Set in World War Two era Brooklyn, Victory Parade is a full length graphic novel work of historical fiction, beautifully executed in watercolors that successfully evoke the era.  It follows the lives of a group of women doing welding work at the Navy Yard, work that before the war would have been done almost exclusively by men.  Primarily focused on Rose, her daughter Eleanor and a German-Jewish refugee, Ruth, there is much more going on here in the lives of these women than welding, including Ruth's foray into the world of wrestling!  We are also given an up close and personal look at the experience of liberating a concentration camp through the eyes of Rose's soldier husband, Sam.

But the real star here is Leela Corman's lushly expressive watercolor art, which is well served in both reproduction and presentation in this sturdy, 10" x 11" full color hardcover volume.  You can see a good number of full pages at this online exhibition at the Steven Kasher Gallery, HERE (first scroll down a bit, then you can scroll right – or left - by clicking on the arrows on either side of each image).

All that said, as may be gleaned from the cover image, this work's title is not without irony, to say the least.  The story told here is by turns angry and dark and contains more than one note of despair.