The Warren Commission Report: A Graphic Investigation into the Kennedy Assassination

by Dan Mishkin, Ernie Colon (Illustrator), Jerzy Drozd (Illustrator), Richard Reeves (Introduction)

Overview

Within days of the murder of President John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson appointed a seven-member commission to investigate the assassination. In its report, the Warren Commission determined that there was “no credible evidence” conflicting with its conclusion of a lone gunman. Artist Ernie Colón, bestselling illustrator of The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, teams up with author Dan Mishkin to provide a unique means of testing the commission’s findings, unraveling conflicting narratives side by side through graphic-novel techniques. The Warren Commission Report: A Graphic Investigation into the Kennedy Assassination breaks down how decisions in the days that followed the assassination not only shaped how the commission reconstructed events but also helped foster the conspiracy theories that play a part in American politics to this day.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419712302
Publisher:	Abrams ComicArts
Publication date:	09/16/2014
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Dan Mishkin has more than 30 years of experience in comics, including the Amethyst series created with Ernie Colón. He lives in Lansing, Michigan. Ernie Colón has created comics for more than five decades and has worked at Harvey, Marvel, and DC Comics. He lives in Huntington, New York. Jerzy Drozd teaches comics workshops in universities and schools, in addition to illustrating. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Editorial Reviews

★ 02/23/2015
The details of JFK's shattering assassination in November 1963 have been scrutinized in microscopic detail over the half-century that followed. In the immediate wake of the president's murder, President Johnson appointed the seven-member Warren Commission to investigate the shooting, a 10-month inquiry that yielded an official report stating that there was "no credible evidence" to contradict the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald acted as a lone gunman. The commission's findings are a Gordian knot of sometimes contradictory information that have stoked the fires of conspiracy theorists worldwide, and making a coherent path through that labyrinth is no simple feat for the casual observer. Mishkin, Colón, and Drozd have miraculously made the document accessible, concisely reconstructing the events, eyewitness statements, and a plethora of data with crisp visuals that approximate the flow of a top-notch documentary. A concise primer for one of the 20th century's most indelible tragedies, this book is an effort worthy of consideration when awards season looms. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

The Warren Commission Report, like its namesake, stands out for its close attention to politics and to the grisly details that supported various theories. . . . The authors’ hope is that a confusing day from the past becomes more accessible.

The Atlantic

The Warren Commission Report: A Graphic Investigation into the Kennedy Assassination from Abrams ComicArts doesn’t attempt to do what the Commission failed to do. Rather, Mishkin, Colón, and Drozd take the report’s findings and examine them in light of the evidence—what information was not included because it didn’t fit the narrative, what controversies hold water and which ones don’t, and why did the Commission choose the tack it did. And ultimately, how did the Warren Commission’s failings affect, overtly or subtly, the changing face of America in the 1960s.

Comic Book Resources

Everything you wanted to know about the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in an easy-to-follow illustrated format.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

08/01/2014
The 1964 Warren Commission report on President John F. Kennedy's assassination set few minds to rest and energized conspiracy buffs worldwide. Rather than being an adaptation of the actual document, this "graphic investigation" describes the report's findings and shortcomings, reviews other theories in historical context, and summarizes evidence for and against different conclusions. Mishkin (Dungeons & Dragons, numerous DC titles) has gone deep and wide in gathering background. Colón (The 9/11 Report; The Great American Documents) and Drozd (comicsaregreat.com) bring a fine mix of graphic techniques to the complicated story. Their basic approach of photo-realist and clear line drawings is intercut with schematics, time lines, and other instructive visuals. In showing, for example, the chaos of Kennedy's hospital arrival, multiple text balloons providing testimony from witnesses float over the scene. In their effective use of coloring, a black-and-white Lee Harvey Oswald—the presumed killer, yet a "mystery man"—contrasts with overall subdued color broken by crimson-tinged violent moments. VERDICT Written for teens and adults, this dramatization of the murder mystery of the century integrates numerous narratives to make an excellent starting point for anyone interested in this American tragedy.—M.C.

Library Journal