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Bras de Fer (literally Iron-Arm) was a story written by Phil Aubert de Molay, drawn and colored by Amaury Esteban, released in the anthology hardback comic book La Bibliothèque, C'est Ma Maison Et Autres Histoires — Stop aux idées fausses sur les pauvres. It was written, and only ever released, in French, a rarity among Jenny Everywhere media. Although Jenny served as the narrator, she was not the main character, with the story principally being a historically faithful biography of the real-world figure of Johann Trollmann.
Contents
Plot
Jenny Everywhere, in an incarnation who is an amateur boxer in 2010s France as well as a volunteer with A.T.D., reflects on the story of the 1930s boxer Johann Trollmann, the man with the Bras de Fer (or Iron Arm) as she leaves the gym where she trains as a boxer herself. Though beloved by the public, Johann was also a Sinto Tsigane (often nicknamed Zigeuner because of his ethnicity), making his existence a hazardous one as the Nazi regime ramped up. at that place and time. His mobility and skill lets him win a championship match, to the displeasure of Nazis. Ordered not to dodge so much lest he be banned from the sport, in his next match he stands immobile in defiance (after dyeing his hair “Aryan-blond”) and allows himself to be pummeled. Banned anyway, Johann is later drafted and sent to the eastern front, and later to a concentration camp, where he is eventually killed. As she finishes mentally reviewing the story, Jenny finishes her motorcycle ride and arrives at her destination, where she is to hold an A.T.D. “reading workshop” for a group of poor children. She decides to tell them a version of Johan's story, thinking it important that he not be forgotten and that the children grow up without prejudice against Romani people.
Worldbuilding
Universes
- The story takes place in a universe which, excepting the existence of Jenny Everywhere, is intended as a realistic depiction of the real world.
Jenny Everywhere
- Jenny Everywhere appears in an incarnation physically similar to the Jenny of COMIC: Name's Not Down and Damn Fine Hostile Takeover. This Jenny speaks French, although she still uses the English Jenny Everywhere name, and is active in 2010s France, being a box enthusiast and A.T.D. volunteer. She describes herself as liking “to remember, to meet new people, to eat toast, to say 'No' to people, to drink guava juice, to read stories aloud, and to gaze at the flowing darkness of the night”. She displays no shifting powers or dimensional awareness on-page, although neither is she explicitly depicted as merely a mundane human.
Other
- The 1933 boxing middleweight championship was initially won by Erich Seelig, but the Nazi sports committee withdrew his title from him because he was Jewish, leading to them organising the replacement match between Adolf Witt and Johann Trollmann.
Behind the scenes
Background
When posting Bras de Fer' on the Projets-BD Forum, Amaury Esteban, the artist, also posted concept sketches created for the comic. The crowdfunding page also included an additional colour illustration of Jenny by Esteban.
Esteban's sketches for Bras de Fer.
Promotional art of the Bras de Fer Jenny by Amaury Esteban.
Although Bras de Fer attempts to tell an accurate narrative of Johann Trollmann's life, its portrayal of the events surrounding his death does not match the biography published by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust in 2016. According to that source, while he was indeed imprisoned in the Neuengamme concentration camp in 1942 (as shown in Bras de Fer), he was comparatively well-treated by the commandant, who wished to make use of his boxing talents to train his own troops; nevertheless his health began to fail due to the living conditions, and he was smuggled by the prisoners committe out of Neuengame to the adjacent camp of Wittenberge under an assumed name. There, he was ultimately murdered not by an SS firing squad but by a vengeful Kapo with whom he had gotten into a boxing match, and who felt humiliated by Trollmann's victory. The HMDT dated those events to March 1944,[1] As of 2022, Wikipedia instead gave April 9th, 1944 as the date of his death.[2]
Read online
Bras de Fer was made available, in French, on the Projets-BD Forum by Amaury Esteban, the artist. Shortly thereafter, it was published properly in the Stop aux idées fausses sur les pauvres anthology comic book