Pads & Panels

Title: The Vietnam War: A Graphic History

Publisher: Hill and Wang

Writer: Dwight Jon Zimmerman

Artist: Wayne Vansant

Rating:

Review by: Jason King

The graphic novel The Vietnam War: A Graphic History is quick to make its poignancy felt – immediately beginning with parallels to America’s current conflicts and the underpinning of “Vietnam” as a word in American history for loss, failure and for Pyrrhic victory. Despite this, most Americans know little of the war aside from the fact that it was a war America did not, and perhaps could not, win. Without a solid history book’s worth of reading, The Vietnam War: a Graphic History does an admirable job of conveying an important, well-written narrative of the war, while being an entertaining, informative read. (more…)

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Title: Trotsky: A Graphic Biography

Publisher: Hill and Wang

Writer: Rick Geary

Artist: Rick Geary

Rating:

Review by: Jason King

“Show, don’t tell” is one of the keys to good writing. Some of the heavy-hitters using graphic novels to convey elements of world history, such as Larry Gonick or Joe Sacco, are all-too-familiar with this idiom. They have the action, dialogue and suspense that comic books do well, while giving the reader a chance to learn something about history along the way.

Trotsky: A Graphic Biography, by Rick Geary, sadly, reads more as a short book with pictures attached, and fares poorly as a graphic novel. While the art works well and displays knowledge of Russian history, this graphic novel would lose very little without the pictures. The images are almost always superseded by the words that have already explained what’s occurring, and are almost entirely devoid of action. (more…)

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