Eugene V. Debs: A Graphic Biography

Skipped around quiet a bit and was very superficial. Has potential for greater things. A good primer or introduction to Debs however.

Beautifully drawn and well-imagined exploration of the life of an American hero.

The details are not great and neither is the art. I found the text introductions to the graphic novel most valuable; the comic itself was hard to follow and contained only tidbits of Deb's life and legacy. Worth a buy to support the cause, but don't expect much.

A slightly different approach to a graphic biography, but it works in the end.

great book

Adorable and informative!

A readable, gusty, gutsy history of one of the founders of American socialist tradition and his impact on American political life. Don't let the fact that this is a graphic history fool you - it is serious engagement w Debs' rise from the labor movement to become the most famous socialist politician and speaker of the 20th Century. If you want to understand the tradition out of which Bernie Sanders comes, buy this book. While the graphic format makes it easy reading (and would be great for teens and high school classes), I found it informative and compelling as someone who was already familiar w Debs' speeches and life.

I wanted to like this book. However, it relies way too much on text for a graphic novel. The topic is complex so i get that images might be hard, but it doesn't do much for graphic novel form to have like 3 pages of exposition and then some comic panels going over much of same ground. Probably a decent biography of Debs, a little one sided, doesn't take advantage of graphic novel form.

The colourful Eugene V. Debs would make a wonderful subject for a graphic novel but unfortunately, this is not the book I'd recommend. A text-heavy graphic novel that cannot decide if it's "Debs for beginners" or something far more serious. It is filled with half-ideas, people and institutions that pop in for a moment, are never introduced, and who then disappear a moment later. (Will anyone reading it know who Daniel De Leon was? Or for that matter, William Winpisinger?) Much is done to show Debs as if he was a 21st century politician, far ahead of his time on issues like race and gender, though one wonders how true this is. (The party he led was hardly free of racism and sexism.) There are passing references, largely uncritical, about the Bolsheviks and their American supporters. A not insignificant part of the book focusses on American socialism post-Debs, showing Norman Thomas as a rather nice old man and Michael Harrington in a very critical light. The authors' political agenda is evident on every page, but the real Eugene Debs does not come alive here. A pity -- this was such a great idea for a book.