13 in 13

Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf 

New York : Abrams ComicArts, 2020.

279 p. : chiefly ill., maps ; 27 cm.

Meticulously researched and passionately drawn and retold, this graphic novel account of the Kent State Massacre of May 4, 1970 is superb.  This is a great book for bringing a tragic history alive.  Having known about the Kent State killings for decades, I was surprised by how much I learned and by the emotional power of Backderf's storytelling.      

In Backderf's graphic novel about the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer he centers it around his actually being a high school "friend" of Dahmer.  In Kent State, Backderf opens the book with a personal touch: his childhood memories of Ohio National Guard troops being used near his hometown to crush a Teamster's strike in the days before they were sent on to the Kent State campus where they wounded and killed 13 people in just 13 seconds. 

In this retelling Backderf manages to recreate the personal lives of significant figures in the Kent State tragedy.  We learn about student life on campus, radical activists, the peace movement, the culture of the college town, and the utter incompetence and immorality of political and military leadership at the time - leadership that was willing to kill, lie, and cover-up.  In the aftermath of the massacre, leaders lie about the protesters, the culpability of the men who fired on the students, and the leaders who gave the orders (one officer, Capt. Ronald J. Snyder even lied under oath about finding a gun on one of the students killed).  

I would highly recommend this book to any adult or young adult.  There is a lot to think about and learn from this terrible event of 1970.  In addition to the carefully structured story and illustrations, Backderf also includes copious notes at the back of the book that fill out information and indicate the pages in the novel that they refer to.