Steve Duin

This book is a good read, pulling you into a better understanding of the horrible Deep Water Horizon spill and its effects on the people, economy and ecology of the Gulf Coast. It's also a great example of how a graphic novel* approach can be so much more powerful that prose. It also shows how including the journalists in the narrative can be more effective than the traditional pretense of an omniscient and invisible reporter.

Wheeler's illustrations are excellent. At Steven Duin's and Shannon Wheeler's reading at Powell's Books, Duin mentioned how he'd write up a section, and give it to Wheeler with suggestions on how to turn it into comics panels, and Wheeler would explode with laughter. The final result of the collaboration is splendid.

*We need a new term. "Graphic novel" should apply to just novels, but "Graphic memoir" or "Graphic non-fiction" just doesn't sound right.… (lisätietoja)