COM Professor and Alum Create Graphic Novel about War’s Mental Scars

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 A World War II naval combat veteran, “he was withdrawn, he was angry, he was unable to really maintain relationships,” says Egleson, a filmmaker and a College of Communication associate professor of the practice,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.