The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan

“Marine sergeant Jack Brennan’s platoon is on the way home from a grueling deployment to Afghanistan. It’s not the first time through this cycle for Brennan and a couple others, but this time, “He wants to tell us a story,” as one man gripes, before they go home—several stories, actually, from the greatest saga of a soldier going home, The Odyssey… Like a sergeant himself, writer Doerries makes a platoon of artists fall into a consistent style—a kind of stripped-down Swamp Thing look—in both Homeric and contemporary scenes to keep this exercise in comics-as-therapy compelling.” —Ray Olson, Booklist

BRYAN DOERRIESis a New York-based writer, director, and translator who currently serves as Artistic Director of Theater of War Productions, a company that presents dramatic readings of seminal plays and texts to frame community conversations about pressing issues of public health and social justice. A self-described evangelist for ancient stories and their relevance to our lives today, Doerries uses age-old approaches to help individuals and communities heal from trauma and loss. He is the author of a memoir, The Theater of War- What Ancient Greek Tragedies Can Teach Us Today; All That You’ve Seen Here Is God, four plays by Aeschylus and Sophocles; and The Odyssey of Sergeant Jack Brennan, a graphic novelization of Homer’s Odyssey, told from the point of view of a US Marine returning home from Afghanistan. Among his awards, he has received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Kenyon College and was named Public Artist in Residence for the City of New York.