Notes for a War Story by Gipi

This graphic novel is published by First Second, which is quickly becoming my favorite GN publisher. I picked this one up along with several others in DC and I am so excited to read them all.

Notes is translated from Italian and the author/artist is "Italy's maestro graphic novel author." To top that, this particular book is his master work. How could I resist those tags?

Notes for a War Story is Guiliano's story. Guiliano and his friends Little Killer and Christian are homeless teens in a nameless war-torn country. Each boy has a different background, but Guiliano is the only one who actually has a family even though he has run away from them. The boys scavenge to survive and hook up with a big-time thug named Felix who is profiting off of the war. Felix and his gang offer a security and belonging that each boy craves, and soon our guys start working for Felix. The lines between right and wrong (which were never well defined in the first place) completely evaporate. The more involved they get, the more Guiliano starts to question Felix's intentions. And, importantly, are they the good guys, or the bad guys? What's a boy to do?