Indeh

May 2, 2016
Beautiful brushstrokes by Ruth (The Lost Boy) bring the conflict between the Apache and the United States in 1872 to life in a collaboration with actor Hawke that strives to escape Hollywood’s western mythos. Most U.S. troops are shown to be horrible people, as when they hang Apache leader Cochise’s family, but Gen. Oliver O. Howard rides in at the end, saving everyone (for the time being) using his Christian faith. Young Geronimo’s merciless killings combined with the white savior theme feel like a flawed attempt at balance. Ruth’s art, however, is a complete success, using a wash technique to indicate distance and loose line to give flow and movement. Characters of every race are distinctive and the natural backgrounds are breathtaking. Imperfections aside, this respectful approach to America’s shameful history is a good start to further a conversation often neglected.

Hawke (Rules for a Knight, 2015, etc.) and Ruth (The Lost Boy, 2013, etc.) deliver an impressionistic overview of the Apache Wars, fought between the United States Army and several bands of Apache tribes in the southwest territories of mid-1800s America. This graphic novel cruises along a quarter century of conflict, depicting poignant moments in the lives of Apache leaders and warriors and members of the United States Army charged with "civilizing" the land claimed as spoils of the Mexican-American War, land many Apache call home. It's a brutal, bloody time, with violence begetting violence, exemplified by Goyahkla, an Apache warrior who lost his mother, wife, and children to an attack by the Mexican Army and earned a new name from the pleas for mercy of the last man slaughtered in the Apache's revenge raid on a Mexican village ("San Jeronimo...por favor"). Hawke and Ruth interweave this Geronimo origin story and other legends of the era (Cochise escaping arrest by simply cutting an exit through the side of an Army tent; U.S. soldiers torturing and murdering Mangas Coloradas--who had come to negotiate peace--before finally boiling his decapitated head over a campfire) with historical fiction, allowing for some literary license and philosophical dialogue on the politics of settling an already-inhabited land. Bookending the work with the doomed Apache perspective underscores the tragedy and magnitude of the events. An afterword by Hawke explains his personal connection to the material, and a Further Reading section gives the nonfiction roots for the work. The narration is concise and lyrical, perfectly wed to Ruth's wonderfully expressive illustrations, whose gorgeous photorealism--calling to mind the works of Alex Ross--breathes vivid life into the historical material. The paneling gracefully carries both intense action scenes (the book is exceptionally violent) and stirring cutaways (to the majesty and menace of nature). A beautiful, elegiac entree to an era of violent transition. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 1, 2016

After burying his massacred family, Goyahkla leads an attack on a Mexican village, where he gets a new name-Geronimo. What follows are years of brutal attacks and counterattacks as the Apache fight for their way of life and the U.S. government tries to subdue them. Hawke focuses mostly on the Apache side of the story, telling it through their eyes to balance the years of historical inaccuracies and Hollywood romanticism. However, he pulls no punches in portraying the violence from both sides and highlights the divided opinions as all involved try to figure out next steps. Ruth's haunting and poignant black-and-white watercolors capture the desolate grandeur of the Southwestern landscape as well as the violence, death, grief, and loss of war. This gut punch of a novel is a necessary addition and serves as a good introduction to the realities of Manifest Destiny and the resulting American westward expansion. Some elements may be confusing to those unfamiliar with the history of the Apache Wars, but a bibliography is included for citations and further reading. VERDICT Beautiful and brutal, this is a heartbreaking look at how the West was really "won."-Jennifer Rothschild, Arlington Public Library, Arlington, VA

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2016
Seldom has the brutally escalating Apache Waror any warbeen depicted with such breathtaking beauty as it is here. Actor and director Hawke's smartly told tale ostensibly follows the progress of the young Goyahkla as he earns the name Geronimo, and his people trade vicious attacks with misguided and untrustworthy white men until, in an uneasy peace, the tribe sees its own slow end on the way. Though the writing affords insight into Bluecoat politics and motivations at the expense of a deeper understanding of Apache culture, it's tightly paced and offers well-wrought characters. It's Ruth's transformative visuals, however, that give the story both a deeper humanity and a sense of timeless mythology. The artist captures a cinematic sweep with his extraordinarily detailed faces and exquisitely evocative shadings, but he also uses sequential mechanics to transmute striking detailsa mystical vision seen through an inverted panel, a flaming horse racing by in the aftermath of battleinto moments that lodge in the mind, merging a distant history with the more immediate and urgent emotions of the present.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2016

This 1872-set work explains the transformation of visionary young Apache Goyahkla into the fabled Geronimo. A ten-year labor of love for Oscar-nominated actor Hawke and New York Times best-selling author and illustrator Ruth.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.