| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great storytelling,
By dariopol (High Plains USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lost Cause: John Wesley Hardin, the Taylor Sutton Feud, and Reconstruction Texas (Hardcover)
...when you are looking at the cover of this book by this veteran comix artist you may wonder whether he has gone out of his famous and remarkable style and beacme more mainstream. Well, rest assured, he did not. This fine volume of Jackson historical revisionism is every bit as good as his prior famous works, e.g. "Comanche Moon" and others. This time again it is Texas, but Texas of Reconstruction era, one period of our history that has not been fully explained and is usually taught very one-sided at the universities at al. Here, Mr. Jackson attempts and is successful in giving us a point of view that the conquered Confederate Texas might have held. Since these were times of sudden change and brutality, thus there is violence, more violence, rivalry, racial prejudice, social strife, medeival-like vendetta cycles, poverty - all told with astonishing and refreshing detail and precision of this veteran underground comix artist. Necessarily, this one is a very controversial angle of the Reconstruction era, the subject and theme being loaded with racial and social prejudices and hatred that Hardin and his kind might have had and it seems that they in fact had. This is not for the politically correct folks, but rather for those who seek to find out some reasonable explanation and to gain deeper foundation in order to gain the feel of what might have been like during those hard times in Texas. Finally, Mr. Jackson tells his story while maintaing the most amazing attention to every possible historical detail( as every personality, their guns, clothes and other period material culture items and pieces are acurately portrayed albeit drawn in his unique graphic style). One may ask what more is to ask about this work that is both the finest graphic storytelling and a fine example of reasonable yet passionate historical scholarship.
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Graphic Novel John Wesley Hardin,
By
This review is from: Lost Cause: John Wesley Hardin, the Taylor Sutton Feud, and Reconstruction Texas (Hardcover)
When I was a kid one of my youthful passions were things western like most other kids growing up in the 1950s. I especially liked playing the part of Wyatt Earp or Doc Holliday with neighbor kids and we ran around firing at each other with toy cap guns. Somewhere around 1960 I came across an issue of Arizona Highways that had a wonderful article about a painter who was doing painting of famous gunfighters of the old west. They were all there--Billy the Kid, Jesse James, the Daltons and the Youngers, Wild Bill Hickok, Ben Thompson, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and John Wesley Hardin. Hardin probably racked up more killings that any other man in the old western with something like 26 or more. Most were during pitch gun battles. He was fast on the draw and a good shot. Hardin always interested me as he was portrayed as somewhat of a Robin Hood. He was the son of a Methodist preacher, and served 16 years and prison. When he got out he wrote a autobiography (that was later published) and was shot in the back (or so the story goes) and killed by a lawmen in El Paso, Texas in 1895. Most of Hardin's gun fighting career was spent in Southeast Texas and his life was submerged in a larger violent tapestry of family feuds occurring in post-civil war (Reconstruction) Texas. The artist/writer Jack Jackson's family and ancestors lived in that part of Texas during the time in question and were a part of the events that are chronicled in this graphic "novel." It is obvious that Jackson has done his homework. The book is crammed with historical data, a cast of many, many characters and the story has an authenticity about it that makes for a fascinating read. The point of view is the Texans who suffer turmoil and persecution with the Southern defeat after the Civil War and their struggle to regain their state from carpetbaggers, the Yankee military and civil authorities in general. This is not a politically correct book. There are violent struggles and ethnic and racial slurs which those times were undoubtedly full of. And yet the protagonists --the Texans come across as decent people who want to be left alone. Jackson is probably most famous for his underground comic book work during the late sixties and seventies. In more recent years her had done several historical graphic novels "Lost Cause" being the latest. Jackson has a very EC Comics derived story telling style with influences ranging from Will Elder, Johnny Severin and especially Jack Davis. The story telling isn't flashy it is very straightforward and full of authentic details. For those interested in how history can be approached in the comic book medium "Lost Cause" is an excellent example.
7 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Good (cover), The Bad (text), & The Ugly (artwork),
By CNW (Glendale, AZ United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lost Cause: John Wesley Hardin, the Taylor-Sutton Feud, and Reconstruction Texas (Paperback)
Intriguing, romantic cover that captures the Westerner's imagination. Too bad the cover artist didn't write & illustrate this book (really a comic book as "graphic novel" would be a complimentary exaggeration). Text is apologist history, weak on facts, thick on excuses for Hardin's murderous tendencies. Hardin doesn't get to his infamous gunfighting career until page 86, so "Lost Cause" doesn't even work as a traditional Western romp. Artwork inside is crude featuring stiff, exaggerated characters that make "Pokemon" look like Rembrandt. "Lost Cause" doesn't work as history or entertainment. If you are interested in Hardin, check out Leon Metz's or Richard Marohn's bios or even Hardin's autobiography. As for "Lost Cause," save your money--the cover is the best part & you've already seen that.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
