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REVIEW: Durruti: Shadow of the People #1
Book Title: Durruti: Shadow of the People #1
Book Description: Durruti: Shadow of the People begins with a young boy named Buenaventura Durruti helping a blacksmith as he considers an apprenticeship there. The blacksmith tells young Durruti that if he decides to take the apprenticeship he will be taught to become a master blacksmith and an anarchist. He then advises Durruti to seriously think about what he wants from life. We then fast forward to 1927. Durruti is now a grown man that, along with two other men, is being held for an extradition hearing in France. The crimes they are being accused of include military desertion, 16 counts of armed robbery, stealing more than a million pesetas from the Bank of Spain, and the attempted murder of a king, which resulted in the death of the Archbishop of Zaragoza. If they are extradited to Argentina it’s a safe bet that all three men will have a date with the electric chair. It’s up to their attorney to make the legal argument of a lifetime to keep these men alive.
Book Author: Brenton Lengel
Book Format: Paperback
Publisher - Orgnization: Autonomous Collective
Publisher Logo:
Illustrator: Jaime Infante
- Story(3.7)
- Interior Art(4.3)
- Cover Art(3.9)
- Dialogue(3.7)
- Mechanics(3.8)
- Editing(3.8)
Summary
As a historical fiction fan I found this book to be fascinating. Aside from Hitler’s rise to power in Germany I was unfamiliar with most of the happenings in Europe in between the first two World Wars. I found Durruti’s argument to be simultaneously intriguing and sad.
He’s right to be arguing that with the wages people are making being able to feed a family is becoming more and more difficult. The system is broken. The rich are getting richer while the poor are struggling to survive. The sad thing is that almost 100 years later that argument still holds water.
I liked how the artwork on the cover was done. Exchanging details for a broader use of a red tone, while putting multiple layers of relevant pieces of the story into it was a bold move… and it works. The different shades of red make the book stand out in the crowd.
The artwork on the interior pages is remarkable. It’s detailed. The colors pop off of the page, pulling the reader deeper into the story. I was particularly fond of the panels depicting the judge listing their various crimes.
As a geek on a budget I believe Durruti: Shadow of the People #1 is worth the price of admission. You’re getting a compelling story, great artwork, and a bit of a history lesson all rolled into one.
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