saramarie08's review against another edition
5.0
Read more graphic novel reviews at The Graphic Library.
Backderf's latest novel is a meticulous account of the events of May 1-4, 1970 at Kent State University. The storyline follows Jeff, Allison, Bill, and Sandy, the four students who were killed during anti-Vietnam-war, anti-military conflicts on Kent State's campus, as well as several of the wounded students and a few of the soldiers of the National Guard. Rising tensions between student protestors and National Guardsmen were stoked by sleep-deprived soldiers and commanding officers, a governor infused with law-and-order politics, and persistent student protests that were unrelenting for several days. Throughout, there are pages of exposition offering insights from Backderf's extensive research.
Backderf does an excellent job of pulling the reader into the stories of the four students, and I occasionally forgot about their tragic fate. There are small hints every once in a while, like when on of the girls asks her roommate to remind her to call her family later. Everything narrated about May 4th is especially chilling, and the moments leading up to the explosion of bullets is anxiety-inducing. Also included are 25 pages of detailed notes to show the extensive amount of research Backderf put into this project. There are many parallels between the Kent State Shooting and what life is currently like in January of 2021. The rhetoric for the pro-military guardsmen lays blame on the radical left students being brainwashed by Russia, and they claim the students are Communist agents. The anti-war students claim that anyone pro-military is a Fascist. Both of these accusations have been popular in national discourse in the last four years. There are also a lot of conspiracy theories about people infiltrating the student protest to incite violence, similar to what has been claimed about the January 6th Insurrection at the White House. It is disturbing to see these same theories and rhetoric used fifty years later.
The illustrations are fully in black and white, and they are reminiscent of Sunday Funnies. The features of Backderf's people are not soft, and many of the ladies have masculine features. But, Backderf has faithfully depicted the campus and the people based on the historical footage, photographs, and Kent State itself.
There is alcohol and cigarettes as these are college students who frequent bars in their off time. The ending with the details of how students were killed or injured is very matter-of-fact and doesn't spare any detail about how bullets decimated the bodies of the students. The subject matter makes this much more appropriate for a high school library. This outstanding graphic novel is definitely deserves to be in all high school collections, especially those with an emphasis on historical volumes.
Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 10-12
Backderf's latest novel is a meticulous account of the events of May 1-4, 1970 at Kent State University. The storyline follows Jeff, Allison, Bill, and Sandy, the four students who were killed during anti-Vietnam-war, anti-military conflicts on Kent State's campus, as well as several of the wounded students and a few of the soldiers of the National Guard. Rising tensions between student protestors and National Guardsmen were stoked by sleep-deprived soldiers and commanding officers, a governor infused with law-and-order politics, and persistent student protests that were unrelenting for several days. Throughout, there are pages of exposition offering insights from Backderf's extensive research.
Backderf does an excellent job of pulling the reader into the stories of the four students, and I occasionally forgot about their tragic fate. There are small hints every once in a while, like when on of the girls asks her roommate to remind her to call her family later. Everything narrated about May 4th is especially chilling, and the moments leading up to the explosion of bullets is anxiety-inducing. Also included are 25 pages of detailed notes to show the extensive amount of research Backderf put into this project. There are many parallels between the Kent State Shooting and what life is currently like in January of 2021. The rhetoric for the pro-military guardsmen lays blame on the radical left students being brainwashed by Russia, and they claim the students are Communist agents. The anti-war students claim that anyone pro-military is a Fascist. Both of these accusations have been popular in national discourse in the last four years. There are also a lot of conspiracy theories about people infiltrating the student protest to incite violence, similar to what has been claimed about the January 6th Insurrection at the White House. It is disturbing to see these same theories and rhetoric used fifty years later.
The illustrations are fully in black and white, and they are reminiscent of Sunday Funnies. The features of Backderf's people are not soft, and many of the ladies have masculine features. But, Backderf has faithfully depicted the campus and the people based on the historical footage, photographs, and Kent State itself.
There is alcohol and cigarettes as these are college students who frequent bars in their off time. The ending with the details of how students were killed or injured is very matter-of-fact and doesn't spare any detail about how bullets decimated the bodies of the students. The subject matter makes this much more appropriate for a high school library. This outstanding graphic novel is definitely deserves to be in all high school collections, especially those with an emphasis on historical volumes.
Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 10-12
jcpdiesel21's review against another edition
5.0
A searing, detailed and potent examination of a horrific national tragedy that could have been avoided. I like how Backderf opens by showing his personal connection to the event, and while I have not particularly enjoyed his illustrations in the past, they and his style fit make a perfect fit with the subject matter presented here. I appreciated the asides to fill readers in on various bits of history outside of what was unfolding at Kent State, and the final words and epilogue left me enraged that no one has been held accountable for the shootings. It is clear that an extensive amount of research has been done to honor the slain individuals and try to make sense of what happened.
firedoor11's review against another edition
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Wonderfully written and depicted. The footnotes, sources, and explanations there took almost as long ro trad as the book itself. So we'll researched and nearly every page sourced. Well done. Every Kentite should read it; really everyone should. There's lots to learn from this series of events.
dashadashahi's review against another edition
3.0
Despite its page count, it's a pretty quick read as must pages contain little text. I think the one reason I appreciate historical graphic novels is how they can convey person and emotion in a way that a historical monograph just can't. While some may consider the earlier parts of the book tedious and boring, I think it builds up who these people were, on both sides of the conflict. When the four murders occur they are brutal and heartbreaking. The notes at the back of the book are thorough and well done. My own gripe is the terribly....offputting...faces that the artist draws. But that is more of a personal opinion than anything.
myqz's review against another edition
4.0
Backderf has written a thorough, compassionate, and compact book here, and created the strongest argument for sequential art as a go-to art form for histories since March. While his art style is distinctive, it didn’t stand out nearly as much as his keen eye for editing a story. The art never distracts, it only illustrates, but in a history like this, that illustration is necessary to humanize. There is a difference between reading about bayonets, and being visually shown what it looks like as one enters a fleeing college girl’s abdomen.
Kent State was little more than a footnote in my American history curriculum and a Joni Mitchell song to me, and learning more about it, it’s easy to draw parallels to protest movements today; this history also serves as an explanation for why progressive protest movements never gain foothold in America: because the state will crush them, plant guns on their corpses, and bury them, leading a nation that not only excuses, but often delights in this bloodshed (Backderf cites a Gallop poll after the massacre in which only 11% of Americans blamed the troops in any way). Compassion isn’t just a extended to protestors or victims here, as Backderf also honestly illustrates the deployed National Guard members, many of whom were only enlisted to avoid being deployed in Vietnam.
Their comic filled me with a lot of anger, but it’s because the narrative was unflinching and uncompromising in reporting what actually happened. Victims are memorialized, guilty leaders are named (and history’s naming of these pathetic scumbags is the only justice they ever faced), and sources are exhaustively cited.
Kent State was little more than a footnote in my American history curriculum and a Joni Mitchell song to me, and learning more about it, it’s easy to draw parallels to protest movements today; this history also serves as an explanation for why progressive protest movements never gain foothold in America: because the state will crush them, plant guns on their corpses, and bury them, leading a nation that not only excuses, but often delights in this bloodshed (Backderf cites a Gallop poll after the massacre in which only 11% of Americans blamed the troops in any way). Compassion isn’t just a extended to protestors or victims here, as Backderf also honestly illustrates the deployed National Guard members, many of whom were only enlisted to avoid being deployed in Vietnam.
Their comic filled me with a lot of anger, but it’s because the narrative was unflinching and uncompromising in reporting what actually happened. Victims are memorialized, guilty leaders are named (and history’s naming of these pathetic scumbags is the only justice they ever faced), and sources are exhaustively cited.
debz57a52's review against another edition
3.5
As someone who grew up in the Cleveland area and went to college down the street from Kent State - and with a parent who graduated from Kent just before these horrible events happened - I have lived with knowledge of the Kent State shootings for a long time. I've been reading more and more about that period of American history, and I realized after a while that I just wasn't grasping it. I don't think that's a problem with my reading comprehension; I think it's a problem with all the secrets and intensity that the American government was dealing with, not to mention the steel grip of the ruling party and its contempt for any other perspective on how to govern. DB drills down in this historical story to look at what specific people were doing leading up to, during, and after the Kent State shooting, which makes the event so much more personal for the reader. I have never found DB's artistic style uplifting - frankly, it's always given me the creeps - but it is so appropriate for the subjects he takes on. I didn't like this book for its artistic style, but for its clarity, its ethos, and the research DB did to present something that is accurate.
zoethydear1850's review against another edition
4.0
As someone who has lived in Kent their entire life (of 23 years, but that's neither here nor there), this book touched me in a sore spot. A spot that has been aching for the past four years, even before then. If this book, that is wildly factual and straightforward, doesn't enrage you to the core- I don't know what will.