Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis by Dave Maass, Patrick Lay, Ezra Rose and Richard Bruning, is a lofty graphic novel undertaking. Over the top. Beautiful and Ugly. It is not an allegory of the Holocaust, but its roots are there. This is a story of how the General Overall takes with his War. It is fiction, and it is history. It is the past, present and future. 
Bored, flamboyant Life wants something to happen to stop their boredom. And Death gives it. They are tired of the senselessness of Atlantis’ endless war, so one day Death decides to break their sword, and let people live, creating a true endless war. Yet, they die a little each day, but without the reward of death, becoming the Walking Dead. We follow several characters who are puppets, pawns and worse, in elaborate black and white illustrations that are both over the top and simple. The details are important (our soldier and rebel meet in a unique location). Written as if it was a script illustrated with images they give and take from you, the reader.
There are several extras that give the historical background and the progress of how the original piece the graphic novel is based on, came to be. There is information on the internment camp, Terezin, and comments on how, while it was created during the Holocaust it is not so much an example of that (as the authors say the men who created it only knew their part of the war, or their situation), but how it represents all the Hitlers of the past and future. Included are pieces of the original score, illustrations and much more. 
This is an emotional book. I felt lots of things: dislike for Life, sympathy for Death, even thinking it was a bit pretentious at times (after all Death winks at you! This Skull is winking at you! And if you couldn’t tell, Death tells you: That was a Wink). It is powerful, too close to home, unimaginable and all too imaginable. It is not for everyone, but maybe most readers should give it a shot. And though there are some modernizations to this edition, it feels like it should have kept to the original material (and I’m guessing as I have no real background about the original other than what we are told by the creators).