Steve Buccellato

This started off like a bare reading of his life with pictures, and then started to develop its little thesis (even HE believed he wasn't doing anything wrong or illegal! He acted himself to himself as well as the world!) and nicely set-pieced a few arrestingly weird moments (Ollie North, man! And I sure didn't know about Alexander Haig's meltdown in State, or Reagan reading his instructions to himself off cuecards at the Iran-Contra hearings ("Tell him you don't recall," shades of Alberto show more Gonzales). So it has some merits. But the "and then this happened, then this, then this," the whole way through his damn life, is such dry cardboard. This was like an illustrated encyclopedia entry. And yo, construction paper cutout-lookin' young Reagan was weirdly compelling, but you have to make your old Republican men in suits look more different from each other when you're in black and white, even if it's hard, even if it runs against your whole graphic message that they're OLD, man, and in SUITS, because if you don't we won't be able to follow whole swathes of the story at all. show less

I picked this up because I saw a review of it; I can't recall where. I'll say that this is an interesting way to read about the life of Ronald Reagan. The art itself is pretty good. The story moves along, starting with his passing, which is conveyed in a very moving way, then moves on with his life from his humble beginnings to the end of his presidency. What the book conveys is the mixed legacy of his political life and presidency. At the same time, Reagan lived through some very show more interesting times in American history. Personally, I did not know as much about his early life, which I found very interesting. If nothing else, this little book has made me want to read more about him in other works. At the end of the book, they do provide a small reading list of the works that the graphic novel comes from. While not perfect, a good entry point for anyone wanting a look at Reagan. show less