Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: Chamberlain, graphic novel

A Very Topical Graphic Novel About Chamberlain In Need Of A Publisher

I have in my hand a graphic novel... a very topical comic book about Neville Chamberlain before World War II is in need of a publisher

This may be the most opportune time for almost a hundred years to read a graphic novel about Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain, written by Ben Dickson, was created over six years by three artists, Vincent Deporter, Fran Strukan and Valentina Briski, the first of whom passed away during its creation. Chamberlain's name has been summoned a number of times of late, especially in light of President Donald Trump and his supporters' desire to see peace in Ukraine in return for seceding part of the country to the aggressor, Russia.

And comparisons have been made to former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's negotiated peace treaty with Adolf Hitler's Germany, a policy of appeasement with the Nazis, much celebrated at the time as preventing war, but was swept away when Germany invaded Poland and then Norway. Chamberlain resigned and was succeeded as Prime Minister by Winston Churchill. The rest, literally, is history. Neville Chamberlain's name is used synonymously with surrender, weakness, not standing up to an aggressor, and failing to see the consequences.

Chamberlain, the graphic novel, is the case for the defence for Chamberlain, aims to give a fully rounded life, rather than being the man of two speeches less than a year apart. The first, "This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. Some of you, perhaps, have already heard what it contains but I would just like to read it to you: We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again".

And the second, "This morning the British ambassador in Berlin handed the German government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received and that, consequently, this country is at war with Germany". This graphic novel gives us a lot more.

Set over three years, between May 1937 and May 1940, it also tells of Neville Chamberlain's life, from school to politics, his wife, his friends, his colleagues and those who plotted against him. It takes on Winston Churchill's claim that Chamberlain would come out of history badly because it was a history that Churchill would write. And in that, he was successful. Ben is trying to turn the tide of history on that one.

This Chamberlain is not a man seeking appeasement out of cowardice but from an understanding of just how unprepared Britain was for another war, psychologically as well as in every other sense. One who funded armament between the wars so as to negotiate from a position of strength. He delayed Britain's war with Germany to allow Britain to fight stronger at a later date. He portrays Chamberlain as a man who sacrifices his career to create the necessary buffers against the inevitable while the world continues to churn around him. The graphic novel layers all these events, these people, and these policies in a gripping narrative, with Chamberlain refusing to sit within the stereotypical framing that Winston Churchill's writing of history has given him. And a reminder of how he was perceived during the very time that he was living.

It also depicts Adolf Hitler as both the politician and the man, how everyone changed their ways, forced to treat him as the new normal and to basically accept this working-class house painter into their international gentlemen's club of world leaders, expecting him to follow their rules, or at least the new rules they devise to accommodate him. He does not.

The book's original artist, Vincent Deporter, who died in 2022, was Belgian – and it is hard not to see the influence of the most famous of Belgian comic creators, Herge of Tintin and his own international trips of political intrigue. The detailed environments, contrasting with the bold cartoonish lines of the characters, continued to be completed by Fran Strukan and Valentina Briski. It is an incredibly welcoming environment for the reader as they are hit by realpolitik every which way.

The graphic novel is complete but has yet to find a publisher, Ben Dickson has been very successfully hand selling his own limited print run at MCM London and Malta Comic Con. But damn, someone really needs to pick this up, it couldn't be a more relevant graphic novel based on the way the world seems to be playing out around us. Ben Dickson can be contacted here.

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