400 BC: The Story of the Ten Thousand: A Graphic Novel

by Lewis Helfand, Lalit Kumar Singh (Illustrator)

Overview

Fortune favors the bold...

They were an unstoppable force, hired to take the crown from the King of Persia. They were a fearless army of Greek soldiers, and one hundred thousand men fighting as one. They were led by the finest and most courageous generals in all of Greece. They were being led to unimaginable wealth, but that was days ago.

Now their leaders are dead and their army has scattered. Now their numbers have fallen to ten thousand and nothing remains but fear. Now they are men praying not for victory, but for the slim chance of living one more day.

Cut off by impassable terrain and pursued by an army of one million enemy soldiers; they must stand together to survive. To find their way home, one of their own must lead them. And to live one more day...

...they must fight.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789380028613
Publisher:	Steerforth Press
Publication date:	09/27/2011
Pages:	72
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	10 - 17 Years

About the Author

Lewis Helfand was born on April 27, 1978 in Philadelphia. With a political science degree and a passion for comic books, Lewis's first comic book was Wasted Minute, the story of a world without crime where superheroes are forced to work regular jobs. With the first issue well received, he was soon collaborating with other artists and released four more issues over the next few years.
Lewis continues to work as a freelance writer and reporter for a number of national print and online publications.

Editorial Reviews

"I highly recommend Campfire’s comics. They do what they are intended to do and do it in  a way that excites kids about classic literature."

— Chris Wilson, The Graphic Classroom (a resource for teachers and librarians)

From the Publisher

Despite plenty of spattered blood and armored warriors sporting the oversized thews of Conanlike barbarians, this fictionalized graphic rendition of Xenophon'sAnabasisfails to give the renowned retreat much life or drama—or even to tell a coherent story. The narrative of foot soldier Eustachius opens with the realization of the Greek mercenaries that they've been suckered into taking on the entire Persian army and then follows the core that survives the battle of Cunaxa (and the death of Cyrus, their employer) on its more than 1,000-mile march through hostile territory back to Greece. It is brought to grinding halts first by an overlong flashback to peaceful times and later by a lurid but superfluous dream. Not only does the soldiers' relentless bickering form a distracting backdrop to the exhausting marches and costly battles, but much of the visual action is squeezed into small inset panels where it shares space with boxes of wordy dialogue and commentary. Furthermore the art looks sketchier in some panels than others, and the characters (particularly when their faces are obscured by wraparound helmets) tend to look alike. Fans of Frank Miller's epic300(1999) may be lured by the similar title, but will come away disappointed.(Graphic novel. 12-15)

Kirkus Reviews