40 Men and 12 Rifles: Indochina 1954

By Marcelino Truong and David Homel

• 40 Men and 12 Rifles is the third graphic title that we’ve published by Marcelino Truong, a Vietnamese-French artist and author based in St. Malo, France. The first two, Such a Lovely Little War (2016) and Saigon Calling (2017), were based on his own experiences as the son of a Vietnamese diplomat whose family escaped the Vietnam war in the 1960s and moved to London. His new book is a graphic novel, not a memoir, but is similar to his previous books in that the spectre of war and tragedy hangs over the narrative. 

• This book in set in Indochina, the French-occupied region comprising what is now Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, in the year leading up to 1954, when a famous battle at the French-held garrison of Dien Bien Phu fell, essentially ending the first Indochina war between French colonial forces and Ho Chi Minh’s rebels. The main protagonist is named Minh, a young man from Hanoi who aspires to become a famous painter. He also has a beautiful girlfriend named Lan. But his father wants him to become a businessman, not an artist, so he sends his son into the countryside to take care of the family’s holdings. It doesn’t take long for him to be courted into service by the communist forces run by Ho Chi Minh, who are everything that Minh is not—puritanical, ideological, and mistrustful of art—but they recognize Minh’s artistic gifts might be useful to them. Little by little Minh becomes a good soldier, and he is solicited into making propaganda for the Viet Cong troops, but at what price? The book pits the beauty of an artistic life against the ugliness and disillusionment of war. 

• Marcelino is fully fluent in English and is an engaged and thoughtful speaker on Vietnamese history. We are working with the French embassy in Canada to bring him to North America on a promotional tour this October.

• The book is translated from the French edition published by Denoel by David Homel, a Montreal novelist and translator who has translated 13 previous books for us.

• The book will appeal to Southeast Asian readers, followers of Indochinese and Vietnamese history, and graphic history fans.

• Blurb forthcoming from Vietnamese graphic novelist Thi Bui. We are working on trying to get blurbs from novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen and others.

• Publicity by David Hyde, Superfan Promotions (Los Angeles).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
• Release date: Oct 3, 2023
• ISBN: 9781551529240

Book preview