By Dustin Cabeal

Go Home is a familiar story of war and the cost that comes with it. I say familiar because I’ve read comics similar to its theme, it’s style of narration, and its visuals. It sucks to be so hard on it right away, but I’m not going to sugar coat this review.

The narration is a soldier’s letter home to his father. The visuals echo what the letter is saying, but show an entirely different aspect of the story. In a way, they run parallel to each other. The soldier’s ship is hit by a bomb; he makes it to an island where he must continue fighting against the enemy in order to survive… or at least he seems to think he does.

The character development is superficial. I say that because we don’t know this character and while his narration pretends there’s character development, in reality, we don’t see it. His actions are just of a man descending into madness, while the narration wants you to believe it was deeper than that. That’s one of the problems that can arise from letter narration. The letter knows a bit too much of what’s happening on the page, and so it tries to cheat the emotion instead of being an incredible coincidence that they sync up, which is what it’s attempting to do.

The artwork, while decent, never lines up with the tone and style of the writing. It’s in all black and white, with grayscale, but it’s a very bright book. The story is supposed to be very dark and yet the visuals are bright. There are a few exceptions of course, but it’s an easy fix that would have supported the material better. The other problem is that even though the art is decent, it lacks a lot of detail and is just plain ugly at parts. I’m not referring to the intentionally ugly parts as those come across as awkward and out of proportion.

If you’re into war stories because that’s your thing or maybe you’ve gone to war and can find some enjoyment in a tale like this, then go for it. It’s not likely to ring a new bell for you even if it’s your bag. If you’ve read war comics and they weren’t your thing, this one isn’t going to win you over. Likely it will push you away.

Score: 2/5

Go Home
Writer: Dan Hill
Artist: Andrew Herbst
Publisher: Alterna Comics