Comics trauma and the new art of war Conflict and trauma remain among the most prevalent themes in film and literature. Comics has never avoided such narratives and comics artists are writing them in ways that are both different from and complementary to literature and film. In Comics Trauma and the New Art of War Harriet E. H. Earle brings together two distinct areas of research trauma studies and comics studies to provide a new interpretation of a long standing theme. Focusing on representations of conflict in post Vietnam War American comics Earle claims that the comics form is uniquely able to show traumatic experience by representing events as viscerally as possible. Using texts from across the form and placing mainstream superhero comics alongside alternative and art comics Earle suggests that comics are the ideal artistic representation of trauma. Because comics bridge the gap between the visual and the written they represent such complicated narratives as loss and trauma in unique ways particularly through the manipulation of time and experience. Comics can fold time and confront traumatic events be they personal or shared through a myriad of both literary and visual devices. As a result comics can represent trauma in ways that are unavailable to other narrative and artistic forms. With themes such as dreams and mourning Earle concentrates on trauma in American comics after the Vietnam War. These works include Alissa Torress American Widow Doug Murrays The Nam and Art Spiegelmans much lauded Maus. These works pair with ideas from a wide range of thinkers including Sigmund Freud Mikhail Bakhtin and Fredric Jameson as well as contemporary trauma theory and clinical psychology. Through these examples and others Comics Trauma and the New Art of War proves that comics open up new avenues to explore personal and public trauma in extraordinary necessary ways.