Latah by Thomas Legrain

First published in France in 2023; published in translation by Europe Comics on April 26, 2023

Latah is a graphic novel. Thomas Legrain is a Belgian artist/writer. The original edition is in French.

Huyn Tran, an AP reporter, is dropped off in a Vietnamese jungle where he joins a squad of American soldiers. When he sees the figurine a soldier is carrying, he says “Latah.” The expression refers to an affliction caused by shock or trauma. Sufferers go wild, change physically, and inspire fear. But Latah is also a spirit incarnated in a man that people in the region worship because Latah bears the burden of the suffering that people would otherwise experience. When the suffering becomes too great, Latah goes on a killing spree until it finds a new host. The soldier’s figurine is a talisman that protects against Latah.

A couple of soldiers are lost in a firefight before they find their way to a field of corpses. The mangled bodies remind Tran of stories about the war with the French. The soldiers soldier on until they stumble into a place where the sun never sets, where their compasses don’t work, where they die one by one. Not a good time to be a soldier, as if there was ever a good time to be carrying weapons through the jungles of Vietnam.

The squad was involved in something bad before the story starts, something they don’t want to talk about and that seems to be tearing them apart. Readers who remember the Vietnam War will guess what they did. The story raises collateral issues of race, primarily in the form of Black soldiers who bicker with each while white soldiers mock them. Tran is subject to the racist attitudes of American soldiers. At the same time, a white soldier wonders whether a Black soldier who attended the March on Washington would ever be willing to listen to a redneck from Alabama.

The redneck is more mature than most of the other soldiers; he questions the morality of dropping napalm and ruining the lives of innocent farmers in the hope of driving the Viet Cong to more favorable fighting terrain. He’s the only soldier with the decency to feel guilt about the squad’s earlier actions. Fortunately for the redneck, he’s carrying the figurine. Unfortunately for him, another soldier wants to take it from him.

The art is gritty and atmospheric. The olive drab coloring in the background of most panels sets the right mood. The detail in jungle backgrounds is meticulous, although the detail of soldiers ripped to shreds might be a bit too detailed for weak stomachs. I particularly like the monsoon rains that last for panel after panel. The art gives the story a cinematic feel.

The story loses some of its power with a predictable flashback at the end. After arriving at a conclusion, the story seems incomplete, perhaps because the horror of the supernatural is overshadowed by the horror of the Vietnam War. I nevertheless appreciated the way the art enhances an unmemorable story.

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