The author of the Eisner-nominated graphic novel Unterzakhn now gives us a heart-wrenching, phantasmagorical tale of love, loss, and trauma both personal and global, set during World War II in Brooklyn, New York, and in the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp.
One of a group of women working as welders in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Rose Arensberg has fallen in love with a disabled veteran while awaiting the return of her husband, Sam, a soldier in the American army serving in Europe. As we follow the bittersweet, heartbreaking stories of Rose and her fellow Rosie-the-Riveters, we're immersed in the day-to-day challenges of life on the home front as seen through the eyes of these resilient women, as well as through the eyes of Eleanor, Rose’s impressionable young daughter, and Ruth, the German Jewish refugee Rose has taken into their home. Ruth’s desperate attempt to exorcise the nightmare of growing up in pre-war Nazi Germany takes her into the world of professional women wrestlers—with devastating consequences. And Sam’s encounters with the horrors of a liberated concentration camp follow him home to Brooklyn in the form of terrifying flashbacks that will leave him scarred forever. Victory Parade paints a deeply affecting portrait of how individuals and civilizations process mass trauma. Magnificently drawn by Leela Corman, it’s an Expressionist journey through the battlefields of the human heart and the mass graves of genocide.
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2024 A Most Anticipated Book: Comics DC Blog, The Comics Journal, Gay League, Hadassah Magazine, Historical Novel Society, La Cliotheque, Library Journal, Lit Hub, Paltrocast, Publishers Weekly, Reading Reality, Smash Pages
Dallas Voice’s LGBTQ Pride Reading List for 2024
“Visually arresting . . . Corman’s story inhabits the comics medium so fully that its formal ingenuity may not be immediately apparent . . . A moving map of war and genocide’s labyrinthine consequences for survivors across generations.” —The Washington Post
“The finest work yet from an always formidable artist, this is a revelatory meditation on the cost of survival.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“When Leela Corman sets out to make a graphic novel, she makes a graphic novel built to win awards. . . . fascinating work from an incredible talent.” —Comic Book Herald, “Favorite Graphic Novels of 2024”
“A demanding, unsettling, at times celebratory, and provocative story.” —Gay League
“Corman’s figures are striking…Vivid watercolors enhance the uncanny atmosphere, hues spilling and pooling into visceral shapes and strata…Savage and soulful.” —Kirkus, starred review
“A stunning story that demonstrates the ways in which Holocaust trauma’s reach in America fractures those it touches.” —The Jewish Book Council
“Fill[s] a void in the public’s concerning lack of awareness on the [Holocaust].” —Dallas Voice
“Striking . . . with Victory Parade, she wants us to remember what tyrannical supremacy and the murderous maligning of the racial Other actually mean – and warns us against going on with our lives as though nothing were amiss while the humanity of others is being denied.” —International Journal of Comic Art
“This is art at an intense level, of a most captivating nature. The intent is to provoke. No middle ground to this. And the results are extraordinary . . .Victory Parade . . . will take you on an unforgettable journey.” —Comics Grinder
“Victory Parade paints a deeply affecting portrait of how individuals and civilizations process mass trauma.” —Gay League
LEELA CORMAN is a painter, educator, and graphic-novel creator, working in the realm of diaspora Ashkenazi culture and third-generation restorative work. Her books include Unterzakhn, which was nominated for an Eisner Award, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Le Prix Artémisia; won the 2015 Romics Prize for Best Anglo-American Comic; and received a 2023 MoCCA Arts Festival Award of Excellence, and the short comics collections You Are Not a Guest and We All Wish for Deadly Force. Her work has appeared in many publications, including The Believer, Nautilus, and The Nib. She is a founding instructor at Sequential Artists Workshop and an instructor at Rhode Island School of Design.
View titles by Leela Corman
The author of the Eisner-nominated graphic novel Unterzakhn now gives us a heart-wrenching, phantasmagorical tale of love, loss, and trauma both personal and global, set during World War II in Brooklyn, New York, and in the newly liberated Buchenwald concentration camp.
One of a group of women working as welders in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Rose Arensberg has fallen in love with a disabled veteran while awaiting the return of her husband, Sam, a soldier in the American army serving in Europe. As we follow the bittersweet, heartbreaking stories of Rose and her fellow Rosie-the-Riveters, we're immersed in the day-to-day challenges of life on the home front as seen through the eyes of these resilient women, as well as through the eyes of Eleanor, Rose’s impressionable young daughter, and Ruth, the German Jewish refugee Rose has taken into their home. Ruth’s desperate attempt to exorcise the nightmare of growing up in pre-war Nazi Germany takes her into the world of professional women wrestlers—with devastating consequences. And Sam’s encounters with the horrors of a liberated concentration camp follow him home to Brooklyn in the form of terrifying flashbacks that will leave him scarred forever. Victory Parade paints a deeply affecting portrait of how individuals and civilizations process mass trauma. Magnificently drawn by Leela Corman, it’s an Expressionist journey through the battlefields of the human heart and the mass graves of genocide.
Reviews
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2024 A Most Anticipated Book: Comics DC Blog, The Comics Journal, Gay League, Hadassah Magazine, Historical Novel Society, La Cliotheque, Library Journal, Lit Hub, Paltrocast, Publishers Weekly, Reading Reality, Smash Pages
Dallas Voice’s LGBTQ Pride Reading List for 2024
“Visually arresting . . . Corman’s story inhabits the comics medium so fully that its formal ingenuity may not be immediately apparent . . . A moving map of war and genocide’s labyrinthine consequences for survivors across generations.” —The Washington Post
“The finest work yet from an always formidable artist, this is a revelatory meditation on the cost of survival.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“When Leela Corman sets out to make a graphic novel, she makes a graphic novel built to win awards. . . . fascinating work from an incredible talent.” —Comic Book Herald, “Favorite Graphic Novels of 2024”
“A demanding, unsettling, at times celebratory, and provocative story.” —Gay League
“Corman’s figures are striking…Vivid watercolors enhance the uncanny atmosphere, hues spilling and pooling into visceral shapes and strata…Savage and soulful.” —Kirkus, starred review
“A stunning story that demonstrates the ways in which Holocaust trauma’s reach in America fractures those it touches.” —The Jewish Book Council
“Fill[s] a void in the public’s concerning lack of awareness on the [Holocaust].” —Dallas Voice
“Striking . . . with Victory Parade, she wants us to remember what tyrannical supremacy and the murderous maligning of the racial Other actually mean – and warns us against going on with our lives as though nothing were amiss while the humanity of others is being denied.” —International Journal of Comic Art
“This is art at an intense level, of a most captivating nature. The intent is to provoke. No middle ground to this. And the results are extraordinary . . .Victory Parade . . . will take you on an unforgettable journey.” —Comics Grinder
“Victory Parade paints a deeply affecting portrait of how individuals and civilizations process mass trauma.” —Gay League
LEELA CORMAN is a painter, educator, and graphic-novel creator, working in the realm of diaspora Ashkenazi culture and third-generation restorative work. Her books include Unterzakhn, which was nominated for an Eisner Award, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Le Prix Artémisia; won the 2015 Romics Prize for Best Anglo-American Comic; and received a 2023 MoCCA Arts Festival Award of Excellence, and the short comics collections You Are Not a Guest and We All Wish for Deadly Force. Her work has appeared in many publications, including The Believer, Nautilus, and The Nib. She is a founding instructor at Sequential Artists Workshop and an instructor at Rhode Island School of Design.
View titles by Leela Corman
