Love@War: romance/war comic deals out the offensive yuks

"Army@Love: The Hot Zone Club" is the first collection of Rick Veitch and Gary Erskine's demented satirical war/romance comic book, concerning the pornographic adventures of the middle-managers drafted to serve in America's endless war in "Afbaghistan," where corporate sponsorship logos adorn the fuselages of jets, and combatants gossip with their loved-ones via cell-phone while taking heavy casualties defending the contractor-erected shopping malls in the middle of the wasteland.

The world of Army@Love starts from a simple and savage premise: the corporatization of war-fighting will lead, inevitably, to the ultimate stop-loss program, through which middle-managers from giant corporate marketing organizations will be inducted (at employers' expense) to fight the war through novel ways. It is these marketers who conceive of the war as permanent peak experience, a high that can only be achieved through constant life-endangerment, massive, mid-combat orgies, and relentless slaughter.

This is a funny comic book, but it's a deeply offensive -- and extremely thought-provoking -- kind of funny, the kind of funny we need a lot more of if we're to keep from laughing ourselves into the grave. Link

[#1 posted by scottfree , March 11, 2008 9:44 AM]

So is this the answer to those Officer and a gentleman films? Not so romantic without David Niven is it?

[#2 posted by JoeKickass , March 11, 2008 10:08 AM]

Wow, this looks incredible, thanks for posting it. I'm off to the comic book store.
More info: http://www.dccomics.com/sites/army_at_love/

[#3 posted by Halloween Jack , March 11, 2008 11:03 AM]

Rick Veitch can be hit or miss; Brat Pack came off as being a little too "Watchmen for Sidekicks", but Greyshirt: Indigo Sunset was immense fun.

[#4 posted by ill lich , March 11, 2008 11:17 AM]

I kinda wish he hadn't already branded it as "satirical"-- one could hope some loony-right-wing-nut would mistake it as a wonderful new pro-America comic and totally miss the satire (although from what I understand about it, that would be a reach).

[#5 posted by MightyMynack , March 11, 2008 11:21 AM]

Read the preview they put in the Vertigo boks last year and passed - I've never forgiven Veitch for changing Moore's Swamp Thing from one of the best horror comics ever created to enviro-weenie wankery in the span of a few short issues, something it has never recovered from, quite frankly.

[#6 posted by Jahfurry , March 11, 2008 4:15 PM]

Rick's got a new blog www.rickveitch.com with a new psychedelicious image each day... If you never read the classics from his own KING HELL press, they're being remastered and offered on
** http://www.rickveitch.com/store/

ATTENTION RETAILERS... there's still time to put in orders for HEARTBURST and Other Pleasures, which includes the original verson of Alan Moore's Mirror of Love illustrated by Veitch and Bissette
Preview: http://www.rickveitch.com/2008/02/16/heartburst-and-other-pleasures-preview/

Maximortal is Rick's twisted and highlarious take on the Superman mythos, complete with a pre-Kavalier and Clay Siegel/Schuster component...

BratPack is teen titans on steroids, LITERALLY and is viciously entertaining.

Shiny Beasts as well as Abraxas and the Earthman are remastered painted gems from his early Epic comics days.

and then there are his dream comics, the Rare Bit Fiends ... 3 volumes of what many consider to be the most authentic representation of dreams on paper... read them before bedtime and see what happens...