There are many films about the Vietnam War, but did you know that Australia had an active role in this conflict? Underground describes it in a beautiful way between nightmare and struggle.
Underground or the basement of war
Underground is the second work by writer, artist and colorist Mirranda Burton at La Boîte à Bulles. She left here in 1965 when Australia at war in Vietnam ran out of volunteers. Already presenting an original setting, Burton decided to highlight pacifist activists who had fought against this enlistment.
The idea for Underground was born during a stay in a rural artist community near Melbourne. She discovers through Jean McLean the existence of an enlisted wombat. This crazy idea intrigues him and we understand it by seeing his dreamlike visual style. Mirranda Burton uses a simple drawing, in black and white but playing on black in the introduction on wombats. For this, she opts for ink with tones and textures added in Photoshop or sometimes on a scratch board. We can think of Marjane Satrapi by this mixture between a dreamlike naïve trait and a political statement.
The portrait of resistance fighters
Underground becomes very strong because the book draws multiple portraits from encounters. The link is Jean McLean, organizer of the anti-war movement, Save Our Sons. It uses a wide variety of action from demonstrations to the concealment of conscientious objectors. This group is sometimes very organized but their clumsiness also amuses. Burton also crosses paths with a veteran: Bill Cantwell provides him with archives. He had left to save his country and Vietnam from communism but discovers that he is only a pawn without respect in an absurd war. Through his experience, the reader discovers ambushes, fear of disease, contempt for locals and the impossible return to normal once the campaign is over.
By a clever construction, a simple word can serve as a link between these people : Jean McLean announces that she has never criticized the soldiers and then the next chapter shows the difficulty of their life in Vietnam. It is therefore logical once to go further then by discovering the same war on the Vietnamese side. Cleverly, the author does not choose a resident of North Vietnam but a daughter of nationalist militants of the South.We follow her after the departure of the Australians from the country. 
War yes but not only
Like a pleasant intellectual walk, the graphic novel Underground is a dense narrative addressing many themes. The context of the Cold War in Asia provides insight into Australia's intervention in Vietnam. We then discover the difficulty of being pacifist in the post-Second World War period. Beyond the initial contempt of the majority, activists are regularly arrested and secretly monitored by the police. But the movement is gaining momentum.
Underground is also a critique of the consumer society that puts critical thinking to sleep. Many pages show the state's propaganda for war and the difficulty of obtaining information at the time. This fight being led by mothers, Mirranda Burton presents the unequal situation of Australian women at that time. A woman is not allowed to order alcohol and having an active life is surprising. Their political ideas are denied. This does not prevent them from going very far in their commitment. Jean goes alone to North Vietnam. Her heavily supervised trip is a tool of communist propaganda but neither the author nor Jean seem to realize it.
Underground is a beautiful visual ode to pacifism in the face of the Vietnam War. Mirranda Burton does not lecture but explains a situation in passing while she draws the portrait of women and men in resistance against an unjust and violent system. Through this gallery, Underground gives a plural vision of this key moment in world history.
You can read on JustFocus more texts on graphic novels with The Road to the Block and Hanami.
