I’ve been impressed by the majority of the History Comics line for their modern, sensible approaches to stories, well-known or not, that younger readers will find interesting. The tale of Rosa Parks, whose refusal to be sent to the back of the bus kicked off the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott and eventual desegregation of transit, is fairly well-known. By incorporating the earlier resistance of the Claudette Colvin, who wasn’t as respectable and photogenic a figurehead for a movement, this story […]

I’m impressed and thrilled to see this subject included in a line of graphic novels about history for young people. History Comics: The Stonewall Riots: Making a Stand for LGBTQ Rights is written by Archie Bongiovanni (A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns) and illustrated by A. Andrews (A Quick & Easy Guide to Sex & Disability). The introduction, by professor Michael Bronski, sums up the importance of works like this one. “We must acknowledge our history, reflect on […]

History Comics: The Roanoke Colony: America’s First Mystery by Chris Schweizer is a fact-filled, fascinating read that uses the mystery of what happened to the Roanoke Colony to explore many political and cultural questions stemming from English settlement attempts in North America. In case you’re not familiar with the story — I’d heard it before, but I grew up in North Carolina, and I still learned more from this book than I ever did there — the Roanoke Colony was […]

There is a ton of material packed into the 128 pages of History Comics: The National Parks: Preserving America’s Wild Places, with new information on almost every page. A Sasquatch introduces us to how national parks can include scenic vistas, natural wildernesses, and historic sites, answering an eagle’s questions about who creates parks and why there are so many different kinds. Along this journey, the reader visits the first parks, Yosemite and Yellowstone, and meets a wide variety of historical […]

History Comics: The Great Chicago Fire: Rising From the Ashes was one of the first releases from this new comics line from publisher First Second, who has had great success with their Science Comics. As written by Kate Hannigan and illustrated by Alex Graudins, this is the story of two siblings (and a puppy, for additional cuteness) who get caught up in the 1871 fire that devastated Chicago and left a third of the city homeless. Trying to do a […]