Elin Gregory

I shouldn’t really be using this graphic because, yet again, I forgot to sign up for the hop – my brain is swiss cheese – but I thought I’d make my recommendations anyway. Click on the picture and you’ll find the list of other authors, all of whom post excerpts of their fiction.

Meanwhile, I’m going to talk about other people’s excellent fiction.

It’s a while since I’ve recommended a graphic novel so here is The Desert Peach by Donna Barr. Yes that is a Nazi uniform. Set during the Second World War, The Desert Peach follows the misadventures of Oberst Manfred Pfirsich Marie Rommel, the flamboyantly gay younger brother of Erwin Rommel, the Desert Fox, packed off to Africa for safety’s sake, kept under Rommel’s watchful eye and placed in charge of the 469th Halftrack, Gravedigging and Support Unit of the Afrika Korps. Pfirisch [German for Peach] is more concerned with keeping his men alive and out of trouble than anything else, hindered along the way by a fabulous cast of characters that read like the Dirty Dozen on crack – his sexually omnivorous lover, ace fighter pilot Rosen Kavalier, his grubby barrack room lawyer orderly, Udo Schmidt, an apparently mute radio operator who is always seen cradling a tiny stuffed dinosaur and Dobermann, ‘one bang too many’ explosives expert who has a pet landmine called Fridl.
The art looks rough at first glance but is vigorous and enthusiastic, superb facial expressions, spot on perspective when the author feels like it and all the vehicles are recognisable, if you feel the need to look them up. Donna Barr also draws gorgeous horses, something where many comic book artists fall short. {Link may be NSFW due to nudity, human not horse}
Sadly most of the early issues are now only available on Kindle [or paper if you can track down one of the original issues] but later issues are posted on the Desert Peach website.