cover image The Illustrated History of Union County

The Illustrated History of Union County

Frank Thorne, . . Fantagraphics Books, $19.95 (192pp) ISBN 978-1-56097-721-6

Serialized in the early 1950s, this account of New Jersey's Union County begins 60 million years in the past, complete with glaciers and dinosaurs, and proceeds to jump through history like a time traveler on hallucinogens. With a mostly nonlinear format, the series careens from Henry Hudson's meeting Algonquian Indian tribes while on a mission for the East India Company to the Dutch settling in the area decades prior to his arrival and so on. The tale includes massacres of the indigenous population; hardships endured by Christian puritans; an interminable recounting of the Revolutionary War; a look at the state's slave trade; the amusingly named Spanktown (so dubbed because a Quaker allegedly spanked his unruly wife in public); and stirring depictions of the "corn-huskin' bee," "apple-pickin' bee" and "thrashin' bee. Artist Thorne was later famous for Marvel Comics' saucy Red Sonja, but this volume wears its hard work and research on its sleeve. No amount of good intentions can save the piece from getting mired in its narrow focus, which will appeal primarily to New Jersey residents. (Oct.)