Brought to Light: Shadowplay : the Secret Team/Flashpoint : the La Penca Bombing (Two Books in One) [Paperback]

Alan Moore (Author), Bill Sienkiewicz (Author), Martha Honey (Author), Tony Avirgan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this long-awaited documentary comic book, Brabner, co-author of the comic book Real War Stories , and political illustrator Tom Yeates have produced a straightforward and competently illustrated journalistic account of the CIA's pivotal attempt to assassinate independent Nicaraguan contra leader Eden Pastora in a bombing at La Penca. The second story, Shadowplay , by celebrated comics writer Moore, and the acclaimed illustrator/author Sienkiewicz, is a masterly satiric expose of "The Secret Team" that came to direct the Reagan administration's covert war in Nicaragua. Moore, in combination with Sienkiewicz's viciously parodic drawings, has produced a scathing black comedy documenting the CIA's long history as a criminal shadow government. The wretched choice of format--the two stories are bound back to back, upside down--defeats easy reference between the two related works, all the more galling since Shadowplay provides a broader context for understanding the La Penca bombing.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 31 pages
• Publisher: Eclipse Books (May 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 091303567X
• ISBN-13: 978-0913035672
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,497,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compulsive and eye-opening, June 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Brought to Light: Shadowplay : the Secret Team/Flashpoint : the La Penca Bombing (Two Books in One) (Paperback)

This book will really blow you away if you are unaware of American intelligence involvement in the various dirty wars of the past fifty years. If X-files-style paranoia appeals to you, this is really something to get your teeth into. While "The X-Files" suggests that US intelligence agencies have spent much of their time trying to cover up the existence of aliens, this book can produce evidence of much more frightening activities.

This is two books in one: Alan Moore's half provides the history of US imperialism in an incredibly readable and yet deeply unsettling graphic story. The other half of the book is a documentary-style account of yet another US-sponsored assassination, and yet another suppressed investigation.

I urge all Americans to read this book and reflect on whether you are comfortable with your tax money being spent on the murderous activities described.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, But Uneven...., September 23, 2002

By 

Daniel V. Reilly (Upstate New York, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Brought to Light: Shadowplay : the Secret Team/Flashpoint : the La Penca Bombing (Two Books in One) (Paperback)

Considering that Brought To Light was published in 1988, and the book seems to imply that the lid would be blown off of these scandals, it's ironic to read it now and see that not only did nothing come of the expose, but no one even seems to remember (or care) about La Penca.

Brought To Light is designed as a flipbook, with each side having a complete story, and it's own cover. The stories can be read in any order, as they only really converge at the end.

I read Flashpoint: The La Penca Bombing first, and it's the best of the two. Joyce Brabner and Tom Yeates tell the story of a couple of American journalists trying to expose American involvement with the attempted assassination of a Guerilla leader in Central America. It's a gripping story, but with almost 15 years elapsing since it's original publication, I can't help but wonder what the REAL story is, and if anyone was ever brought to justice. Another reviewer here states that the whole story was later recanted....

Shadowplay: The Secret Team, is a whole other ball of wax. Both stories are based on a lawsuit filed against the Federal Government by The Christic Institute, in which they hoped to expose 30 years of illegal and unconstitutional U.S. covert activities. Where Flashpoint tells a straightforward docudrama tale, Shadowplay is like Oliver Stone on a bad acid trip. Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz' hallucinatory tale is a conspiracy-nut's wet dream, but the art is almost as hard to follow as the twisting logic of the narrative, and the lettering is so hard to read, I was sorely tempted to just stop reading the book entirely, something I NEVER do....Usually I LOVE Alan Moore, but this story was just too much.

Overall, Brought To Light is an interesting read. If you already distrust "The Man", it won't tell you anything you didn't already suspect. And if you buy everything Uncle Sam tells you, you won't buy what the writers are selling.
It's an interesting look back at a time when it seems America was more naive and trusting in the Government, but that's about it.

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, but May Not Contain All The Facts, June 3, 2002

By 

MR NIGEL J BRAUND (Sydney, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brought to Light: Shadowplay : the Secret Team/Flashpoint : the La Penca Bombing (Two Books in One) (Paperback)

Read Susie Morgan's book "In Search of The Assassin" in conjunction with this book. Susie was a survivor of La Penca and has doubts about the conclusions that this book comes to. Nobody wanted to talk about the bombing, and it is known that people lied to interviewers to cover up the facts.
Read with a pinch a salt.