The Bomb: The Weapon That Changed the World

"I feel this book is really important, because it’s easier to swallow than many of the big books that we have on the history of the A-bomb. It was published by Abrams in English but was originally a Glénat title in France. It came out in English at the same time as the Oppenheimer film, though that was a coincidence. It took longer to translate than people thought, because it’s full of technical terms. The story is really emotional when you see it in pictures. In the beginning, you see the excitement in the scientists’ faces when they discover the chain reaction. It’s an incredible thing. They go into a squash court at the University of Chicago, and it actually happens. Everybody’s shocked and amazed and excited. It’s really interesting to see it in pictures. The way they depict Einstein and his suffering… Everybody was saying, ‘We need to have the A-bomb.’ But then, when you have it, you realize you’ve created a monster. Yes. It talks about the Big Bang and how we recreated the Big Bang on Earth, which is kind of creepy. It’s scientific, it’s emotional, it’s about the relationships, the people. It’s set partly in Hungary, where a lot of the science started, and then goes to the US, and all the way out to California. It’s almost like a road movie. So that’s a really important book, and it’s worth taking the time to read it. Yes, it was written in French. Comics is a huge industry there and it’s been going on for years. There are long books, short books, children’s books, adult books. The variety is incredible. We’re starting to have that in the Anglo-Saxon world, but it’s nothing like the variety and depth in France. If you go into a comics shop in France, it’s just amazing."