Conflict and courage

Filmmaker Boaz Yakin has teamed with Nick Bertozzi for Jerusalem: A Family Portrait, (First Second, $24.99) a sprawling family drama told as a graphic novel and set in a post-World War II period. Two estranged brothers and their children battle each other, the British and invading Arab nations. It's a sweeping tale, but Bertozzi's black-and-white drawings can sometimes make it difficult to tell the young men apart, which made some parts of the story confusing. Nonetheless, Jerusalem (a fictionalized version of Yakin's family history) is full of conflict, moral courage and compelling, all-too-human cowardice.