Omaha Beach on D-Day: June 6, 1944 with One of the World's Iconic Photographers

by Jean-David Morvan, Séverine Tréfouël, Dominique Bertail (Illustrator)

The first volume of a new series dedicated to exploring iconic moments in World War II history, Omaha Beach on D-Day is a fresh and captivating new take on one of the most important moments in World War the Allied forces storming the beach at Normandy.

The photograph at the heart of this book is Robert Capa's world-famous shot of the Allied landing in 1944, and the authors of this remarkable work have gathered interviews, testimonials, contact sheets, and over forty pages of photographic archives from the Magnum Photos agency to fill in the history behind a single moment, captured forever on film.

Using a combination of traditional comics narrative, photography, and nonfiction text, Omaha Beach on D-Day is a rich and accessible fresh take at a crucial moment in 20th century history.

Genres: Graphic Novels, History, Nonfiction, War, Comics, Photography, Biography

100 pages, Hardcover

First published May 30, 2014

About the author

Jean-David Morvan is a French comic author, best known as the creator of the Sillage/Wake series.

After studying arts at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels, he first tried being a graphic artist, but eventually settled for writing instead.

His main series are 'Spirou and Fantasio', 'Sir Pyle' and 'Merlin', all with José Luis Munuera, and 'Sillage', with Philippe Buchet.

Reviews

[First Second Books]

We love how this graphic novel combines art and photography into . . . an actual story about photography, how it works, and how important journalistic photography is!

This book will give you an all-new perspective on one of the most central parts of World War II. And it's full of information at the back with even more information!

If you're a history fan, you're going to love this book.

[Nate]

Someone at work left this in the freebie pile and I picked it up because it looked interesting. Glad I did. This is about photojournalist Robert Capa, who went with the first wave of U.S. soldiers at Omaha Beach to capture the event. He was the only civilian photographer to land on Omaha and only ten of his photos from that day survived. This book is essentially split in two parts: the first is a comics retelling of Capa’s D-Day experience with some detail before and after; the second part collects all the surviving Omaha Beach photos with accompanying text, including a more fleshed out biography of Capa. I honestly enjoyed the second part more, if only because he led a very interesting life. The comics part is good but lacks excitement and feels stretched. It’s sad what happened to the lost photos, though the remaining ones are still striking to this day.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omaha Beach On D-Day by Jean-David Morvan, Séverine Tréfouël, and illustrated by Dominque Bertail featuring photographs by Robert Capa seemed certain to be my kind of book. Read my full review here Link goes live 6/30/2017

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting mix of graphic novel, historical photos, and history text. An interesting read.

[Brandyn R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Omaha Beach On D-Day
By: Robert Capa

This story takes place in the early 1900s, when a photographer named Robert Capa went to war with soldiers to Omaha Beach on D-Day. He told his friends, Papa, and Papa’s grandaughter that he was going to Omaha Beach to take pictures of the soldiers and what they went through as soldiers. This book was found very interesting to me because of how Robert Capa was brave enough to go out to war with other soldiers to take pictures of their experiences. It’s also interesting because of how it shows what veterans had to go through as people. The book showed a real army comic of soldiers and real live pictures of soldiers that fought on Omaha Beach that brings the reader to interest and sucks him/her in to read more.

This story is about how the photographer, Robert Capa went to war with the soldiers on Omaha Beach. He was to take pictures of the soldiers’ struggle against the enemy. The plot of this story is that Robert heard about the quarrel the nation had with the other and couldn’t settle it without a battle. The conflict is the battle on D-Day on Omaha Beach. Robert Capa goes out to war with the army troops and little does he know how famous he gets by taking those pictures.

The ending of the book shows that Robert Capa was respected and famous for his bravery to go out to war with the army troops to show what they have to go through and how they sacrifice their lives to save others. My favorite part is how they show a comic book-like story about Robert Capa and the real live pictures he took for the people’s view to see what was going on Omaha Beach on D-day. The story is as accurate as the real life story of Robert Capa’s life. It gives the backstory on why he went to Omaha Beach on D-Day and how. The story gives a good explanation about Robert Capa’s decisions and how he’s able to get back from Omaha Beach on D-Day.

In my opinion, the book was quite amazing. It gave such action and a lot of information that sucked me into the book even more. This book reminds of some similar documentaries and a WWII book I read a while ago. It’s pretty interesting to read if you like to get information about different events that took place in the 1900s’ and if you like reading comic book-like stories. If you like war stories, then this book might interest your needs. It’s a book of a person named Robert Capa who became a famous photographer when he went to war to take pictures of what soldiers have gone through to show to the people of his time. The coolest part is the actual pictures they have in the story that Robert Capa took in his lifetime.

[Jake Swanney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book follows Robert Capa, the only photographer who went ashore with the first wave of troops on D-Day.
The art style is black and white and realistic. It almost looks like it was sketched with the pen, which adds to chaotic scenes on the beach.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&r...
The setting of this book is on the shore of Ohama beach. This fits the story because it is almost the basis of the entire story. Robert Capas photos of Ohama beach are special because they are the only one that exist from that day in history.
I highly recommend this book to all who are intrested in the history of D-Day.

[Mark Luongo · Rating 3 out of 5]

An account of Bob Capa, photojournalist, and his photographs of the landing on Omaha Beach June 6, 1944. The focus is on the few remaining photos that showed the first wave assault and the identification of the famous "face in the surf", PFC Huston (Hu) Riley, 1st Infantry Division ("Big Red One"), Fox Company, 1st Battalion. His identity was confirmed by research after another soldier had been given the credit.
Bob Capa died in May 1954 doing what he did best, photographing wars. This one in Indochina.

[Andrea Maisano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una graphic novel che racconta la storia di una decina di fotografie che hanno fatto la storia, quelle scattate da Robert Capa il 6 giugno 1955 durante la prima ondata dello sbarco che aprirà il secondo fronte in Europa. Interessante, seppure molto breve, l'apparato biografico e critico. Ovviamente ci sono anche le famose 10 foto.
Bel libretto, carino anche il formato rettangolare.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was about the photographer and his experience on d day. It was t bad. Very interesting from his point of view. Didn’t go into a lot of detail with the war itself (you must keep that in mind if you read it). But I liked how after the graphics they included some of the real pictures.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Command decision - I do not like History in Graphic novel form

[Nathan Poirier · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved the story about the war of d-day, with the whole illustrated pictures. i also love how it's mainly about the famous photographer who burnt most of the pictures of d-day.

[Perlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An exploration of the history behind an iconic war photo by Capa. In the course of this work we learn the true identity of the soldier, a little about Capa's own history, and the landing on Normandy.

[Андрій Кривцун · Rating 4 out of 5]

The great combination of comics, real stories and photographs tells about activities the famous photojournalist Robert Capa in live and in a war.

[Giulia ^_^ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Idea bellissima di mischiare fumetto e le foto di Capa. Molto interessante conoscere la storia di questo spettacolare fotografo.

[Lorena N · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ♥️ ROBERT CAPA!

[Lisa Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique combination of graphic novel, photography, and historical text that focuses on war photojournalist Robert Capa and the story behind the only nine photographs that exist from Omaha Beach on D-Day. I like the multi-genre presentation which includes letter excerpts, quotes, backstory, and a lot of Capa’s big personality. The narrative in the comic portion of the book was a little hard to follow in a few places, but the original text was French, so I imagine something got lost in translation. A great book about the courageous work of photojournalists who feel called to “show the truth”.

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scoperto per caso, ma molto apprezzato.
Non conoscevo la storia dietro alle 11, ma è stato bello leggerla anche tramite dei fumetti.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Creating a format that is unlike most other books that I've read recently if at all, this book is a different size than most which also highlights it's uniqueness. It's as much the story that Robert Capa wanted to tell as about him. A photojournalist picked to go to Omaha Beach on June 6th, he had been a man of many faces and names-- seemingly reinventing himself (and interestingly chose Robert Capa as an alias to sound "more American") with each name change. He pushed forward with the troops, made it to the beach and in those awe-inspiring hours of death, destruction, bravery, and heroism, managed to take about four rolls of film that was in the action. One of the most famous lines attributed to him is that if you're pictures aren't good, it's because you're not close enough.

He survived the invasion, made it back to safer territory, where his film was sent to a lab to be developed. While some was destroyed during their exposure (he was told one story and found out later the real story), that left him with one roll of somewhat grainy, definitely gray images of soldiers, the beach, the artillery and machinery, and most of all, the sheer devastation and magnitude of what was occurring. These were monumental photos from the front lines. This entire sequence of time is told as a graphic novel in the book and amazingly so, captures the politics, the man, and what his message was and what he stood for.

Then the book showcases the actual images which are recognizable and astounding. And last, the book documents the man, Robert Capa, and his dedication to the profession before, during, and after the war including other images that he provided the average person with.

Moving and filled with history, it's also an homage to those who do the work of photo journalism, especially in times of war, to bring the story to life when not everyone can understand by being told the story. Seeing truly is believing.

[Dan Simonsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omaha Beach on D-Day: June 6, 1944 with One of the World's Iconic Photographers Robert Capa was the only photographer who went ashore with the Allied Invasion Force on Omaha Beach on D-Day. Though he shot 4 rolls of film, only 10 of the images survived. These images have become the iconic images that represent to the world what happened that day on the beaches of Normandy France.

This book tells the story of both the 10 images and the life story of Robert Capa. To do this the book is interesting divided into 3 sections. The first section uses the graphic story book approach to tell the story of Robert Capa's work during World War II leading up to D-Day, the days after D-Day, and finally his death in Indochina. The second section of the book are the 10 iconic images from Omaha Beach. Finally, the third section is a traditional biography of Robert Capa accented with his World War images and concluded with a photo from Indo china (one of the very last photos he took).

This book is book is more than a picture book, more than a biography, more than a graphic story book. This book is story of an amazing photographer who succeeded through his hardwork. It's the story of the greatest land invasion of modern time. It is the story of some of the most iconic images from the second World War. I didn't know anything about this book when I sat down to read it. It now has a prized place of on my bookshelf. For such a narrow topic, this book will appeal to a much wider audience. People interested in photography, military history, and the emerging genre of telling history via the "graphic novel" approach will all find this book absolutely worth the read!

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMAHA BEACH ON D-DAY by Jean-David Morvan, Séverine Tréfouël, Robert, Capa, and others is an immersive visual history of a photojournalist’s experiences in World War II.

Taking a unique visual approach, readers experience World War II through the eyes of a reporter using drawings and then photographs to tell the story. The first half of this amazing book is presented as a graphic biography using a graphic-novel style approach to share the story surrounding the D-Day experience from the perspective of a reporter. The second half of the book presents the ten captioned photographs taken by Robert Capa on D-Day. The book concludes with an exploration of the career of Robert Capa who is known as one of the “fathers of photojournalism”.

While some students enjoy studying history, others hate it. This visually-rich history is an engaging way to personalize the war for readers. While some youth will be drawn to the military or photojournalism aspects, others will be attracted to the compelling story of one man’s experiences.

Librarians will find that this graphic biography appeals to tween and teen audiences who enjoy military themes, history, and photojournalism. It would be particularly useful for reluctant readers and students looking for non-traditional ways to explore world history.

This is the first book in a new series focusing on key moments in World War II history. This collection will be popular in both middle and high school libraries.

For those interested in the photography of Robert Capa, go to http://goo.gl/4tKnTo.

Published by First Second, an imprint of Macmillan on October 20, 2015. ARC provided by publisher.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it took me a little while to get comfortable with the book's varying format using photos, essays, and comic strip panels, once I got the hang of things and figured out what was happening, I really enjoyed the book. History books make much of D-Day, June 6, 1944, and this book provides insight into what occurred on Omaha Beach as the Allies landed on the beach in an attempt to drive the Germans backward and out of the country. Photograph Robert Capa was there and captured memorable images that gave a haunting face to the war as it entered its final months. Readers will learn about the personal risks he took to get those photographs and the mishap that caused almost all of his photos to be destroyed. The fact that the book contains the actual photographs that survived--all 9 of them--lends poignancy to the story. I was absolutely intrigued by the story and all the interesting tidbits associated with it; for instance, despite the fact that other photographers were present, only these survived. Another section of the book follows the search to identify one of the men whose image is captured as the waves threaten to engulf him. The book is not for the faint-hearted, but it is fascinating on every level.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding nonfiction graphic retelling of WWII's Omaha Beach through the eye's of photojournalist Robert Capra. This is both Capra's story and an accounting of the D-Day battle. Through graphic art panels, photography, and essays the reader is taken right into the middle of this famous event which molds itself around Capra's famous photograph "Soldier in the Surf". The majority of the book is told in graphic novel format and tells Robert Capra's story of being a photojournalist during WWII, especially his involvement in Omaha Beach and the famous photographs he took that day. Following that are the photographs themselves, entitled "The Magnificent Eleven" as a group and, in conclusion, there are three essays illustrated with photos by Capra, of Capra, and by others which give a deeper insight into both Robert Capra, the man and Capra the photojournalist as well as the story behind the iconic photograph, "Soldier in the Surf". An excellent book which gives an emotional and personal account of a moment in history which is directed to the general reader, whether they be adult or teen.

[Clarissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert Capa famously said, “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” In the profession of photojournalism, this adage frequently sends brave men and women into the thick of armed conflict. It sent Robert Capa onto Omaha Beach during the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, where he captured one of the most iconic photographs of World War II.

Omaha Beach on D-Day tells the story of Capa’s brief, but perilous, work during the invasion. Morvan, Trefoil, and Bertail begin the tale as a graphic novel, from intimate portraits of Capa’s time in London before and after the invasion, to stunning double-page panels of the vast coastal battlefield. The story narration is from Capa’s point of view and ends with Capa headed off to his assignment in the First Indochina War, where Capa will step on a land mine in Southeast Asia and be killed.

Read my whole review at Fanboy Comics.

[Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is beautifully done and I cannot express enough how much I believe this is a staple to the way historic graphic novels should be done. This has a combination of graphic novel, historical photographs, and biographical section. I understand that this book is more of a biography but it was done so well that it doesn't feel like one until you actually get to the biography section about Robert Capa.

What a great way to focus the story of Omaha Beach but through the eyes of someone who was only there to document the event. Photographers were enlisted to capture what was going on without actually entering into the conflict. How wrong Capa must have thought they were when he arrived on Omaha Beach. The history behind the famous 11 pictures he brought back is also amazing. I wonder what we would see if more of the pictures had made it to the development stages.

This is a must read and definitely should be included in all libraries!

[Trever · Rating 5 out of 5]

*Received this from Netgalley for an honest review*

Incredibly brilliant and a master work of art and photography together. I was almost let down when I was about half way through the book and I hadn't seen any of the photos yet, but they were stunning.

A mix of history, especially WW2 and photography, made this book amazing. Definitely worth having in the classroom, since most WW2 books lack the true grit of the war, this provides excellent details and background of the war.

Jean-David Morvan and Séverine Tréfouël provided us with an excellent story, artwork, and photography to make this come alive.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

" If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough." -Robert Capa

A moving look at D-Day and Omaha beach through the eyes of photojournalist Robert Capa who was right there in the middle of the fighting - armed only with his camera. The first half of the book reflects on his experience in a graphic novel format, while the last half shares his iconic images and give his biographic detail. The pictures are amazing and his story gripping. A beautiful tribute to a first class talent in photojournalism!

[Raul Rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was an amazing read, what this graphic novel is about is about a combat photographer named Robert Capa and he had just come home from a deployment and the military sent him back to Normandy to take pictures of the war that is about to happen. Its really a life story about Robert Capa and it is told in his perspective and what he witnessed first hand. At the end of the graphic novel there are a bunch of pictures that were taken by not only by Robert Capa but by other combat photographers. people that are into war history definitely look into this reading.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

via NYPL - To start, we have a comic book account of photojournalist Robert Capa's experience on Omaha Beach during D-Day in 1944. The book then shows all of his surviving photos from the day (only nine), and then a few essays about Capa's life and work, complemented by Capa's other wartime photography. The book serves as a nice testament to the value of photojournalism and to Capa's bravery and talent. Because each of the segments are short, it winds up being a little bit less detailed and thorough than it maybe could've been. A valuable book, but one that I thought could've been better.

[Derek Royal · Rating 3 out of 5]

A moving representation on D-Day, especially as it applies to famous photographer, Capa. This was one of the books we discussed on our publisher spotlight on First Second fall releases: http://comicsalternative.com/episode-....

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starts out as a black/white graphic novel concerning photojournalist Robert Capa's life.

My favorite section is Faces in the Surf. It includes all 10 remaining photos taken on Omaha Beach by Capa.

The final 30 pages of the book include more biographical information about Capa.