitter history to see countless rants of my own against the media. But that’s kind of my point here. Everyone’s already talked about this. As a result, the story doesn’t really add anything of substance. There’s no larger point made, just “the media is capable of offensive levels of apathy”. I don’t know what the purpose of including this story was, and I definitely think Eisner was capable of making a much larger point than he does in this story.

The Casualty: George Santayana once said “Those who ignored history are condemned to repeat it.” The man in this story ignores his personal history, opening himself up to have it repeated. That’s it. No dialogue, no deeper substance. Just six pages of gorgeous art (have I mentioned how awesome the art is in this book? Because it’s awesome) with nothing to say but “that’s a thing that happens”.

A Dull Day in Korea: This is actually my favourite piece in the book, as its the only one that resonated with me after I read it. It’s a second person story again, but this time, the perspective makes a rather large difference in how one reads it. You meet a man from West Virginia complaining about being bored in the Korean War. Turns out peace doesn’t really suit the guy. The characterization presented here is actually quite brilliant, as we see how behaviours can become cyclical if not given proper attention. And the last panel is priceless. Eisner at his finest.

Hard Duty: Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Also, good people exist, even in war.  These are basic themes in most of literature, and unless you get a chance to delve into something deeper, it comes off as filler. And it never does anything with those concepts. The last page is quite cute, but the story is nothing you haven’t seen before.

A Purple Heart for Courage: Easily the darkest story in the collection, the reader sees a man who gets drunk every Sunday night and, in his drunken stupor, file for reassignment so that he may join his friend in combat (though whether his friend is actually there is left ambiguous). It turns out that several friends who know of this trend work together to destroy the letter each morning before it actually gets filed and accepted, but what will happen when they go on leave? This story is another one that fell flat for me. Like in “Last Day in Vietnam”, I can definitely see what Eisner was attempting to do. But whereas that story accidentally undermined any sympathy I would have had for the main character, thus making the emotional resolution far more hollow, “A Purple Heart for Courage” makes the opposite mistake, as I’m swung too far towards the place of understanding to agree with the point being made here. In fact, I strongly disagree with the sentiment displayed at the end. This might come down to personal taste, but I think there are objective flaws in the argument he presents. It might work out better for others than it does to me, but I couldn’t buy in to what Eisner was selling here.

While there’s no doubt that Will Eisner was one of the most accomplished artist that has ever walked the earth, this book being yet another example of what made his artwork so great, I can’t help feeling Last Day in Vietnam isn’t as good as it could have been. It’s fine, but nothing really special in the story department. When I finished reading, my final thoughts were “that’s it?”, which is rarely a good sign for a collection like this. As such, I can’t really recommend it for the $17.99 cover price for this hardcover collection. Yes, the Sepia tones are nice, as is Matt Fraction’s introduction, but unless you’re a massive fan of Eisner’s art and don’t really care about the qualities of the actual stories contained within, you’re probably better off just buying the paperback version released in 2000 (which, at the time of this writing, is available new for $3 and is a much better value). 

Chase Wassenar, aka MaristPlayBoy, is the Lead Editor and Founder of the Red Shirt Crew. He hopes the Comic gods will forgive him for saying anything negative about the works of Will Eisner. You can follow him on Twitter at @RedShirtCrew or email him at theredshirtcrew@gmail.com.