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Winter War #1-4
Winter War
Winter War is about the 100 day war of Finland against the invading Soviet Union army at the dawn of World War II. Sniper Tero Toivanent answers the call from his homeland, Finland, when it’s attacked by the USSR, which seeks a buffer zone against Nazi Germany. Although the Soviets anticipated a quick victory against the small Finnish army made up of largely citizen soldiers, the Finns used the advantage of their winter to hold off the Soviets for an amazing four months. In this fictionalized account, but based on real situations, Tero and his allies, Niklas and Manu, are deployed to southern Finland to stop the Russian division attacking over the frozen Lake Hirvasjärvi. Seeing plenty of death and destruction and the hopelessness a Finnish winter can bring, the three get a taste of the horrors of war. Will it be enough to freeze even their hearts, accustomed to the deepest cold?
96 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 28, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 4, 2022
A tiny lion versus an enormous bear
This review is from: Winter War Kindle edition
Publication date: August 23, 2018
Publisher: Caliber Comics
Language: English
ASIN: B07GT7V271
Winter War. The War of the White Death. Talvisota. A Frozen Hell. Stark, freezing Arctic landscape. Forests cut by narrow dirt tracks which the Russians clog with troops and machinery attempting to use them as invasion routes. The white clad Finns move like ghosts through the darkness and the subdued light of a sub-arctic winter. Russians huddled around fires shoot wildly into the darkness. Russian soldiers frozen into macabre statues. Survivors surrender or attempt to make it back to Russia. Only in the south, using overwhelming numbers and material superiority, do the Russians eventually make progress.
The U.S.S.R. invaded Finland with over one million men with thousands of tanks, artillery pieces and airplanes against a tiny, ill-equipped Finnish army. The Soviets would need reinforcements before it was over. They would not need the large brass band they brought along to celebrate their victory. "So many Russians. Where will we bury them all?", asked the Finnish soldiers. Khrushchev said that the Soviets had over a million casualties in this ill-advised attempt to occupy Finland as they had already done to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and their share of Poland. The official Soviet casualty figures are much lower but still bad enough at 200,000. More casualties than the size of the Finnish army.
Kurt Belcher, Henrik Horvath and Stuart Berryhill manage to capture the essence of this conflict in stark black and white graphic art with sparse dialogue as befits the Finnish national character in the winter. In the winter Finns are not friendly. Many are depressed. Besides, multiple past generations of Finns have had trouble from the almost hereditary enemy who has come again.
In the end the tiny Finnish lion, wounded and exhausted, survives while inflicting a severe mauling on the giant Russian bear. The Russians take only part of Finland. The Russian bear cannot digest any more. The Finns lose all of Karelia, their Arctic port, Petsamo, and other, smaller tracts, but they maintain their independence, keep their liberty and become a more unified nation. As for the Russians? The debacle invited a German invasion.
The Finns say a Russian is a Russian, even if you fry him in butter. But even the Finns felt sympathy for the hapless Russian soldiers, felt sickness from killing so many even as they hated Stalin and his henchmen. How many did they kill? Dependable Finnish estimates are 150,000 to 200,000 dead for total Russian casualties of 400,000 to 600,000. This does not count those, mostly officers, executed or imprisoned by Stalin for their failure. After all, Stalin could not have very well executed himself.
I am not generally enamored with graphic novels but this one.... This one I recommend. In addition to the complete collection, it is also available as four individual volumes.
This review is from: Winter War Kindle edition
Publication date: August 23, 2018
Publisher: Caliber Comics
Language: English
ASIN: B07GT7V271
Winter War. The War of the White Death. Talvisota. A Frozen Hell. Stark, freezing Arctic landscape. Forests cut by narrow dirt tracks which the Russians clog with troops and machinery attempting to use them as invasion routes. The white clad Finns move like ghosts through the darkness and the subdued light of a sub-arctic winter. Russians huddled around fires shoot wildly into the darkness. Russian soldiers frozen into macabre statues. Survivors surrender or attempt to make it back to Russia. Only in the south, using overwhelming numbers and material superiority, do the Russians eventually make progress.
The U.S.S.R. invaded Finland with over one million men with thousands of tanks, artillery pieces and airplanes against a tiny, ill-equipped Finnish army. The Soviets would need reinforcements before it was over. They would not need the large brass band they brought along to celebrate their victory. "So many Russians. Where will we bury them all?", asked the Finnish soldiers. Khrushchev said that the Soviets had over a million casualties in this ill-advised attempt to occupy Finland as they had already done to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and their share of Poland. The official Soviet casualty figures are much lower but still bad enough at 200,000. More casualties than the size of the Finnish army.
Kurt Belcher, Henrik Horvath and Stuart Berryhill manage to capture the essence of this conflict in stark black and white graphic art with sparse dialogue as befits the Finnish national character in the winter. In the winter Finns are not friendly. Many are depressed. Besides, multiple past generations of Finns have had trouble from the almost hereditary enemy who has come again.
In the end the tiny Finnish lion, wounded and exhausted, survives while inflicting a severe mauling on the giant Russian bear. The Russians take only part of Finland. The Russian bear cannot digest any more. The Finns lose all of Karelia, their Arctic port, Petsamo, and other, smaller tracts, but they maintain their independence, keep their liberty and become a more unified nation. As for the Russians? The debacle invited a German invasion.
The Finns say a Russian is a Russian, even if you fry him in butter. But even the Finns felt sympathy for the hapless Russian soldiers, felt sickness from killing so many even as they hated Stalin and his henchmen. How many did they kill? Dependable Finnish estimates are 150,000 to 200,000 dead for total Russian casualties of 400,000 to 600,000. This does not count those, mostly officers, executed or imprisoned by Stalin for their failure. After all, Stalin could not have very well executed himself.
I am not generally enamored with graphic novels but this one.... This one I recommend. In addition to the complete collection, it is also available as four individual volumes.
May 13, 2022
Poor Artwork & Often Confusing Storyline
Review of the Caliber Comics graphic novel paperback edition collecting the 4 floppy comic books of the Winter War series.
[2.5 bumped up to 3 due to my personal attachments]
The Winter War graphic novel tells the story of a 3-man sniper unit fighting in the defending Finnish army during the 105-day Winter War 1939-40 (from the Finnish Talvisota) when the Russian army invaded their neighbouring country in anticipation of a quick victory with their overwhelming amount of manpower and equipment. The attacking forces found themselves bogged down by the unfamiliar terrain and the unexpected resistance of a quickly mobilized citizen army supported by various international volunteers. Eventually the Russians settled for some territorial gains ("Just enough to bury our dead." according to a Russian source quoted here) instead of complete conquest. The parallels to the present-day Russian invasion of Ukraine (Feb. 24, 2022 to mid-May 2022 as I write this) are obvious and hopefully prescient.
Although writer/artist Belcher does follow specific historical events such as the Battle of Tolkajärvi and the Battle of Raate Road and includes cameo appearances by historical Finnish war heroes such as Lieutenant-Colonel (later Major General) Aaro Pajari and legendary sniper Simo Häyhä aka 'The White Death', I often found the plot line hard to follow. This was compounded by the fact that in the 3-man unit, 2 of the characters (Tero and Niklas) were drawn as if they were virtually identical with no separate distinguishing features. The 3rd man, Manu, at least had a fur-lined parka with which to identify him.
I would have found most of this to be completely confusing if I hadn't previously read something like Finnish Soldier vs Soviet Soldier: Winter War 1939–40 (2016). Probably most who read this would come to it with some similar background knowledge with which to help follow the story.
An interesting linguistic footnote was displayed in a scene where Hungarian volunteers arrived to aid the Finnish army, the Finns are surprised to not be able to understand what the Hungarians are saying. Finnish and Hungarian are considered part of (and indeed are the 2-named members) the Finno-Ugric language group of which Estonian, Saami, etc. are others. As someone of Estonian heritage I've found this to be the same in my experience, I can often understand Finnish but Hungarian looks and sounds completely foreign to me.
Review of the Caliber Comics graphic novel paperback edition collecting the 4 floppy comic books of the Winter War series.
[2.5 bumped up to 3 due to my personal attachments]
The Winter War graphic novel tells the story of a 3-man sniper unit fighting in the defending Finnish army during the 105-day Winter War 1939-40 (from the Finnish Talvisota) when the Russian army invaded their neighbouring country in anticipation of a quick victory with their overwhelming amount of manpower and equipment. The attacking forces found themselves bogged down by the unfamiliar terrain and the unexpected resistance of a quickly mobilized citizen army supported by various international volunteers. Eventually the Russians settled for some territorial gains ("Just enough to bury our dead." according to a Russian source quoted here) instead of complete conquest. The parallels to the present-day Russian invasion of Ukraine (Feb. 24, 2022 to mid-May 2022 as I write this) are obvious and hopefully prescient.
Although writer/artist Belcher does follow specific historical events such as the Battle of Tolkajärvi and the Battle of Raate Road and includes cameo appearances by historical Finnish war heroes such as Lieutenant-Colonel (later Major General) Aaro Pajari and legendary sniper Simo Häyhä aka 'The White Death', I often found the plot line hard to follow. This was compounded by the fact that in the 3-man unit, 2 of the characters (Tero and Niklas) were drawn as if they were virtually identical with no separate distinguishing features. The 3rd man, Manu, at least had a fur-lined parka with which to identify him.
I would have found most of this to be completely confusing if I hadn't previously read something like Finnish Soldier vs Soviet Soldier: Winter War 1939–40 (2016). Probably most who read this would come to it with some similar background knowledge with which to help follow the story.
An interesting linguistic footnote was displayed in a scene where Hungarian volunteers arrived to aid the Finnish army, the Finns are surprised to not be able to understand what the Hungarians are saying. Finnish and Hungarian are considered part of (and indeed are the 2-named members) the Finno-Ugric language group of which Estonian, Saami, etc. are others. As someone of Estonian heritage I've found this to be the same in my experience, I can often understand Finnish but Hungarian looks and sounds completely foreign to me.
March 14, 2021
In this historical fiction graphic novel, a Finnish sniper battles through a short little border war between Finland and Russia that really happened in the midst of World War II, but about which I was wholly ignorant. A little background is provided, but the larger picture is ignored for the most part to give us a soldier's view of the war, which basically boils down to the old "War is hell" conclusion. The writing and art fell a little short for me, especially coming so soon after my reading Garth Ennis' excellent Sara, another war graphic novel about Soviet snipers during World War II.
January 9, 2021
Technically, this should be a "tried to read."
I bought this when I was going through an "I have to have everything Caliber Comics made" phase. I used to talk with Gary Reed at comic cons and via email about being a professor and how comics could be used to incite an interest in history among readers of all ages. I bought this book from Gary personally because it was about a history and it was a graphic novel. Finnish and Russian history isn't exactly my specialty, but I liked the underdog premise.
Upon opening it I realized it was illustrated by Kurt Belcher. I've read other graphic novels by him and I really, really don't like his artwork. The characters always look the same and the composition of the action panels always seems off to where I can't tell what's happening. I tried to ignore my distain for the artwork and drudged on. I found it very hard to follow. The dialog seemed like it was written by two different people that never compared notes with each other. There's a lot of close up headshot panels that don't seem to have a point beyond allowing the penciller to skip drawing a background.
The inker seemed to do well. Most inkers when they hear it's going to be a black-and-white comic just decide to ink the heck out of the pencils, but the inker here used tones of gray very well.
I'm bummed that I couldn't get through it because the premise was very interesting to me. I wouldn't recommend.
I bought this when I was going through an "I have to have everything Caliber Comics made" phase. I used to talk with Gary Reed at comic cons and via email about being a professor and how comics could be used to incite an interest in history among readers of all ages. I bought this book from Gary personally because it was about a history and it was a graphic novel. Finnish and Russian history isn't exactly my specialty, but I liked the underdog premise.
Upon opening it I realized it was illustrated by Kurt Belcher. I've read other graphic novels by him and I really, really don't like his artwork. The characters always look the same and the composition of the action panels always seems off to where I can't tell what's happening. I tried to ignore my distain for the artwork and drudged on. I found it very hard to follow. The dialog seemed like it was written by two different people that never compared notes with each other. There's a lot of close up headshot panels that don't seem to have a point beyond allowing the penciller to skip drawing a background.
The inker seemed to do well. Most inkers when they hear it's going to be a black-and-white comic just decide to ink the heck out of the pencils, but the inker here used tones of gray very well.
I'm bummed that I couldn't get through it because the premise was very interesting to me. I wouldn't recommend.
November 20, 2016
An ironic twist on the “Don’t Invade Russia in the Winter” rule. The Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939 and was shown a real winter campaign. Soviets were killed 2 to 1 and lost 2000 tanks to cross country skiing Nords throwing maltov cocktails. Ouch comrade!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews