Of Dust and Blood Review- Life and Death in the Greasy Grass

Written by: Jim Berry

Illustrated by: Val Mayerik

Publisher: self published

Release date: November 30, 2016

When one thinks of comics and graphic novels, the mind naturally gravitates towards superheroes, as they predominantly fill the pages of most books. DC and Marvel tend to dominate, but comics have told many other tales as well. There are crime comics, horror comics, even those that offer some philosophical musings, like Daytripper by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, or stylized tellings of actual events like Brian K. Vaughan’s Pride of Baghdad. It’s a rich medium that can be used to impart so many stories, and even bring historical events to life. Such is Of Dust and Blood: A Story from the Fight at the Greasy Grass from writer Jim Berry and illustrated by Val Mayerik. While Berry may not be a familiar name, longtime comic readers may recognize Mayerik from his work with Marvel in the ’70s and ’80s, where he drew such characters as Punisher, Man-Thing, Conan, and was the co-creator of Howard the Duck. Mayerik brings his talents to bear here to bring to life a glimpse of Custer’s last stand at Little Bighorn.

That battle, which occurred on June 25-26, 1876, is one of the best known from the conflict between the United States Army and several Indian tribes, among them the Lakota Sioux, the Northern Cheyenne, and the Arapaho. Among the tribes the incident was known as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, and was a major victory for the Native Americans. Students of history recognize a few of the battle’s participants, most notable among them Crazy Horse, Chief Gall, and Sitting Bull, along with General George Armstrong Custer, who led the 700 man U.S. 7th Calvary. The casualties on the US side were high, with 268 dead, while reports of the casualties suffered by the tribes vary from as low as 36 to as high as 300.

While most of us have heard the tale from the points of view of the more notable players, Berry and Mayerik instead choose to present the battle to us through the eyes primarily of a scout for the 7th Calvary named Greenhaw and a Sioux warrior named Slow Hawk. The book opens with Greenhaw composing a letter to his love, a woman named Rose. Greenhaw’s whole goal is to hopefully avoid actual fighting and make it out alive so he can return to her. Slow Hawk’s motivation is a bit different, as he seeks vengeance for his friend Red Wind. both are caught up in events that will propel them into the inevitable confrontation. Greenhaw is among those who Custer sends forward to check things out, and Slow Hawk joins the forces led by Crazy Horse and spurred on by the visions of Sitting Bull (Tatanka Iyota’ka). Both do their best to survive and eventually come face to face, with tragic consequences.

Berry moves things along with sparse dialogue and narration, allowing Mayerik’s images to primarily convey the story. Mayerik delivers well, giving us multiple splash pages filled with action and aptly conveying the true scope of the battle. The book is presented in a landscape format rather than portrait as most graphic novels are (Frank Miller used a similar technique with his 300, which presented another historical battle, albeit far more stylized). This allowed for sweeping images of horses galloping across the plains as the forces clashed, giving us those larger than life images that one would associate from the Old West. Even in the more peaceful scenes of a massive Indian village or of buffalo grazing are presented with nice detail and color. Battle scenes convey their brutality without being overly graphic, showing just enough blood without approaching horrific realism. The emotions of both Greenhaw and Slow Hawk are nicely shown. We feel Greenhaw’s desperation to escape so he can make it back to Rose, along with Slow Hawk’s grim determination to distinguish himself in battle. When the two finally meet face to face, their individual struggles come to a head, and in their tragic outcomes Berry shows us how both sides bear the cost of war. Winner and loser pay the same price in the end, with death being the ultimate equalizer on the battlefield.

For all of Mayerik’s fantastic artwork and the interesting perspective of showing us the battle from two individuals on both sides, this is still a very superficial presentation of the events at Little Big Horn. There is no real new insight into Custer or Sitting Bull here, though, to be fair, this is not their story. But even with the point of views shown through the eyes of Greenhaw and Slow Hawk, we don’t get an especially deep characterization of either man. We understand their motives on a surface level, but I never became too attached over the book’s 75 pages that the outcome had as strong an emotional impact as it could have had. Perhaps that’s a bit much to be expected of a graphic novel, or it may be something personal with me based on my own knowledge of history (I do read quite a bit of history, as it’s a subject that fascinates me). But as well as Berry’s book tells its story, it doesn’t leave as lasting an impression as it could have.

Despite that issue, this is still a book worthy of your time, for Mayerik’s artwork alone. His sweeping images convey both the action and scope of those two days effectively, and his smaller panels do a nice job at capturing the more individual emotions of both sides. The book shows us the horror of the battle without being overly graphic, and though it is a superficial look, it is interesting to get the different points of view of those caught up in history rather than from those who made it. In the end it does show how both sides bear the same final costs, and serves as a reminder that war is an ugly business. It’s a book that does a nice job at capturing a moment in our history, and one that deserves a place on your bookshelf next to all of those superheroes.