"Lily Renée, Escape Artist" by Trina Robbins, Anne Timmons, and Mo Oh

Lerner Publishing Group, 2011

Lily Renée, Escape Artist was written by Trina Robbins and illustrated by Anne Timmons and Mo Oh. This historical narrative is a graphic novel about the true story of Lily Renée Wilheim. The novel is documents the incredible journey of a young girl born in Vienna beginning in 1938. The story opens with pages detailing the extravagant lifestyle of a privileged girl with wealthy parents. Lily attended an art school, participated in cultural events, and was a member of the upper crust of Vienna. The story quickly changes when the unification of Germany and Austria begins. Lily is given the chance to travel to England, where she will be sponsored by an English family for the duration of conflict. This historically accurate program was offered to children 17 or under who were identified Jews. After traveling to England, Lily is immediately shocked by the treatment of her sponsor family. The family housekeeper is rather prejudiced towards Lily because of Lily's status in society. Lily eventually runs away from this household and joins the Red Cross as a nurse. War marks the end of communication between Lily and her parents, and she begins to fear for their livelihoods. Lily's character is tested when she is identified by the English government as an "enemy alien." Any immigrant from Austria that was living in England during this time was identified as an enemy alien because they were suspected spies. Women like Lily were forced to check in with the police on a weekly basis. After receiving news that her parents had escaped to America, Lily becomes extremely anxious to leave England. Lily is heartbroken when she learns that her title may prevent her from leaving the country, and possibly live in an internment camp. Guilt directs Lily to turn herself in to the police after several weeks avoiding check-ins. The police respond unexpectedly with wonderful news. Her parents have sent for her departure and she may leave the country immediately for New York. Lily finds herself in New York and sees her parents for the first time in several years. The three family members rejoice momentarily, but are quickly taken by the natural hardships of American life during the war. Lily eventually takes a job as a cartoonist, editing pencil lines made by the primary artists. Her own work blossoms as she takes on new assignments, working on comic books where heroes defeat the Nazis. Comics quickly better the lives of the Wilheim family and Lily pursues a life-long career in illustration. 

I was originally under the impression that this graphic novel was a historical fiction, but this incredible journey is the true account of an actual comic artist. Lily Wilheim illustrated many comics during WWII that inspired nationalistic community by introducing characters that resisted the tyranny of Hitler. Trina Robbins was a member of the Underground Comics Movement in the 1960's and is the illustrator of Wonder Woman. She is undoubtedly drawn to Lily Wilheim because of the powerful female role that she played in an industry consumed by male artists. With the help of Timmons and Oh, Robbins segments the life of Wilheim by dividing her story into concise chapters. I feel that the pacing of the novel is far too accelerated. The reader is left with predigested fragments of Lily's journey with very little transitional cues. For this reason, I found the story to be slightly monochromatic. Each chapter begins with bad news, and ends with a near miracle. The end result of this story is undoubtedly a wonderful victory, yet I was humorously entertained by the way the everything worked out for each character. Information relating to the actual tragedies of the war were contained in the last text bubble in each chapter. I wish that Robbins would have shown this information visually to the reader. I can not imagine attempting to write a story from WWII without a certain macabre or somber tone. Interestingly, the color palette used by Timmons and Oh was appropriately augmented to highlight this feature of the story. The beginning of the novel is sculpted through the use of light to represent a bright atmosphere. The middle passages are darker in color and emotion. The back of the book contains an appendix with additional information about Lily's life. There is information about high tea in England, internment and concentration camps, and the comics of Lily's professional career in America. 

Lily Renée, Escape Artist is a quick read for a graphic novel detailing an incredibly influential and powerful female comic book artist. The choice to illustrate this story in a graphic novel is a wonderful technique. I feel that many readers will be drawn to the compelling story line, but I would not place this text on my top-ten list. I think that this text would serve as a wonderful representation of story mapping. An extension to this text would be to have students depict their own stories and introduce key features of a comic book. The National Council of Teacher of English published an article in the Council Chronicle about the use of graphic novels in the English Curriculum: http://www.ncte.org/magazine/archives/122031