The Harlem Hellfighters

Bestseller Brooks (World War Z) returns with the story of the first African-American regiment sent into combat by the U.S. Army in WW I. The 369th Infantry Regiment was poorly trained and ill equipped, and its soldiers were treated unfairly by command. Still, they had the single longest deployment of any American unit and achieved stunning military successes. Brooks’s text seethes with rage at the soldiers’ mistreatment, but he insists that even the racists who saw them in action would have respected their accomplishments. Like the text, White’s b&w art is intensely furious, emphasizing the war’s chaotic horror. Reading the book is a painful, memorable experience. (Apr.)