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WORK TITLE: MWD: Hell Is Coming Home
WORK NOTES: with Brian David Johnson
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1946
WEBSITE:
CITY: Boston
STATE: MA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0251057/ * http://www.bu.edu/com/profile/jan-egleson/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1946.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, film director, and educator. Boston University, Boston, MA, associate professor of the practice, film & television. Film director, including Coyote Waits, Wildwood Productions; The Blue Diner, HBO; A Shock to the System; and Lemon Sky. Director of the concert films Squibnocket and The Road to You. Also director of films shown on American Playhouse, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), including Big Time, Roanoke, and the trilogy Billy in the Lowlands, The Dark End of the Street and The Tender Age. Also director of commercial pilots and films for televisions, and episode for television shows such as Legacy, Nothing Sacred, and Law & Order.
r
WRITINGS
Also coauthor of the screenplay for The Blue Diner, Home Box Office (HB).
SIDELIGHTS
Jan Egleson is a film professor and director who has directed feature films, films for television, and television shows. Egleson is also coauthor with Brian David Johnson of the graphic novel MWD: Hell Is Coming Home. Illustrated by Laila Milevski and Karl Stevens, the novel tells the story of an Iraq war veteran who tries to adjust to life in her small New Hampshire town following her tour of duty. The novel arose out of specific experiences of Johnson and Egleson. Johnson, a journalist, wrote a series of articles about the effects the Iraq War had on a small New Hampshire town. Egleson learned later in life following his father’s death that his father suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Their respective experiences “compelled the two to team up to create the graphic novel,” noted BU Today Boston University Web site contributor Rich Barlow.
In MWD Egleson and Johnson tell the story of Liz Mastrangelo. a military dog handler who lost her military working dog (MWD) and is now suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Back home in New Hampshire, Liz struggles to connect with people, still mourning the lost of her dog, Ender. Before long, Liz is having flashbacks and begins drinking heavily. Although she lives in a place where she grew up knowing almost everybody, Liz is isolated and seems destined to have a bad end, perhaps even one of the many veterans who commit suicide every day.
The turning point in Liz’s life occurs one day as she is riding in the car with her sometime boyfriend, Ben. Ben just narrowly misses running over a stray dog. They take the dog to an animal shelter, but Liz has already formed an attachment with Brutus and works with the seemingly trouble dog in an effort to keep him from being euthanized. “Brutus and Liz have plenty in common–both are essentially homeless and tend to explode at” others, noted a Publishers Weekly contributor. As Liz and Brutus seem to be on the right path to rehabilitating and readjusting to life, readers learn of Liz’s inability to trust others, largely due to sexual attacks while she was in the army. Jack, a Vietnam veteran, is also on hand to help Liz recover.
“Johnson and Egleson’s story is frighteningly compelling,” wrote Lauri J. Vaughan in Voice for Youth Advocates, noting: “Raw but accurate emotional depictions fill the text.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor called MWD “a nuanced and skillfully composed snapshot of one woman’s postwar struggle to live.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, January 1, 2017, Peter Blenski, review of MWD: Hell Is Coming Home, p. 57.
Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2016, review of MWD.
Publishers Weekly, November 21, 2016, review of MWD, p. 111.
Voice of Youth Advocates, April, 2017, Lauri J. Vaughan, review of MWD, p. 61.
ONLINE
BU Today Boston University, http://www.bu.edu/today/ (February 15, 2017), Rich Barlow, “COM Prof’s, Alum’s Graphic Novel about War’s Mental Scars.”
College of Communication Boston University Web site, http://www.bu.edu/com/ (September 4, 2017), author faculty profile.
100 Percent Rock, http://magazine.100percentrock.com ( February 10, 2017 ), Stephanie O’Connell, review of MWD
Youth Services Book Review , https://ysbookreviews.wordpress.com ( March 14, 2017), Stephanie Tournas, review of MWD.
COM Prof’s, Alum’s Graphic Novel about War’s Mental Scars
Authors talk tonight at Brookline Booksmith
02.15.2017
By Rich Barlow
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Jan Egleson, a COM professor of film and television (left), and Brian Johnson (COM'05) have written a graphic novel about a returning Iraq War vet suffering from PTSD. Photo by Cydney Scott
As far back as Jan Egleson can remember, an unseen barrier walled off his father from the world. A World War II naval combat veteran, “he was withdrawn, he was angry, he was unable to really maintain relationships,” says Egleson, a filmmaker and a College of Communication associate professor of the practice, film and television. Attempts at therapy failed, and it wasn’t until his father died that his son, perusing his papers, realized he’d suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Egleson knew a bit about this demon, having directed Medal of Honor Rag, a 1975 play about the illness. His family tragedy, plus the journalism experiences of Brian David Johnson (COM’05) covering the Iraq War’s fallout on small-town New Hampshire, compelled the two to team up to create the graphic novel MWD: Hell Is Coming Home (Candlewick, 2017). Illustrated by Laila Milevski, the book introduces readers to PTSD’s psychic ravages on an Army dog handler named Liz. The two authors will be at Brookline Booksmith tonight, February 15, at 7 p.m., to talk about their novel.
MWD got a thumbs-up from Kirkus Reviews, which calls it “a nuanced and carefully composed snapshot of one woman’s postwar struggle to live.” The novel describes the loss of a crucial bond, as Liz returns to New Hampshire from Iraq, grieving the combat death of her dog (MWD stands for military working dog).
If the conceptual edifice of MWD belongs to Egleson, Johnson mortars its bricks with details picked up as a reporter. One of the people he interviewed was a New Hampshire woman whose brother, a Marine, had just been killed in Iraq by an improvised explosive device. The sorrow carved into her face helped create the novel’s portrayal of Liz.
“I was the first person to talk to her after she found out her brother was incinerated,” Johnson says. (The disturbing sense that he was invading her privacy helped cut short his newspaper career; today, he’s the publisher of MassDevice.com, a site he cofounded covering the medical device industry.)
Among the real-life details from his reporting that made it into the book: “There was a wrestling team in Salem, New Hampshire, at the high school that had three kids go to Iraq…and all three were killed.”
Although both men have BU connections, they didn’t meet until Egleson, who has directed several movies and numerous TV shows, including Law & Order, became a Pilates student of Johnson’s wife. When the former reporter showed him a teleplay he’d written about his newspaper experience, Egleson asked him to collaborate on a screenplay about a PTSD-afflicted dog handler, a project he’d had in mind for a while.
“PTSD is very hard to get inside,” Egleson says. “But attachment to animals is something that cuts through everything. We all understand it. The loss of a pet is devastating to people.” Johnson liked the plot; he has a sister-in-law who trains dogs, and one of her charges, a German shepherd named Ender, gave its name to the dog Liz adopts in MWD to try to repair her broken heart.
Cowriting proved easy for both authors. Egleson says that “to make films is all about collaborating,” and Johnson acknowledges that his partner helped move him off his journalist’s rigid adherence to linear character development. “Jan was really instrumental in fighting for the character as a real person with different emotional responses that I think were not linear,” he says. “Nobody’s monolithic.”
The book’s Iraq illustrations were drawn as “very realistic, very crisp,” Johnson says, reflecting combat’s heightening of the senses, while the returning vet’s homecoming in New Hampshire has “more earthy, less precise, less elegant images,” befitting the fuzzy confusion of trying to settle back into a more normal life.
“If you look at pictures of soldiers with PTSD,” he says, “you can see that they physically change. Their faces become more drawn as they descend into all the different ways of self-medicating.”
Egleson, with his filmmaking expertise and contacts, says the pair will explore possibilities for turning their book into a movie. As for Johnson, he hopes MWD makes its target audience think harder when a dubious war is debated in the future.
“There are a lot of people who are dealing with the aftermath of a war that was fought on—I think we can say—what were false pretenses,” he says. “But the sacrifice of the soldiers—nothing’s false about that.”
Jan Egleson and Brian David Johnson will talk about MWD: Hell Is Coming Home tonight, Wednesday, February 15, at 7 p.m., at Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Brookline, Mass. The event is free and open to the public.
Associate Professor of the Practice, Film & Television
Jan Egleson
Title
Associate Professor of the Practice, Film & Television
Office
B02
Email
jegleson@bu.edu
Jan Egleson is a writer/director who has worked in film, television and theater. He most recently directed Coyote Waits, based on the novel by Tony Hillerman, for Robert Redford’s Wildwood Productions. Prior to that, he directed and co-wrote The Blue Diner, an HBO feature starring Miriam Colon and Lisa Vidal that won the ALMA Award for Best Feature.
He directed Michael Caine in the feature film A Shock to the System, and returned to American Playhouse to direct Big Time, starring Mia Sara, Dennis Boutsakaris and Adrian Pasdar. Playhouse also financed his movie Lemon Sky, starring Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgewick, which he adapted from Lanford Wilson’s play. The film was honored with a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
He then directed Roanoak, a critically acclaimed miniseries, for American Playhouse. By then, he had written and directed an award-winning trilogy of films about working-class adolescents in Boston. These three films, Billy in the Lowlands, The Dark End of the Street and The Tender Age, were shown on the American Playhouse series. The films starred John Savage, Tracy Pollan, Paul Benedict and Kevin Bacon, and were broadcast nationally as part of the American Playhouse series.
Over the years, in addition to directing independent films, he has directed numerous commercial pilots and films for television, as well as numerous episodes for such shows as Legacy, Nothing Sacred and Law & Order. He has directed two long-form concert videos, Squibnocket, featuring James Taylor and nominated for an ACE Award, and The Road to You with Pat Metheny.
Johnson, Brian David, and Jan Egleson. MWD: Hell Is Coming
Lauri J. Vaughan
40.1 (Apr. 2017): p61.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 E L Kurdyla Publishing LLC
http://www.voya.com
2Q * 3P * S * NA * (G)
Johnson, Brian David, and Jan Egleson. MWD: Hell Is Coming. Illus. by Laila Milevski and Karl Stevens. Candlewick, 2017. 160p. $24.99. 978-0-7636-5706-2.
Liz Mastrangelo has returned to her New Hampshire hometown after a brutal tour in Iraq. Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and mourning the death of her military working dog (MWD), Liz struggles to make meaningful connections, even with the people who care about her. Restarting life becomes of series of obstacles, and Liz is, at times, her own worst enemy. An accidental connection with Brutus, a homeless and fearful stray dog who--like Liz--lashes out in knee-jerk reactions, offers a ray of hope.
Johnson and Egleson's story is frighteningly compelling. Raw but accurate emotional depictions fill the text, but this graphic novel misses the mark in several respects. The title acronym will be unrecognized by most readers. The illustrations, while showing evidence of artistic talent, are sometimes confusing. The gray tones, emphasizing the inertia of Liz's hopeless detachment, are too heavy-handed. Nowhere evident are the various techniques, explained so beautifully in Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics (William Morrow, 1994/VOYA December 1994), that expert graphic novelists employ to draw the reader into the story. There is no dance between imagery and story here; MWD is more an illustrated story than a graphic novel. Still, much talent is apparent from both writers and illustrators. Hopefully, Johnson, Egleson, Milevski and Stevens will stick together for another round--a graphic novel that, unlike this one, is greater than the sum of its parts.--Lauri J. Vaughan.
QUALITY
5Q Hard to imagine it being better written.
4Q Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses.
3Q Readable, without serious defects.
2Q Better editing or work by the author might have warranted a 3Q.
1Q Hard to understand how it got published, except in relation to its P rating (and not even then sometimes).
POPULARITY
5P Every YA (who reads) was dying to read it yesterday.
4P Broad general or genre YA appeal.
3P Will appeal with pushing.
2P For the YA reader with a special interest in the subject.
1P No YA will read unless forced to for assignments.
GRADE LEVEL INTEREST
M Middle School (defined as grades 6-8).
J Junior High (defined as grades 7-9).
S Senior High (defined as grades 10-12).
A/YA Adult-marketed book recommended for YAs.
NA New Adult (defined as college-age).
R Reluctant readers (defined as particularly suited for reluctant readers).
(a) Highlighted Reviews Graphic Novel Format
(G) Graphic Novel Format
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Vaughan, Lauri J. "Johnson, Brian David, and Jan Egleson. MWD: Hell Is Coming." Voice of Youth Advocates, Apr. 2017, p. 61. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA491949494&it=r&asid=f841ce463c87401b968ca69b3722a2ad. Accessed 10 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491949494
MWD: Hell Is Coming Home
Peter Blenski
113.9-10 (Jan. 1, 2017): p57.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
MWD: Hell Is Coming Home. By Brian David Johnson and Jan Egleson. Illus. by Laila Milevski and Karl Stevens. Feb. 2017. 160p. Candlewick, $24.99 (97807636570621. 741.5. Gr. 9-12.
After a tour serving in Iraq, specialist Elizabeth Mastrangelo finds it difficult to transition back into civilian life. Haunted by flashbacks, Liz only finds comfort working with a troubled dog named Brutus at an animal shelter, hoping to save him from being euthanized. This covers a lot of subject matter, from rape in the military to the treatment of our veterans at home, but at times it takes on so much the core of the narrative gets lost, and it ends up reading like a piece of journalism rather than narrative fiction. Still, it does a good job documenting the struggles of coping with PTSD, and the female perspective of the book is a welcome change of pace. Stevens and Milevski's sketchy artwork, with heavy black ink and shading, is naturalistic, though sometimes distractingly stiff. Additionally, while this is published as YA, the lack of teen characters might limit teen appeal. In the hands of the right audience, however, this could powerfully hit home.--Peter Blenski
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Blenski, Peter. "MWD: Hell Is Coming Home." Booklist, 1 Jan. 2017, p. 57. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA479078043&it=r&asid=b89697a6209e73c54c238e74913c79a3. Accessed 10 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A479078043
MWD: Hell Is Coming Home
263.47 (Nov. 21, 2016): p111.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
MWD: Hell Is Coming Home
Brian David Johnson and Jan Egleson, illus. by Laila Milevski and Karl Stevens. Candlewick, $24.99 (160p) ISBN 978-0-7636-5706-2
Returning to her New Hampshire town after serving in Iraq, Liz Mastrangelo is celebrated as a hero, but she feels more like a ghost. She's unable to reconnect with the people in her life, burning bridges left and right, and instead finds companionship with a mutt, Brutus, who reminds her of Ender, a military working dog that saved her life by sacrificing his. Brutus and Liz have plenty in common--both are essentially homeless and tend to explode at those around them. In their first book for teens, Johnson and Egleson craft a powerful, unflinching narrative that tackles a variety of issues connected to the impact of war, including PTSD, sexual coercion, finding new meaning in one's life, and the well-meaning but unhelpful efforts of those who remained behind. The often minimalist backgrounds and careful, naturalistic detailing in Milevski and Stevens's graphite drawings imbue the story with a sense of absence that aligns perfectly with Liz's estrangement. Tense pacing and the speed of Liz's unraveling will hold readers' focus in a sharp-edged portrait of a soldier's struggle to re-acclimate to the civilian world. Ages 14-up. (Feb.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"MWD: Hell Is Coming Home." Publishers Weekly, 21 Nov. 2016, p. 111. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA471274039&it=r&asid=6bafb4f5bef6857cc504e0a5b76ab558. Accessed 10 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A471274039
Johnson, Brian David: MWD
(Dec. 1, 2016):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Johnson, Brian David MWD Candlewick (Children's Fiction) $24.99 2, 14 ISBN: 978-0-7636-5706-2
A gritty, hard-hitting, and honest portrayal of one young woman's difficult journey to putting the pieces of her life back together after serving in the Iraq War.More a crossover book for adults than one strictly for teens, this black-and-white graphic novel will slap some reality into readers who believe in the glamour of war. Liz, the white protagonist and a former military working dog handler, returns from Iraq after having her leg shattered, sustaining another injury that leaves a scar across most of her torso, and losing Ender, her German shepherd, to an IED. While the half-hearted welcome from the people in her Mayberry-like New Hampshire town makes her feel mildly appreciated, the fallout from PTSD, sexual violence she experienced while in the Army, blackout drunkenness, and an inability to trust anyone for any length of time leads to a downward spiral. Flashbacks accost her often, coming most predictably in vehicles, putting herself and others in danger. Only with the help of Jack, a Vietnam veteran, and Brutus, an aggressive stray dog she rescues from a roadside, does she begin to have hope. The story's strong language, graphic depiction of war, and Liz's unpredictable behavior make this an emotionally taxing read, but the ups and downs also effectively give readers a sense of Liz's trauma. A nuanced and skillfully composed snapshot of one woman's postwar struggle to live. (Graphic novel. 14 & up)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Johnson, Brian David: MWD." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2016. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA471901877&it=r&asid=cb0b1e3943326c7dd64944152f378afe. Accessed 10 Aug. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A471901877
BOOK REVIEW: MWD: Hell is Coming Home by Brian David Johnson and Jan Egleson, illustrated by Laila Milevski and Karl Stevens
Stephanie O'Connell | Feb 10, 2017 | Comments 0
BOOK REVIEW: MWD: Hell is Coming Home by Brian David Johnson and Jan Egleson, illustrated by Laila Milevski and Karl Stevens
Candlewick Press
February 2017
Hardcover, $24.99
Reviewed by Steph O’Connell
Graphic Novel
7/10
With unflinching candor, a moving graphic novel follows a young woman’s return from war and her bond with two dogs—one who saves her life in Iraq, and another who helps her reclaim it at home.
Liz served in Iraq with her trusty military working dog, Ender, by her side. But now that her tour is over, she has to readjust to life in her small New Hampshire town. Despite being surrounded by people she’s known her whole life, Liz feels entirely alone and soon gets trapped in a downward spiral of flashbacks and blackout drinking. Things seem destined for a bad end, but when Liz’s on-again-off-again boyfriend, Ben, almost hits a stray dog while she is in the car, things start to change. Brutus might just be the only thing that can bring her back from the brink. Brian David Johnson, Jan Egleson, Laila Milevski, and Karl Stevens have created a searing and honest portrait of reentry to civilian life after war and a touching exploration of the bond between dog and human.
Anyone who has ever owned and loved a dog has to feel deeply the pain of leaving a dog behind against their will, but when that dog in question is left behind in a war zone, and when the person leaving the dog behind is dealing with PTSD and having a hard time settling back into normal life… well, you just know that reading this graphic novel is going to be a painful experience. But painful in an incredibly important way. In a way that helps those of us who have never been to war understand the disconnect veterans feel upon returning.
MWD: Hell is Coming Home explores the disconnect between a veteran and the civilians they return to, and the ways in which efforts to show appreciation can actually do more harm than good.
The reader is bound to feel uncomfortable as they witness Liz’s downward spiral, as she pushes more and more people away, and as she seeks, with increasing rabidity, the comfort of a dog that everyone else is telling her is dangerous and no good.
The reader is bound to feel this way because of how accurate and unflinching the portrayal of this downward spiral is, and we’re fed information in such a way as to have the most impact on the reader.
Dog lovers are also bound to understand the connection Liz feels with this dog, Brutus. The way he brings her a kind of comfort no human can, and the way she wants to help bring him back from the dangerous place he has landed himself, why she is not willing to take everyone’s word when they say he is beyond help.
The only real qualm for this reader is that the journey of recovery is never discussed; the reader is merely shown Liz being given a “second chance” and then at a place where she seems to be coping with things a little more and some things have been resolved “months later”.
This is artfully done, and there are elements of the final image that will tug at the heartstrings of those who have gone on this journey with Liz, but one has to wonder if, had the story covered more of her recovery, would it not have helped further still to show the bridging of the gap between veterans and those who want to help them but can never figure out the right things to say?
MWD: Hell is Coming Home by Brian David Johnson and Jan Egleson, illustrated by Laila Milevski and Karl Stevens
Posted on March 14, 2017 by kyurenka
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MWD: Hell is Coming Home by Brian David Johnson and Jan Egleson, illustrated by Laila Milevski and Karl Stevens. Candlewick, 2017. 9780763657062
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 3.5
Genre: Realistic fiction
What did you like about the book? MWD (military working dog) is a moody and moving graphic novel about a young woman veteran of the war in Iraq, returning to her small New Hampshire town. Injured in body and mind, Liz grieves for her faithful dog Ender, her best companion in combat. Her grief comes out in aggressive, self-defeating behavior towards all who try to help her. Flashbacks tell of the roadside bomb that changed her life, and of sexual humiliation at the hands of her male comrades. Her only real affection is for a mercurial stray dog slated to be put down at the local animal shelter. The modest black and white pen and ink drawings reflect Liz’s perceived reality and the economic depression of her surroundings. The text, all narrated or dialogue, is unaffected and sparse. The character-centered story line is an excellent portrayal of the hardship of PTSD.
To whom would you recommend this book? I’d recommend this to older teens and adults interested in modern warfare, working dogs in war, and PTSD.
Who should buy this book? Public libraries
Where would you shelve it ? Adult graphic novels
Should we (librarians/readers) put this on the top of our “to read” piles? Although I wouldn’t have picked it up, I’m glad I read such a personalized account of a woman soldier and her PTSD upon return. You may also find it compelling.
Reviewer’s Name, Library (or school), City and State: Stephanie Tournas, Robbins Library, Arlington, MA
Date of review: March 14, 2017