From the cartoonist hailed as "the heir to R. Crumb and Art Spiegelman" (Economist) comes this extraordinary depiction of the most infamous day of World War I, presented as a single 24-foot-long drawing. The Battle of the Somme epitomizes the madness of the conflict, and Joe Sacco plumbs the depths of that cataclysmic first day, when 57,000 British soldiers were killed or wounded. Here are scenes from General Douglas Haig and the massive artillery positions setting up behind the trench lines to the legions of soldiers going "over the top" and getting cut down in no-man's-land, followed by the tens of thousands of wounded soldiers retreating, and the dead being buried en masse. This accordion folded slipcased edition includes a companion booklet with an essay by Adam Hochschild, taken from his history To End All Wars.

"Joe Sacco is a genius. Easily one of the most important journalists, writers and cartoonists alive, every stroke of his assured and humblingly mature pen captures what the camera simply cannot…. He allows us to occupy the horrifying inner and outer boundaries of human cruelty and desperation—yet all, I believe, with the aim of returning to what it means to be a civilized, sympathetic and possibly even forgiving soul."—Chris Ware