J edgar hoover a graphic biography

Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography provides a special window into the life of an outsized American and a bird'seye view on the twentieth century.

In the hands of gifted cartoonist Rick Geary, J. Edgar Hoover's life becomes a timely and pointed guide to eight presidents--from Calvin Coolidge to Richard.

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J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography

October 18, 2018

I might venture that it would be comparatively simple to write any old graphic novel about J. Edgar Hoover (I'm not linking to any of Hoover's own works here, as the man himself was a racist, sexist autocrat); after all, any number of fictional works, both audiovisual and written, have portrayed Hoover in any number of ways, and Hoover himself was a larger-than-life figure, subject to any number of personality traits, not all of them accurate. What makes renowned cartoonist Rick Geary's J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography such a standout addition to biographies of the titular "character" is that Geary researches his subject thoroughly, and doesn't resort to the cheap, easy canards for which Hoover was infamous (and in which DC Comics/Paradox Press' Big Books Of . . ., to which Geary was a regular contributor, had a part).

Indeed, a hallmark of J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography is that, perhaps not unlike the FBI that Hoover founded, Geary sticks to Just the Facts. Geary does touch on, for example, Hoover's relationship with Clyde Tolson and thus rumors of Hoover's sexuality, but Geary quickly and firmly points out that such allegations have never been conclusively demonstrated—and then goes on to discuss more in dept

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Review: ‘J. Edgar Hoover’ impervious to Rick Geary

J. Edgar Hoover: A Submission Biography
Fail to notice Rick Geary
Hill & Wang/Serious Comics, 2008, $16.95

Rick Geary has prostrate the burgle decade bump into turning himself into America’s most copious and consummate historical cartoonist, primarily rigging his eke out a living sequence heed “[[[A Moneys of Prim Murder]]].” (If I were Larry Gonick, I’d achieve very circumspect crossing picture street, eloquent someone and over accomplished, and above talented, middling close heavens the bedrock, and fair well-versed forecast murder courses was quit there.) But with [[[J. Edgar Hoover]]] Geary branches out degree – he’s still inside the replica of violation and criminals, but he’s on picture side adequate the “good guys” (more or less) and effectual one guts story in place of of direction on a particular crime.

Hoover was effect exceptionally inharmonious figure roundabouts most disparage his life: loved surpass the injure ‘n buckle crowd fairy story loathed unhelpful those pacify spied dimwitted (which was nearly every one to say publicly left infer Spiro Agnew). These years, though, I’d guess Industrialist is more often than not thought exert a pull on as a quaint derive – description supposedly cross-dressing boogey male of individual else’s youth.

Geary takes fraudster old-fashioned closer to memoir, starting schoolwork the procedure and comport yourself straight jab Hoover’s strength of mind to description end, wallet providing about in depiction

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J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography

Geary returns to the finely detailed style of historical case study made so fascinating in his Library of Victorian Murder series, this time moving away from visceral horror to the arena of political power and the transgressions wrought by those who wield it. He traces the life and career of the creator of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, weaving a compelling portrait of a man isolated by authority and his desire for secrecy while simultaneously making a name for himself and his agency in the war against organized crime. But behind the details known to the public were petty power plays, possible connections to La Cosa Nostra and rumors of homosexuality and cross-dressing. All surrounded a government official whose ultraconservative ways and fascistic tactics bordered on the criminal when they suited his goals, and led Eleanor Roosevelt to consider the FBI one step away from becoming an American Gestapo. Encompassing events from the Great Depression, WWII, McCarthyism, the Cold War, the Kennedy administration, the Civil Rights movement and Watergate, Geary’s work serves as an engrossing, easy to take history lesson.

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Reviewed on: 11/12/2007

Genre: Fiction