News – Real War Canada

Ernie Phair’s war story told in new comic book novel

By Mark Clairmont / Muskoka Today

Today’s war stories are live by the hour on TV—gruesome and graphic as ever. In 1944, during the battle of Normandy, news from the French front was slower returning home than progress marching forward.

Eighty-two years later, a heroic and tragic story has surfaced in a personalized tale written and published—in comic book form—by Jim Dolmage, a former gym teacher at Gravenhurst High School.

The Night in Tilly’s Field is a graphic novel about his uncle Lt. Ernie Phair and “the men I interviewed who were on the battlefield and witnessed his death.”

The intended audience is teenagers to inform them specifically about the Second World War; but also about wars in general, he says. You don’t need to buy the book “I’m offering it free on line.”

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Second edition released

The second edition of The Night in Tilly’s Field is now online and ready to purchase.

Along with several corrections and modifications to the drawings, the dialogue and the writing has been improved for clarity.

On the advice of the experts at The Beguiling in Toronto, we decided to add some colour to the front and back covers. Roy Schulze did yeoman’s work to get everything—the uniforms, terrain, script, and logos—all perfect in a very real semblance of a 1950s war comic. We can only hope that readers will appreciate this melding of comic-book and graphic-novel styles.

First edition released

We just got the first edition of the The Night in Tilly’s Field back from the printers . . . but only 100 copies to start.

Our intention is to first get it out to the families of Ernie Phair, Arkle Dunlop, Bert Hearnden, Murray Reid, John MacLean, and Jim Dolmage—the people who have helped us so much with this project.

But our hope is to then distribute it to a wide spectrum of readers—with a focus on teenagers—because we feel their feedback is important to correct any errors we may have made and for suggesting improvements for future releases.

Graphic novelists craft the true story of an Ontario soldier who never came home

By Jeff Outhit / Waterloo Region Record

Artists Alaire and Toben Racicot are stepping outside the world of fantasy to create a graphic novel about something true: the story of a soldier who died in the Second World War.

Ernie Phair was a machine operator, husband and new father who enlisted in 1941. By 1944, he was an infantry lieutenant, aiming to lead his men as best he could to help liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny.

“I didn’t want to do a typical story of him being this kind of Captain America figure because I don’t believe that is what soldiers do. They all kind of contribute to one another’s success,” said Toben, a writer.

Alaire and Toben Racicot. Photo by Mathew McCarthy.

“We don’t want to focus on the pain and suffering that these soldiers went through. We want to focus on the characters,” said Alaire, an illustrator.

The Waterloo couple hopes their 32-page graphic novel will connect in a fresh way with students and others, to help them explore the cost of freedom and what it means to remember.

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