A review of the 2020 book by Derf Backderf, "Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio," for inclusion in ARLIS/NA's 2020 Notable Graphic Novels Review

Callie Cherry

Nicole Santiago

Tara Spies Smith

Humanities Commons

Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf. Abrams ComicArts, 2020. 288 p. Ill. ISBN 9781419734847 (hardcover), $24.99. Callie Cherry, Graduate Assistant in Education and Outreach Services, University of Colorado, Denver Reviewed July 6, 2021 Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf details the events surrounding the Kent State massacre in 1970. Over the course of four days, the escalating conflict in Vietnam triggers a domino effect that exacerbates an already fearful and chaotic climate in Kent, Ohio. In the end, military intervention in a peaceful anti-war rally leaves four students dead on the university lawn. Illustrated as a somber caricature, Backderf’s greyscale images mimic the famed photographs of the Kent State massacre that made the events infamous in American history. After framing the story through his own perspective as a child growing up in the area around Kent State, Backderf then focuses on seven students’ lives in the days before the shooting. Using extensive archival research, Backderf portrays the students as avid scholars, musicians, animal lovers, and even FBI informants planted at the university. Their daily lives seem in many ways separate from the greater political context of the era; Backderf explains how tensions were high in light of labor and anti-war protests in nearby Cleveland and Chicago, and even at Ohio State University. Through his research, Backderf dispels common rumors from the time that fueled these tensions.  In light of recent years, Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio feels eerily familiar. Misinformation and police brutality are not foreign concepts to any reader in 2021, and Backderf’s astonishingly well-researched book should be required reading for any American interested in these topics. The almost-exclusive use of primary sources to create this narrative is exemplary, and students at any level would appreciate it as a primary source in research methods. As a content warning, this book does feature scenes of intense violence, including the shooting itself, which may be, understandably, triggering to some readers.  

Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio

https://hcommons.org/deposits/download/hc:42110/CONTENT/cherry_kentstate.pdf/

Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio

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