From KCRW, Santa Monica and KCRW.com, this is The Treatment.

Welcome to the treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell. I'm thrilled to have sitting across from me, a man who in 2003 made the

zombie apocalypse seem like a real thing. And just this year in his graphic Harlem Hellfighters,

he invokes the phrase zombie, but in a very, very different context. It's a beautiful piece of

writing. My guest is Max Brooks. Max, first of all, thanks so much for being here. Thank you for having me.

And what I was saying to before we started is you have a taste for making the surreal,

finding the realistic touchstones in the surreal, be it zombies or vampires fighting zombies

for primacy of the world to the story of the fighting 369th in World War I.

Then there's so many terrific real touchstones ever.

First of all, if you can do your favor and tell the audience what Harlem Hellfighters is about.

Well, in World War I, in the War I, in the war to end all wars, when the United States entered in 1917,

there was a unit of American soldiers that was actively set up to fail by their own government.

They were given poor uniforms.

They weren't even given rifles initially.

They were sent to train in the deep south where they were not wanted.

When they finally got overseas, they were made to do grunt work, manual labor instead of fighting.

And then when they demanded to fight, they were given to the

French as a throwaway unit. They were literally called orphans. So in spite of all this

active sabotage, they ended up coming home as one of the most decorated units in the entire

United States Army. And that's the story of the Harlem Hellfighters.

When I heard this

has been turned into a graphic novel and your story about trying to get it made initially as a

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