graphic nonfiction, orig. published in France (some characters have been combined into composites) - history; political activist and icon Angela Davis

eye-catching illustrations, and would make a nice addition to any library, but I had a much easier time following (and learning from) Davis' print autobiography. If I weren't already vaguely familiar with her life, I might have had an even harder time understanding the sequences on these pages, so I'm not sure it does her story justice, but her strong, resilient spirit does come through here. ( )

A fictionalized biography of Angela Davis is told from the perspective of two made-up characters.

The first chapter of the book is told by a little girl named Linda Peters who knew Angela Davis growing up. It's not entirely clear from the story, but Davis is five years older than the character. I found it in poor taste that the author chose to use Linda to write over the life of Cynthia Wesley, one of the four victims of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. The other three victims appear as themselves in the story, but Wesley only gets mentioned on a memorial page after we watch Linda get blown up in her place.

Frankly, this tainted my attitude toward the rest of the book.

The remaining chapters are from the perspective of June Seymour, a white reporter from Sacramento. For some reason, her editor is depicted with the likeness of actor Al Molinaro -- Big Al from TV's Happy Days -- straight off the top hits on a Google image search. Check it out. (Oh, and California governor Ronald Reagan is depicted with the likeness of Bedtime for Bonzo actor Ronald Reagan.) Meanwhile, Seymour's personality and character is pretty non-existent -- she simply idolizes Davis -- and does not deserve all the panels devoted to her through the rest of the book that simply distract from Davis. Mostly she seems to serve as a device to allow the story of a Black woman to be told through a white perspective. Of course, the whole story may be filtered through a white perspective as I'm not sure if either of the French creators is BIPOC from a cursory search on the internet.

The facts that can be gleaned about Davis are interesting, but lots of details are skimmed over, making some of the sequences more than a bit confusing. Real people who surrounded Davis are barely introduced, sacrificed to more time with the fictional characters.

Dubious and unsatisfying. ( )