Review: Cartoon History of the Modern World, Part 1
The synthesis of comics and education is one of those perfect things when done properly. Biologist Jay Hosler's Clan Apis as well as the completely flawless Action Philosophers rank among my favorite comics, and Scott McCloud's longform, metatextual Understanding Comics is rightly held aloft as an example of what you can do with the medium. Maybe this is why I so thoroughly enjoy Larry Gonick's Cartoon History series. Where others have conquered the world of bees or explained how to read the comic you're reading, Gonick goes for the gusto and gives you the history of the damned universe to start with before saying "OK, you know, I'll get a little less macro - let's talk about the history of the modern world."I hate Gonick a little bit for doing it so well. The Cartoon History Of The Modern World, Part 1: From Columbus to the U.S. Constitution begins, as the unwieldy title indicates, with the Aztecs just before Columbus showed up and ends with the creation of the document that forms the backbone of the American government. Along the way, Gonick manages to touch on The Reformation, the creation of the Sikh and the beginning of modern science and philosophy among other topics. Thankfully dropping the whole "time travel" device that plagued his earlier books, Gonick focuses on the people behind the events and only provides his authorial voice to clarify and narrate instead of using it as its own character. His art, as always, is a cartoonish treat that recalls Sergio Aragones as well as European artists such as Uderzo.
The Cartoon History Of The Modern World, Part 1: From Columbus to the U.S. Constitution is a near-perfect refresher course for adults who feel that they've replaced their historic knowledge with useless Buffy and Star Trek as well as a more-than-decent general history book for kids in high school. Its only flaw is that some subjects seem to get little more than a cursory glance; the section on Galileo could have easily been its own volume. I suspect this is more personal prejudice than anything else - some subjects are going to interest some readers more. Thankfully, there's an exhaustive bibliography in the back.
This book's hitting stores in January of next year, but you can already view sample pages and more at Gonick's website. In the meantime, you should probably seek out his earlier books; they're all worthy of consideration.
A copy of this book was provided by Harper Collins for the purposes of review.
