King: Ho Che Anderson

King was a visually vivid read. In the authors introduction Ho Che Anderson lets his feeling’s loose and describes the motivations behind the creation of the graphic novel. His statements are very bold; he explains that he doesn’t care about what people think about his statements because they are true. He basically talks about all of the pointless violence that is prevalent in modern African American community. Getting this insight from the author really helped put me in his mindset and put me in the right gear to climb his mountain of a tale.

Anderson vividly illustrates most of Dr. Martin Luther King’s life. In the first volume Anderson delves into the life of Dr. King in black and white. The second volume introduces colors in individual panels that are dispersed through out the comic to emphasize speeches that MLK makes. The third volume is mostly in color and this is where Anderson shines. It seems part of his illustrations were based on Picasso, which I found to be a very unique blend that fit with the tone created an urban abstract style that fits with how I view African American society in the 1960’s. His exaggerated figures really define the work. The exaggerated proportions on the faces and limbs create various emotions that make the high points of Dr. King’s life mainly his speeches stand out. The arcs in the bodies in conjunction with sharp lines create clear definition of how the characters are thinking. The low points are expressed with darker colors such as blues and purples. King had some pacing issues when MLK would go to meeting with organizations, which popped up occasionally. I understand it has its place in that is accurately portraying MLK’s life, but I felt it could have been edited so that the story didn’t slow down so drastically but it added to the idea of MLk’s struggle to achieve his goals. After finishing all three volumes and to give it a score out of 10, it gets a 6 from me mainly for the story dragging out a bit. I would like to investigate other works by Ho Che Anderson to see how his art style translates to a different subject matter.