Customer Reviews

Ronald Reagan: A Graphic Biography

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The tone is satiric, never sarcastic. The artwork is tasteful, never exaggerated, even in this "Comic Strip" format. The beautifully written narrative carefully outlines the many "fumbles" of the guy whose image is associated with Football as much as The Presidency?
Ultimately, the big question is, did his "Vision" outweigh all the dramatic, critical blunders, which cost lives; which cost the American people in ways far beyond galactic deficits and debt? Is the President primarily aa Visionary? Or the *most accountable* Public Servant?
For those who feel that the book contains too many secondary mistakes of a great leader, I submit that they were kind in omitting plenty of stuff: his failed Immigartion Policy; 1986 Payroll Tax; his Military Budget increase on top of Carter's Military Budget increase; the Graham-Rudman "March To The Sea" on presumptive cost-effective, necessary programs; unnecessary tax breaks for the super rich who have 11 Accountants to brainstorm on the issue. George Will pointed out many years ago that his man gave us "93 months of growth". I say, based upon four trillion dollars worth of debt dropped at the front door of the "workin' man" that Reagan thought he was fighting for.

This brief description of the life and career of Ronald Reagan will most likely irritate liberals for being too soft on Reagan and conservatives for pointing out his weaknesses. Which means it is probably just right.
I was very politically aware during Reagan's presidency and remember his misstatements and ability to speak to issues by not talking about them directly. At times, he seemed lost and it has recently been reported that he was suffering from the onset of Alzheimer's disease in the last years of the presidency. These problems are not glossed over; they are mentioned along with his questionable actions as president of the Screen Actor's Guild. Yet, these points never go beyond the statements of facts, there is nothing approaching what could be considered mean are nasty.
The main positive note in the book about the career of Ronald Reagan was his greatest strength, which was his ability to speak about difficult topics and deftly deflect criticism. When things went wrong he was always able to find a way to recover, even when he raised taxes he managed to make it appear as if he was doing something else.
Reagan is now treated as a sainted icon among conservatives; his name is spoken with awe every time it is uttered. That makes books like this so important, in that it presents Reagan as he was, a political star that made mistakes, recovered from them, kept some core beliefs and always managed to sound the proper form of optimistic tone that worked when he needed it.

What makes this book fascinating is that it is an illustrated biography, with a comic strip format, and covers the span of Reagan's political career.

The book is very clear and easy to follow. The details in the book are very educational.

This would be a great book to use for High School students studing Government or History.

Graphic nonfiction novels are not easy to review because they exist on two planes: they are both art and information at one time. But they must generally considered to be more nonfiction than art. If the content isn't any good, it's hard to enjoy the art. This book has that problem The art is very, very good...cartoony while still doing a good job at resembling the actual people and events. However, the content is biased at best and inaccurate at worst. If this were the only thing you knew about Reagan, you would be forced to assume (as the authors do) that the country believes nothing true about Reagan, and that the mass of them were simply deluded about the way things work in the world. If you do, that's fine, but it's not the truth. The authors here give Reagan no credit for anything and assign all of his successes to either deceit, luck, or pure stupidity. So, in the end, great art + wildly biased factual information = below-average book. If you know enough to separate fact from opinion, you'll like it. If this is the only book you care to read on Reagan's legacy, don't bother.

Why did I give this 2 stars? 1 and half stars are for the artwork and the remaining half star is for the content that happens to be unadulterated tripe.

Anybody who reads this book comes back with the impression that Regan became what he became because he could connect with his audience even though he didn't have a clue as to what he was talking about. They would think he was low on facts, high on rhetoric, a puppet put up by the right wingers only because he had a likable face. And they would think Jimmy Carter lost not because of his mistakes, but because Regan was able to fool an entire nation with his performance.

I can go on and on but I will just say that Andrew Helfer should stick to fiction where he can write his one-sided history as he pleases.

I wasted some good money purchasing this book. I will probably sell it to a Democrat. :-)

Before I begin, I will state my political views, the last election I voted for anyone who was not a democrat or republican, my disdain for them has grown more so with each passing year.

Now on to this graphic novel, this is an absolutely biased piece of trash, throughout the 92 pages of the book, Reagan appears to be constantly not knowing what he is doing, is having his strings pulled behind the scenes (a vast right wing conspiracy?), falls asleep alot and somehow was successful in life reaching the highest office in the land by dumb luck! Yep, very believable.

I will tell you my story of Ronald Reagan. I never thought much about him, I did some reading about him, but in this life, there is so much to read and know, I cannot waste my time on one subject, especially something that I do not have a big interest about. Roughly four years ago, I was in Eastern Europe and when I was traveling around and seeing the sites, I met people who were older. They would ask me where I was from and I told them I was American, they all told me they love America and a few of them told me if it was not for Reagan, they would not be free. These are the words from the people WHO LIVE THERE, I remember especially one older couple who told me that Reagan saved their lives. I told them how some in America thought he did not do anything, and they told he they would slap their faces for telling lies, they were that adamant that is was REAGAN ALONE who they owe their freedom to.

I will go forward into the future, my dad was a Reagan fan and he always wanted to see his Presidential Library, so we went. It was my last trip my dad ever took (he just died 5 weeks ago). While I was there, at his grave there were four people from Poland, they were in awe, they wanted each so badly to have met the man and hugged him themselves, but were left only to cry and pray at his memorial. That was a powerful scene. They TRAVELED with a purpose to get to this place so they can give him their thanks. So as I and Helfer and Staton and Amazon reviewers pass into history as people of no concern, Reagan will live on.