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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
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THE WHITE DONKEY

Maximilian Uriarte

A graphic novel of war and its aftermath: A powerful, compulsively page-turning, vivid, and moving tribute to the experience of war and PTSD, The White Donkey tells the story of Abe, a young Marine recruit who experiences the ugly, pedestrian, and often meaningless side of military service in rural Iraq.
He enlists in hopes of finding that missing something in his life but comes to find out that it's not quite what he expected. Abe gets more than he bargained for when his journey takes him to the middle east in war-torn Iraq.

This is a story about a Marine, written and illustrated by a Marine, and is the first graphic novel about the war in Iraq from a veteran. The White Donkey explores the experience of being a Marine, as well as the challenges that veterans face upon their return home, and its raw power will leave you in awe.

The White Donkey was written and illustrated by infantry Marine and Iraq veteran Maximilian Uriarte, creator of the hit comic strip "Terminal Lance." Uriarte enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 2006 at the age of 19 and served for four years. During his first deployment to Iraq in 2007 he served as an MRAP turret gunner and dismount of India Company's "Jump" platoon in the Zaidon region southeast of Fallujah. He deployed to Iraq again in 2009 as a billeted Combat Photographer and Combat Artist, then enrolling in California College of the Arts. In 2010 Uriarte created the popular comic strip "Terminal Lance" while still on active duty. The strip is now published in The Marine Corps Times and has grown immensely in popularity, with 450,000 Facebook followers and one million unique hits per month.
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Book

Published 2016-04-09 by Little, Brown and Company

Book

Published 2016-04-09 by Little, Brown and Company

Comments

THE WHITE DONKEY: Terminal Lance by Maximilian Uriarte into the world and straight onto the #2 spot on the New York Times bestseller list for Graphic Books! 29.4.16

A vivid and gripping tale.... For my brother Marines: this book is mandatory.... And for our civilian friends that are always asking, 'What's it like in the Corps?' this book will help you to understand. Even more importantly, it could help you help someone who may have returned to the civilian world with invisible wounds. - John Absalom

A masterpiece. - Ray Olson

In The White Donkey, a sense of alienation pervades Abe's experience. He endures the tedium of war, the yearning for action to gain legitimacy in the eyes of fellow Marines, and, finally, the horror of combat... all drawn with stylized realism.

Spiked with bitter and obscene humor, this debut and first-ever graphic novel about the Iraq War from a veteran reveals the cynical tedium of daily life in combat and how voluntary service can lead to an existential crisis of self-blame. Compelling. -Martha Cornog

Netherlands: Soul Food Comics

Combines a casual, straightforward dramatic style with clear, no-frills art that draws readers into his characters’ everyday experiences and then wallops them with the tragedy of ordinary life…Both respectful to the military and its role and sympathetic to the delicacy of the young soldiers, the story’s power lies in a middle-ground view of the ongoing social conflict, seeking to bridge understanding on both sides.

In many ways, The White Donkey is one long illustrated deployment journal.... Yet, tucked into the panels and frames, are those singular moments that, like a rock cast into a pond, send their ripples out almost infinitely-altering lives and ending others. The White Donkey follows the tremors, backwards and forwards, and manages to illustrate what feels like a 'true' war story and a lonely chapter in a war our country is trying desperately to forget.