Che: A Graphic Biography
Sid Jacobson, Ernie ColonOverview
A symbol of counterculture worldwide, Ernesto “Che” Guevara is one of the most, if not the most, recognizable and influential revolutionary figures of the twentieth century. From the pages of history textbooks to silk-screened T-shirts at Urban Outfitters, his mythologized face is positively unavoidable. But what, exactly, does this glorified image stand for? During his life, and perhaps even more since his death, Che has elicited controversy and wildly divergent opinions as to who he was and what he represented. In Che: A Graphic Biography, Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón—the graphic duo who made the 9/11 Commission Report understandable in their bestselling The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation and who most recently explained the ongoing war on terror in After 9/11—have come together again to give a real portrait of Ernesto Guevara de la Serna. Following Che from his fabled motorcycle journeys with Alberto Granado as a young medical student to his eventual execution at the hands of Bolivian soldiers and CIA operatives, Che: A Graphic Biography not only provides a concrete time line of his life but also gives a broader understanding of his beliefs, his legacy, and Latin American politics during the mid-twentieth century.
Synopsis
A symbol of counterculture worldwide, Ernesto “Che” Guevara is one of the most, if not the most, recognizable and influential revolutionary figures of the twentieth century. From the pages of history textbooks to silk-screened T-shirts at Urban Outfitters, his mythologized face is positively unavoidable. But what, exactly, does this glorified image stand for?
During his life, and perhaps even more since his death, Che has elicited controversy and wildly divergent opinions as to who he was and what he represented. In Che: A Graphic Biography, Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón—the graphic duo who made the 9/11 Commission Report understandable in their bestselling The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation and who most recently explained the ongoing war on terror in After 9/11—have come together again to give a real portrait of Ernesto Guevara de la Serna. Following Che from his fabled motorcycle journeys with Alberto Granado as a young medical student to his eventual execution at the hands of Bolivian soldiers and CIA operatives, Che: A Graphic Biography not only provides a concrete time line of his life but also gives a broader understanding of his beliefs, his legacy, and Latin American politics during the mid-twentieth century.
Kirkus Reviews
Revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara becomes a graphic hero in Jacobson and Col-n's latest (After 9/11: America's War on Terror, 2008, etc.). Che has long since been appropriated as graphic icon, festooning T-shirts and posters around the world, thanks to his handsome look and jaunty beret. Odds are that most Che-sporting hipsters have only the vaguest idea of just who is accessorizing their look, however. Here Jacobson and Col-n, a top-drawer writing and art team, perform a useful service, incorporating material from weighty tomes such as Jon Lee Anderson's life of Che and technical writings such as Guevara's own handbook on guerrilla warfare. In a nod to The Motorcycle Diaries, Jacobson and Col-n begin with Guevara's motorcycle journey across southern South America of 1952 and beyond, when Guevara's eyes were opened to the pernicious effects of U.S. domination of third-world economies (reads one caption, "Though Bolivians ran the mine, to Ernesto the Americans were once again the moving force"). The authors chart Guevara's growing radicalism and his partnership with Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro, while providing a surprisingly thorough survey of South American history, a tale of caudillos and exploiters. Throughout, the tone is respectful but not hagiographic, and Jacobson and Col-n take pains not to gloss over a signal moment in Guevara's role in the Cuban revolution: his ordering of the execution of some unknown number of supporters of the previous regime. (Citing Anderson, however, they suggest that no one who was killed was "innocent.") The narrative continues to embrace the history and aftermath of Che's storied martyrdom, a term that the closing graphic would seemto suggest. A lively, well-drawn rendering of Guevara's eventful life-not out of place in a fashionista's handbag, but worthy of a more serious audience as well.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
We've seen him on T-shirts and in movies, but for most of us Ernesto "Che" Guevara (192867) remains a figure more mythic than real, a piece in an ideological war that never seems to end. Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón's Che: A Graphic Biography tracks this elusive world figure in his numerous incarnations: Argentine Marxist theorist, Cuban revolutionary, physician, politician, motorcyclist, military strategist, guerrilla leader, leftist martyr, counterculture icon. The graphic novel's coauthors have previously collaborated on After 9/11: America's War on Terror and The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation.From the Publisher
“Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón make a formidable team, as nimble, persistent, and resourceful as Che and Fidel trekking through the Sierra Maestra. Their graphic biography Che, like their previous collaborations, is history contextualized with the range, precision, and vividness demanded by its momentous subject.” —Mark Singer, author of Character Studies “A lively, well-drawn rendering of Guevara’s eventful life—not out of place in a fashionista’s handbag, but worthy of a more serious audience as well.” —Kirkus Reviews “Colón’s propulsive, full-color cartoons depict everything from the UN to Chilean copper mines to Prague. One full chapter of the book takes readers through every country in Latin America and each country’s history to the mid-1950s—a crash course from writer Jacobson in colonial rule, independence movements, and CIA involvement in things like the overthrow of Guatamala’s democratically elected Jacob Arbenz.” —Suzi Steffen, Eugene Weekly