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reflectedeve) wrote2007-10-13 02:31 pm
reflectedeve) wrote2007-10-13 02:31 pm
Entry tags:
cuz he knows it's all worthwhile
Today's lengthy fandom ramble is about what is simply one of the most absorbing and challenging comics I have ever read. And even though I know it has a cult following, I cannot believe that there are SIX people offering it. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
yuletide people are wonderful.
Fandom: Desert Peach
Characters: Pfirsich Rommel, Rosen Kavalier, and Udo Schmidt
This is absolutely one of the best comics I’ve ever read . . . a tribute to the medium’s artistic and literary potential. It’s complex, challenging, hilarious, deeply upsetting . . . and the characters are all so wonderfully, endearingly human. That’s no mean feat, when your primary cast is composed of German soldiers during World War II! And while I love pretty much every character that has strolled or pranced across Barr’s pages . . . I’m particularly attached to Pfirsich Rommel, the title character; his complete asshole of a lover, Rosen Kavalier; and his irascible little orderly, Udo Schmidt.
The Peach himself is a startling character. In the first few issues, he comes off as an airheaded gay stereotype, but it slowly becomes apparent that there is a great deal more to him than that. He’s one of those rare people who can keep himself more or less civilized in times of great moral and emotional pressure. He takes care of his men, carefully manipulates dangerous situations into peaceful conclusions, calms tempers, ignores and often lampoons prejudice, and helps to smuggle concentration camp victims to safety (my very favorite issue, #30, “Headaches”). By the end of the series he is deeply wounded by all the horrors he’s seen and suffered through, though he himself has a gift for helping others to make it through horror. He does have quite a temper, a certain amount of petty vanity, and a fondness for creature comforts; he also exhibits an appalling naivete, in his early days, regarding his country’s real brutality . . . which is a relief, in a way, because there’s nothing more boring than a saint!
Udo is absolutely my favorite character in the series. He’s a tiny, hairy little man with little command of his temper or of social niceties. One member of a large Jewish family posing as Christian and scattered throughout the Army, he is nevertheless a prejudiced little ass, and quite homophobic. However, once he becomes the Peach’s orderly, Udo’s better qualities emerge. He is loyal to a fault, and in spite of everything, generally tries to do the right thing. He also feels well-hidden but acute guilt over his successful subterfuge, while others of his religion are persecuted and murdered. A horrible tragedy befalls him at the end of the war, one which absolutely breaks my heart, though it ends a bit better.
Rosen, on the other hand, is an utter asshole. When I first read a story with him, I was absolutely appalled. He’s a dashing daredevil pilot: he’s loud, brash, offensive, rough, and even cruel. In a flashback to his days in Paris, he can be seen to declare that the Nazis—with whom he identifies himself, unlike most Peach characters—“want slaves, not citizens!” He later tricks his own lover into sleeping with a woman. And yet . . . he loves Pfirsich, and after the war, spends his rest of his life with the damaged man. He dotes on Pfirsich’s little son, Mani. He saves Udo from exposure at one point. The issue that won me over was #20, “Fever Dreams,” which recounts his first meeting with Pfirsich. Though the issue shows Rosen in all his rampaging “glory,” it also illustrates how he has changed, through his relationship with Pfirsich . . . to the point that this manliest of men breaks into tears, sharing a heart-to-heart with Udo.
I can’t decide which relationship I love more! Pfirsich slowly civilizes Rosen, while Rosen shakes Pfirsich out of his careful poise, thoroughly upsetting him and arousing his passion. Udo’s loyalty to his Colonel is completely adorable, as is Pfirsich’s attachment to and shared confidence with his orderly . . . and exasperation with him, as well. Udo and Rosen constantly butt heads, competing for Pfirsich’s favor and for guardianship of Pfirsich's son Mani, because they have so much love in common. They’re all fantastic together, and I really couldn’t pick which angle I’d prefer to see.
Resource links:
Barr’s homepage, complete with summaries of every issue of “Desert Peach.”
Desert Peach on Modern Tales; a whole bunch of scanned comics, and odds and ends.
And I still haven't finished the second collected volume (issues 8-11), because things have been so busy lately.
I don't know what I'll do when I've finally finished it all! Though these new Afterdead books of Barr's are pretty awesome too, and I have a great deal of Stinz yet to read as well . . .
yuletide people are wonderful.Fandom: Desert Peach
Characters: Pfirsich Rommel, Rosen Kavalier, and Udo Schmidt
This is absolutely one of the best comics I’ve ever read . . . a tribute to the medium’s artistic and literary potential. It’s complex, challenging, hilarious, deeply upsetting . . . and the characters are all so wonderfully, endearingly human. That’s no mean feat, when your primary cast is composed of German soldiers during World War II! And while I love pretty much every character that has strolled or pranced across Barr’s pages . . . I’m particularly attached to Pfirsich Rommel, the title character; his complete asshole of a lover, Rosen Kavalier; and his irascible little orderly, Udo Schmidt.
The Peach himself is a startling character. In the first few issues, he comes off as an airheaded gay stereotype, but it slowly becomes apparent that there is a great deal more to him than that. He’s one of those rare people who can keep himself more or less civilized in times of great moral and emotional pressure. He takes care of his men, carefully manipulates dangerous situations into peaceful conclusions, calms tempers, ignores and often lampoons prejudice, and helps to smuggle concentration camp victims to safety (my very favorite issue, #30, “Headaches”). By the end of the series he is deeply wounded by all the horrors he’s seen and suffered through, though he himself has a gift for helping others to make it through horror. He does have quite a temper, a certain amount of petty vanity, and a fondness for creature comforts; he also exhibits an appalling naivete, in his early days, regarding his country’s real brutality . . . which is a relief, in a way, because there’s nothing more boring than a saint!
Udo is absolutely my favorite character in the series. He’s a tiny, hairy little man with little command of his temper or of social niceties. One member of a large Jewish family posing as Christian and scattered throughout the Army, he is nevertheless a prejudiced little ass, and quite homophobic. However, once he becomes the Peach’s orderly, Udo’s better qualities emerge. He is loyal to a fault, and in spite of everything, generally tries to do the right thing. He also feels well-hidden but acute guilt over his successful subterfuge, while others of his religion are persecuted and murdered. A horrible tragedy befalls him at the end of the war, one which absolutely breaks my heart, though it ends a bit better.
Rosen, on the other hand, is an utter asshole. When I first read a story with him, I was absolutely appalled. He’s a dashing daredevil pilot: he’s loud, brash, offensive, rough, and even cruel. In a flashback to his days in Paris, he can be seen to declare that the Nazis—with whom he identifies himself, unlike most Peach characters—“want slaves, not citizens!” He later tricks his own lover into sleeping with a woman. And yet . . . he loves Pfirsich, and after the war, spends his rest of his life with the damaged man. He dotes on Pfirsich’s little son, Mani. He saves Udo from exposure at one point. The issue that won me over was #20, “Fever Dreams,” which recounts his first meeting with Pfirsich. Though the issue shows Rosen in all his rampaging “glory,” it also illustrates how he has changed, through his relationship with Pfirsich . . . to the point that this manliest of men breaks into tears, sharing a heart-to-heart with Udo.
I can’t decide which relationship I love more! Pfirsich slowly civilizes Rosen, while Rosen shakes Pfirsich out of his careful poise, thoroughly upsetting him and arousing his passion. Udo’s loyalty to his Colonel is completely adorable, as is Pfirsich’s attachment to and shared confidence with his orderly . . . and exasperation with him, as well. Udo and Rosen constantly butt heads, competing for Pfirsich’s favor and for guardianship of Pfirsich's son Mani, because they have so much love in common. They’re all fantastic together, and I really couldn’t pick which angle I’d prefer to see.
Resource links:
Barr’s homepage, complete with summaries of every issue of “Desert Peach.”
Desert Peach on Modern Tales; a whole bunch of scanned comics, and odds and ends.
And I still haven't finished the second collected volume (issues 8-11), because things have been so busy lately.
I don't know what I'll do when I've finally finished it all! Though these new Afterdead books of Barr's are pretty awesome too, and I have a great deal of Stinz yet to read as well . . .