I mentioned Deogratias the other day, the amazing graphic novel on Rwanda that will be part of my November war books column, but I also got a very well done comic last month from a Xeric Recipient, In the Hands of Boys about fallout from the Bosnian war. It's a black and white drawn comic (its shaded so well it almost looks like it was done with blunt pencils - check out the artwork at writer and illustrator Melody Nadia Shickley's site) that tells the story of Anna who learns one day that her close friend, Lynn, who was working in Bosnia as a journalist, has died and left her a considerable sum of money as well as custory of her son. A son that Anna never knew existed.

The relationship between Lynn and her son is complicated, and after he comes to America, a country he is totally unfamiliar with and where he can not speak the language, the relationship between Anna and Radojko is even more complicated. But she wants to do the right thing, the thing her friend trusted her to do. So Anna tries to find a way to reach the boy (using a computer program that translates into Serbian and Croatian) but he is beyond remote and other than television it doesn't seem like they have anyway to communicate at all.

Part of the story also details how Anna tries to get the custody paperwork figured out - and the fact that Radojko is the product of a rape doesn't stop the US from saying that his father has rights to him. So Anna has to hire lawyers overseas and in the US and work it all out so he can go to school. And in the background always lurking is Lynn's family, the parents she ran away from to build her own life in Sarajevo - the family she has never told about her son.

And now, maybe, it sounds like they want him.

There are hints in the story that Radojko is suffering from some post traumatic stress so there is the possibility of more on that in the second issue and clearly there is going to be interference from Lynn's family. I'm not sure if Shickley is going to bring the father into the story at all or anything else from Bosnia. But so far it is very moody and sadly intense and quite dramatic. It's a very unique story and the artwork is pitch perfect - it fits the storyline perfectly. I"m a bit hooked on this, on what will happen to both Anna and her new responsibility, on whether or not she can handle it. It's a look at one of those things that we never consider during wars - not really. What happens to all of these kids after it's over?

What's going to happen to all these kids in Lebanon when the bombing stops?

Check out the comic if you get a chance - I love my superheroes, but this is really something special.