The illustrations are stunning and the story itself is haunting. It will leave you with a lot of questions, but it will be worth it!

'Tears of An Afghan Warlord' is a true story by Pascale Bourgaux and co-written by Vincent Zabus with art by Thomas Campi. It details a trip to Afghanistan in the early 2010s.

Pascale Borgaux is a Belgian journalist who has been travelling to Afghanistan for years. She has been there when things are more prosperous, but this time, there is some poverty and belt tightening. Her host is a resistance fighter named Mamour Hasan who is feeling the pressure from those around him to let the Taliban regain control. It seems that much of the aid money hasn't made it to his province. Pascale and those helping her document their trip find themselves in a bit of danger and have to leave the country.

The art is quite good and fairly colorful. The story is compelling and shows what can happen after your country has a war and some of the combatants leave. It's an ongoing story, so there is no resolution here, but I found it very interesting.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

This was an excellent book and it really provided a wonderful clear viewpoint on a different culture. The art was also wonderful. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to read about a different land and people, but perhaps does not enjoy reading traditional non-fiction.

With careful and outstanding illustrations that give a weight to the setting and characters, this story of a Belgian journalist gives the story of Afghanistan from a non-US point of view. The encroaching of the Taliban at the withdrawal of the western forces echoes books like Malala's biography and show how little was really accomplished. As a way to bring this real-life tragedy to a different readership is a needed thing, well done to the writers and artist.

A very interesting story. I loved how the images are creating the basis for the story. A good background for the action and events taking place.

Wow - interesting to see a modern perspective of Afghanistan from the inside. This kind of reading is important because it gives you insights to the real situation that you might not be getting just from the media. It’s always way more complicated than you think - more complicated than anyone involved wants to let on. Whether its the difficulty in us helping the Afghan people because of corruption in Afghan leadership, or mistakes made by allies that make the Afghan people distrustful of the west as a whole. Take a look at this if you want some insight from the people themselves who are fighting insurgents.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley and Europe Comics for a copy in return for an honest review.</i>

An interesting read that offers insight into what Afghanistan is like from a non-U.S. perspective (the author is a Belgian journalist) and how the Taliban is still to this day a major force in the country.

The artwork in this book is beautiful, vivid and colourful. The book tells the true story of the Belgian journalist Pascale Bourgaux, who travels to a small village in the north of Afghanistan. It is a place that she has been visiting regularly for ten years.

When she gets there she finds that despite the presence of troops from US and Europe things havent changed. The village is controlled by the warlord and resistance fighter Mamour Hasan. He has done his best to develop a thriving local community, but their village is poor. Millions of dollars provided by the UN has been circumvented by Afghan politicians and the fledgling Afghan democracy is corrupt and inefficient.

Pascale is there to produce a documentary showing what life is like in Afghanistan. It is very dangerous for her and her fellow journalist, women still wear the burqa and young Afghan men are supporting the Taliban. It all seems hopeless.

Pascale is forced to reckon with reality. The Afghans have different priorities to the West. The burqa is not a major issue for the Afghan people, poverty is. Opium is still being produced and the villages are still run by warlords or by supporters of the Taliban. The presence of troops from the global North hasn't really changed lives for the Afghan people.

This is an interesting book with excellent art but I came away wondering what the book is trying to convey. I think the aim of the book is to raise questions about war and intervention and about whether it can really bring about social change and economic development. Or perhaps I read it too deeply and it is simply about the challenges facing Afghanistan.

Copy provided by publishers via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

A BIG Thank You to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of “Tears of an Afghan Warlord” by Pascale Bourgaux in exchange for my honest review.

I had mixed feelings about this book and am going to just dive in to the pros and cons.

What really attracted me to this novel was the illustrations. Oh my God! The illustrations are simply breathtaking!! Every frame feels like a beautiful work of art done through watercolors. The way the characters are portrayed, and the majestic landscape is shown made me feel like I was enjoying the details of the graphics more than the story itself (which is actually true). Kudos to the talented Thomas Campi for his wonderful artwork skills.

The main problem I had with this story was in its focus. When I first started reading this novel, I had high expectations. I felt that it would be somewhat similar to the Ben Affleck movie “Argo”. However, the way the story was told was just out of place at times for me to get immersed in it. In the beginning, Pascale, the main character, goes to meet her friend Mamour, who is the Afghan warlord of his village, and the story focuses on how she sees his village succumb to the Taliban. Then, the story suddenly shifts focus to her interviewing the woman doctor of the town, and then again re-shifts to her wanting to suddenly escape the country, but not before doing a random side investigation on how 6 men are killed on an army jeep between the Germans and the Afghans. I realize that are all based on true facts, and I am not making light of the situation. However, it is really hard to get invested in the characters and the story when the plot just randomly shifts from one incident to another, without providing any kind of closure to them. At the end, I felt like I just read random incidents that the protagonist went through, which makes me a bit sad, because this is one of those books that has SO much potential to be better.

Having said that, I appreciate the author and team for their efforts in capturing the real live events that took place during their time in Afghanistan. While I may have mixed feelings about this book, it does open my eyes to appreciate how lucky we are as compared to those who are suffering in these economically poor countries. I really hope that there are more stories like this out there, where we get to read about real heroes who take the extra steps to get their stories told and educate the world.

Overall, I am giving this book a 4 out of 5 rating, 3 of which are mainly for the illustration and artwork.

An attractive, intelligent yet slightly naive European journalist gets back in touch with some Afghan sources, and finds them returning to the ways of the Taliban and their burka-heavy, sexist, racist, drug-growing, violent and Muslim ways. It's probably a narrative more suited to those with specialist interest - especially for the layman the book suffers as, for example, while it hinges so much on her making a film, we never find out the success, intended audience or nature of said reportage.

This graphic novel was unlike anything I've ever read before and for that, I have to give it credit. There were moments that I was completely pulled into the story, but at times I found myself less interested. It was good but not amazing.