Churchill: A Graphic Biography

A foreword by historian Andrew Roberts (Churchill: Walking with Destiny) starts off this slim graphic biography of Winston Churchill on a high note: tart, incisive, and celebratory while brooking no illusions. Delmas (Charlemagne) picks up the baton in assured fashion, portraying the young British aristocrat as starving for adventure and fame. Eager to fight in British colonial skirmishes from South Africa to Sudan, and convinced he will die young, Churchill is presented as an impetuous glory seeker determined to “make history” by writing it himself, if necessary. His ambitious climb to political power (Parliament, the Admiralty) are rendered with great elan in the art by Regnault and Cammardella. Once the world wars begin, though, Delmas’s account turns more narrowly heroic in scope. While noting Churchill’s missteps, such as the Dardanelles fiasco during WWI, the narrative is more eager to present him as the one-dimensional British bulldog who defeated Hitler. Besides sidestepping controversies like Churchill’s role in the 1943 India famine and ignoring nearly any personal aspects (from his prodigious writing to bouts of crippling depression), Delmas also curiously drops the story at the end of WWII. The result is an energetically drawn but perfunctory portrait. [em](Apr.) [/em]