Witness to the Age of Revolution: The Odyssey of Juan Bautista Tupac Amaru

This well-researched if stiff graphic history relays the remarkable life story of Juan Bautista Tupac Amaru (1747–1827). Walker begins by detailing the horrors that Juan Bautista’s half-brother, Tupac Amaru II, and his family suffered at the hands of the Spanish after leading an unsuccessful rebellion in the Peruvian Andes from 1780 to 1782. Juan Bautista was eventually captured, imprisoned, force-marched across the Andes, and exiled to Spain. The story follows his brutal transatlantic crossing, imprisonment in Cadiz, and decades-long incarceration in Cueta. After winning his freedom and returning to South America, Bautista was able to write the memoirs that detailed his odyssey. Clarke’s linework gives impressive precision to all parts of a panel, and there are some thoughtful symbolic touches, like the use of crossed-out names to record the deaths of those in captivity. But the narration is flat, and the insertion of primary source material, overlaid to show how historians reconstruct history, begins to feel gimmicky. There’s a great story in here, but the prosaic narration and pedantic execution will turn off all but the most earnest students of history. [em](Sept.) [/em]