King

King #1

by Ho Che Anderson

Ho Che Anderson's comics biography of the Reverend Martin Luther King. Praised for its vivid recreation of this tumultuous period in US history and for its accuracy in depicting King's personal and public lives. Anderson's successful use of comics to tell a major work of history has drawn favorable comparisons to Art Spiegelman's Maus: A Survivor's Tale and Joe Sacco's Palestine.

Genres: Biography, Comics, Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, Politics, Historical

80 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1993

About the author

Ho Che Anderson was born London, UK, but moved to Canada with his family when he was five years old. He was named after the Vietnamese and Cuban revolutionaries Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara. He has become one of the most prominent artists of black American comix, and is affiliated with Fantagraphics Books. Ho Che Anderson authored the impressive comix biography 'King on Martin Luther King', and the erotic 'I Want to be your Dog' in 1996. He co-produced the grungy subculture series 'Pop Life' (1998) in collaboration with fellow artist Wilfred Santiago.

Reviews

[Dustyloup · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving this book a solid "meh". In my status update I mentioned spotting errors that made me doubt the quality of the translation. I'm not the biggest fan of the art style - makes it a bit confusing to know who's who, but it's different/interesting even if I don't like it. I'll give book 2 a go but I'm not rushing to it.

[Dominick · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to evaluate this entirely fairly, as it is volume one of three, and based on volume one, I would say that Anderson had planned things out pretty carefully, so this is not a self-contained work but part of a larger whole. That said, it is in some respects impressive but not an entirely satisfactory read. First, though this is really only a quibble, the choice of a typeface font for the text is not one I found aesthetically appealing. It kind of first with the overall harsh, stark art and the tone of the piece, but it just feels too mechanical in such an organic medium as a comic. Anderson eschews a narrative voice, presenting all words via dialogue, a strategy I can respect, as it avoids creating the sense of a single, objective reading of King, and Anderson is clearly interested in exploring his complexity and the contradictions inherent in his life and choices. By giving us multiple subjective perspectives, Anderson calls on us to come up with our own reading of King, rather than imposing one (or seeming to impose one, anyway--the illusion of subjectivity is mitigated by the fact that actually, everything in the book was chosen and organized by Anderson). On the other hand, though, the absence of a narrative voice places a lot of the burden on dialogue to provide exposition, and often I found myself not really sure when we were (Anderson follows a largely chronological order but also jumps in time occasionally, especially to pages of retrospective comments on King from--presumably--the "present," and the occasional but not consistently applied panels identifying a time/place--the only concession to non-dialogic exposition--do not seem consistently applied) or what was going on, or even who was involved--Anderson's stylized art sometimes makes differentiating characters, especially ones who appear only briefly, difficult. At times, there are clearly significant geographical and temporal jumps form one panel to the next, which I found disorienting. That may have been Anderson's intent, but if so, I found it an alienating device that impacted negatively on my understanding. The art is fascinating. It's mostly black and white, highly stylized, with a lot of chiaroscuro effects--a significant choice, given the focus on tensions between black and white. Anderson also occasionally folds in photographs (sometimes enhanced with art) and splashes of colour, which create some arresting moments (e.g. when King gets stabbed). On the other hand, I found some pages hard to follow, partly due to word balloon placement but also due to unclear design. In short, this is ambitious, exciting, but not entirely effective cartooning. Given that it was only Anderson's second work, though, it is impressive.

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Graphic Biography

[Tripmastermonkey · Rating 4 out of 5]

while it ends on an anti-climactic note (and i understand it's part of a series, but still), the story is told quite will all-in-all. i think the amazing thing is that you know (generally) how the story goes, but when there's trouble with the law or otherwise, you truly do feel the tension...