Discipline
Dash Shaw
Reviewed by Ali Hintz
Dash Shaw’s tour de force of a comic book Discipline tells the compelling story of Charles Cox, a fictional Quaker teenager who runs away from his pacifist Indiana home to fight for the Union Army. From the first chapter I was entranced: I haven’t sped through a book this fast in years. The black-and-white illustrations are austere and fierce, conveying most of the action and setting the pace of the book. The writing, consisting mostly of dialogue, private thoughts, and letters between family members, fluctuates between lyrical and sparse, giving insight into Quaker society in the Civil War era and Shaw’s characters..
The Quaker faith lends a riveting cultural backdrop to the book. Shaw, himself raised as a Quaker, interrogates the faith and the culture surrounding it throughout. His hero Cox grapples with his teenage desire to fit into mainstream Indiana society and his faith that denies “the vain fashions of this world” like singing, dancing, and fighting. His dialect and inexperience set him apart from the other soldiers but he quickly learns to conform by playing cards, suppressing his “doth”s and “thee”s, and fighting in several battles. Neither Shaw nor Cox shy away from the horrors of war.
Shaw spent six years scouring through libraries to write Discipline, and it shows. He incorporates passages from “actual letters and diaries of Civil War-era Quakers and soldiers” into his text. His characters’ letters don’t just feel authentic—in many cases, they are. Part meticulously researched war story, part coming-of-age graphic novel, Discipline immerses the reader into Cox’s battles with his wartime enemies, his loving family, and his divided mind.