The Journey of Marcel Grob

French historian Collin and Belgian cartoonist Goethals craft a provocative comics investigation into blurred lines in wartime. In 2009, 83-year-old Marcel Grob is pulled into an interrogation of his actions during WWII. The then 17-year-old Alsatian was a member of the Waffen SS. While he first denies this, then claims he was forcibly conscripted in 1944, his interrogator disagrees. The truth is left to the reader to ponder. In flashbacks, Grob recounts the Germans conscripting him and two friends: equally nervous Antoine and strongly anti-communist, pro-German Stanislas. After training and receiving a tattoo that identifies them as SS, they are sent to the Italian front and their unit is forced into taking part in a massacre of townspeople falsely accused of being partisans. Marcel’s soccer prowess impresses an Oberführer enough to have him transferred to the rear lines, but danger and injury cannot be avoided in the final days of the war. Goethals draws precise figures in a somber palette, with flashbacks in a shifting range of monochromes. The 2009 scenes have an abstracted flatness to them, though it serves to heighten the impact of the depth and detail of the flashbacks. Fans of military history and comics that address complicated morality will find a lot to chew on. (Oct.)