King, Vol. 1, by Ho Che Anderson. Fantagraphic Books, 1993
also Vol. 2, 2002; Vol. 3 2003.

Summary: A biography of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Analysis: This is stunning. Dr. King is portrayed very candidly -- neither canonized nor vilified. Chapters are broken up with (fictional) quotes from various other people around him; some historical, some fictional; some opposing him, some supporting. Anderson doesn't shy away from using the kind of strong language that would have been typical of that time and place, which might scare some schools off, but also gives it a depth of realism that it wouldn't have if it were bowdlerized. One caveat for curricular use is that it's often ambiguous whether speeches and other dialog are direct quotes or paraphrases or hypothetical conversations that could have happened but we don't know what was said. But this can be supplemented with the actual text of various speeches and news stories and things like that.

Illustrations: Many different types of media -- black-and-white shadowed cartoons, watercolor, pastels, period photographs, acrylics...there may be more that I missed. My only complaint on that front is that sometimes the complexity of the illustrations made the superimposed text difficult to read.

Rating: 5Q/5P

Curricular connections: 10-12th grade unit on the Civil Rights movement, Black History Month, or any history class dealing with that time period. It would also be good for a 10-12th grade language arts or art unit.

--SLH