Battle Of The Alamo

Osprey Graphic History

by Rod Espinosa

Texas, 1836. The Republic of Texas began the fight for independence in 1833. For several years, Texans fought the Mexican government for the right to rule itself. One of the historical battles was fought on March 6, 1836, at the Alamo, a crumbling fort defended by 154 men. Stand with the defenders in what became a symbol of Texan courage and sacrifice in this impressive graphic novel.

Genres: History

Library Binding

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

Espinosa's work on The Courageous Princess (Antarctic Press) got him on the nomination list for “Promising new talent” and also “Best artist” for the 2000 Ignatz Awards and the 2002 Eisner Award nomination list for “Best Title for Younger Readers”.

As both writer and artist, he has also authored the Neotopia series (4 volumes, 140 pages each), which was published in graphic novel form. In 2006, Novotopia, the German edition of Neotopia, got a nomination for the Max und Moritz Prize in the category 'Bester Comic für Kinder' (best comic book for younger audience).

His past work include the Battle Girlz series, a manga adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, The Alamo and Metadocs. He has also written and conceptualized popular Antarctic Press titles such as I Hunt Monsters, and Herc and Thor. His work is also be featured in a series of American History comic books dealing with the subjects of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Lewis and Clark, The Boston Tea Party, The Alamo, Jackie Robinson, The Underground Railroad, Abraham Lincoln, Patrick Henry, Cesar Chavez, The American Revolution, the Transcontinental Railroad, and Clara Barton. He has also worked on Classics such as: Around the World in Eighty Days, Moby-Dick, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, and William Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. His latest graphic novel from Antarctic Press, is called Dinowars. He is currently working on an online graphic novel entitled The Prince of Heroes.

(Taken from here.)

Reviews

[Raj Bowers-Racine]

Panel layout is horrid and the art would have looked amateurish is the 1940s. Writing is clunky and disjointed, with terrible dialogue.
Topic-wise, the book undercuts it's "rah rah freedom" slant by noting that the Alamo defenders held slaves, which were freed by the Mexican Army. Slavery was illegal in Mexico by 1829, but Texan independence allowed hundreds of thousands of people to be born, live, and die without ever knowing freedom.
I'm with John Brown on this one. Death to slavers.

[Matthew]

This is a small, graphic novel-style telling of the fate of the Battle of the Alamo within the struggle for Texan Independence. It does a decent job of detailing the key figures and major events; additionally it has an excellent diagram of the Alamo as the defensive points that were established by the Texicans and Tejanos. This volume is tightly tied to the battle itself and would best be supplemented with O’Hern and Riehecky’s Graphic Histories: The Battle of the Alamo for a larger context to the battle. This book is suitable for a teacher refresher as well as for a MilHis student with a reading disability.