The Cartoon History of the Universe II, Volumes 8-13: From the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome (Pt.2)
by Larry Gonick
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Book Summary Information
Author: Larry GonickEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1994-10
ISBN: 0385420935
Number of pages: 305
Publisher: Main Street Books/Doubleday
Book Reviews of The Cartoon History of the Universe II, Volumes 8-13: From the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome (Pt.2)
Book Review: The universe in comics... finally...
Summary: 5 Stars
Comics have no limits. Anything can get depicted with words and pictures. And, after Larry Gonick completes his "Cartoon History of the Universe" series, most everything will be. Over the past three decades Gonick has stretched modern comics from the purely fictional into the scientific and historic. He has cartoonified esoteric subjects that would bore most medieval scriveners. Snoozers like statistics, genetics, physics, chemistry (and the one exception, that great unmentionable - blush, blush - puritans look away quick!) come alive like golems to terrorize despisers of knowledge. These collections make learning palatable even for those with Beavis and Butthead mentalities. As such, that unobtainable indefatigable unreachable, almost paradoxical, oxymoron of oxymorons, the "educational comic," seems close to fruition and perfection. Somewhere an educator just gagged. Above all, as if turning the comics industry on its head wasn't enough, Gonick has undertaken his magnum opus: a multivolume chronological multicultural history of our known universe in cartoon form. Overachiever detector! Bzzzt! Bzzzzt!
Book I, volumes 1-7, of this pen and paper masterwork started with a BIG BANG and wormed its way to Alexander the Great's voluminous conquests. Book II, volumes 8 - 13, picks up where it left off, but not before taking a dizzying tour through India and China. Volume eight covers India from Harappa to the Bhagavad-Gita (with its eerie page length depiction of Krishna's "revelation" to Arjuna) and Ashoka with the origins of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism tossed into the cultural salad. Gonick also manages a stunning two page summary of the Mahabharata, the 74,000 verse Hindu epic creation poem. Only comics could pull this off. Volumes 9 and 10 grapple with the infinity of Chinese history. Court intrigues, gory wars, philosophers such as Sun Wu, Lao Tzu, Confucius, Chuang-Tzu, and a breakneck tour through the Hsia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties make for entertaining and brain bursting reading. Knowledge overload. Be sure to cool the brain often. These sections provide an efficient gloss of Chinese history up to 9 A.D. Then to Rome for volumes 11 - 13. Via a detour through the short life of Alexander the Great, King Romulus (after rudely impaling Remus on a sword) founded the city that still bears his name. That's what killing your brother gets you, apparently. Great morality tale there, indeed. Later, after love-starved Romans hauled off the Sabine women, one of Tarquin the Proud's cronies raped Lucretia ("Don't blame me! I never heard this word before..."). Out of honor she stabbed herself and Junius Brutus led the charge to overthrow the corrupt kings and initiated the Roman Republic. All was sort of fine until the Gauls invaded, (depicted here with various characters from Asterix), the Ides of March, and Caesar Octavianus took full power. The Roman Empire began. Book II ends with the fall of the Western Roman empire. Lots more happens in between, of course, but world history often defies even cursory summary.
One interesting interlude involves Jesus or, as the book calls him, "Jeshua Ben Joseph" ("Jesus" doesn't come along until the Greeks name Jeshua "Christ" or "Messiah"). Gonick makes brief mention of the Gospels of Mary Magdalene and even depicts the unmentionable. (Oooh! NOW you want to read it, don't you? Slobber! Drool!) Gonick takes a unique look at this pivotal point in history. His ultimate viewpoint emanates from the asides.
"The Cartoon History of The Universe" won't transform anyone into a historian. Information overload sags the brain quick and often. Chinese history in particular will seem like a blur. So much happens. Regardless, this series has the power, unlike most text-based histories, to suck any skeptic into the bizarre narrative that makes up human history. If nothing else, readers will get a good overview of just how varied, strange, violent, provocative, and sometimes cruel our past is. We're goofy creatures. No series has made this point better, or more humorously, or with better cartoons, than this one.
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Summary of The Cartoon History of the Universe II, Volumes 8-13: From the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome (Pt.2)
Here's a new installment of the phenomenal bestseller that Publishers Weekly selected as one of the twelve graphic books of all time. Spanning ages and continents from Ancient India to Rome and China in A.D. 600, Volume II is hip, funny, and full of info.B & W illustrations.
Continuing right where the first book left off, The Cartoon History of the Universe II once again combines Gonick's superb cartooning with the lessons of history. Find out what Lynn Johnston, creator of For Better of Worse, calls "a gift to those of us who love to laugh and who love to learn." Part II contains volumes 8 to 13, from the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome (and India, too!).
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