Kent State: Four Dead In Ohio

"Derf Backderf brings historical context and a propulsive sense of narrative to this graphical history of the Kent State shootings. On May 4, 1970, at an anti-Vietnam War rally at Kent State University, the Ohio National Guard killed four unarmed students and seriously wounded nine others. Backderf’s noodly style uncannily evokes that era, and his sparse palette (black and white with some restrained gray shading) imbues his tale with force and urgency. His attention to the guardsmen’s side of things – their lack of training in de-escalation, systemic hostility and paranoia toward anti-war demonstrators – strikes a resonant chord in a year marked by images of police and National Guard troops brutalizing Black Lives Matter protesters."