 Comics critic Sean Rogers praised the work , particularly the pacing and action sequences , but felt it had less impact that such earlier works as Masereel 's Passionate Journey ( 1919 ) or Ward 's Vertigo ( 1937 ) . Rogers found the anti @-@ nuclear message of the book less effective than that of later works in comics such as Keiji Nakazawa 's Barefoot Gen or Gary Panter 's Jimbo . Comics scholar Roger Sabin found the book unconvincing , " a well @-@ meaning but facile piece of agit @-@ prop " . Reviewer Erik Hinton praised the artwork while denigrating the story as " the progeny of historical lip @-@ service and the hot @-@ button anxiety of the destructivity of modern warfare " , and considered Ward and others of Hyde 's predecessors more proficient at the medium . 
