Customer Reviews

Trotsky: A Graphic Biography

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

 

 

Leon Trotsky. To know him was to love him. Or to hate him. It was hardly a simple matter, and he was hardly a simple man (men who die by pick ax rarely are--there's a reason they elicit so much emotion from their fellow human beings). Of course, saying Trotsky was a complicated person is understating everything, but saying that Trotsky, Rick Geary's new graphic biography, is simple is a pure compliment.

Geary uses graphic novels to breeze through history with such grace and charm that he makes you want to live it yourself. His gift is that he makes his intricately textured panels look easy, and they usher you through page after page of important social and cultural upheaval. If you look closer, though, you see the details in many of his panels. The important lines and perspectives that he employs throughout are the mark of a fine artist.

He's a fine writer as well. I admit, I've always loved his cheeky style. In Trotsky, he's more serious than in much of his previous work. He guides us through the Soviet Revolution of the early 20th century and shows how Trotsky helped form the Soviet Union while inspiring critical dialogue and political thinking.

Geary is nicely suited to the task at hand. As writer, he stays mostly impartial, presenting just the facts of Trotsky's life along with his layered artwork. As an educational tool, Trotsky works wonderfully. As an introduction to Trotsky's political ideas and the life he lived, Trotsky is top-notch.

-- John Hogan

Trotsky is a well-researched and engagingly told (if, inevitably, very wordy) graphic account of the life of the loser of most of the great Communist power struggles of the early 20th century. I have the vague sense that the audience for books like this are mostly schoolchildren looking for the subjects of a report, but I'd be surprised if school systems in at least half of this country would be particularly amenable to a book on Trotsky. (Of course, that assumes they remember Trotsky, which I doubt anyone to the right of Teddy Kennedy does, these days.) Geary is excellent with historical material as always, though I do miss the sly humor of his early short strips. Perhaps some enterprising publisher can hire Geary for a project that merges all of his strengths -- maybe a story about the mole-men's invasion of the Columbian Exhibition or something equally unlikely?

"Trotsky" represents a graphic synopsis of a key Communist Revolutionary who in essence got lost in the shuffle in the forming of a ruthless totalitarian government. Rick Geary's artwork skillfully depicts the changing moods and actions of Leon Trotsky who was born Lev Davidovich Bronstein in 1879 in the Ukraine. Geary goes into detail of a young Revolutionary who as time goes on develops a permanent and identifiable scowl which later blends into the vestiges of his Communist peers. Trotsky was the intellectual who followed the teachings of Marx and developed a liberal and more leftist view of a Communistic state. On the other hand his political peer in the person of Vladimir Lenin was a revolutionary who thought that the revolution had to be violent in all respects. Trotsky and Lenin did work together to ultimately realize their basic goal of bringing down the Tsarist government in Russia.
The animosity existing between Lenin and Trotsky continued until the death of Lenin in 1924. By the time of the formatting of the government Trotsky, who was not a backroom politician, was losing influence and power within the party. Joseph Stalin on the other hand was growing stronger and was eliminating all upper echelon leaders who dared challenge him in any way.
In effect Trotsky became the odd man out and went into exile travelling to a plethora of locations in Europe. Finally Trotsky crossed the Atlantic and ended up living in Mexico. As I read this fascinating true story, I wondered what would have happened if Leon Trotsky had obtained the reigns of Communist USSR and not Joseph Stalin. Indeed the script of European and World history would read a very different story. This provides food for thought in looking at a fork in the road of critical historical happenings. While Trotsky would not have been a cuddly Teddy Bear, there's good reason to believe that Communism may have taken the high road if indeed the other fork was taken.
Geary's depiction is done well. His artwork is excellent, however as he tells his graphic tale he does have a propensity to use too many words. His artwork is good enough to develop the story with fewer words with more graphic intensity to flow in his story telling. All in all, I still rate it 5 Stars. This is an excellent historical graphic depiction which is worth our attention.

A dispassionate and even-handed account, complete with pick-axe finale. Needless to say, this is a very graphic history. (As reviewed in Russian Life

While some people find education via comics to be a slight abomination, I have always been of the opinion that every possible opportunity to educate should be taken advantage of. That includes comics and graphic novels.
Leon Trotsky is a recent historical figure that does not receive enough attention when the history of the early twentieth century is examined. Lenin and Stalin are considered the most dominant figures of the Communist movement of the twentieth century, yet it was Trotsky that provided the organizational skill that kept the revolution in power when the White forces counterattacked. His organization of the Red Army made it powerful enough to hold back the tide of counter-revolution and allow for the development of communism in one state. Decades after Stalin had seized absolute power in the Soviet Union, he still considered Trotsky a threat making him worthy of assassination.
This book is an excellent primer to the life of Trotsky, the combination of images and text give a description of his life and the impact he had on the world. I recommend it to teachers of history in the middle and high schools as a supplemental text.

Superb work by Rick Geary! Trotsky is often mentioned, but seldom discussed on realistic basis. This work helps change this sitution.