A for Anonymous

January 20, 2020
Opening with the promise of investigative panache, this slim graphic report on the international hacker collective Anonymous unfortunately devolves into unquestioned preachiness in the later third
. The narrative is structured around an interview New Yorker reporter Kushner (Rise of the Dungeon Master) did with a reclusive hacker known as Commander X, who eagerly chats Kushner through the leaderless resistance group’s credos about fighting tyranny and oppression before he outlines the group’s history. Rooted in the early Texas “hacktivist” collective Cult of the Dead Cow, Anonymous originated as a crew of online pranksters on the forum 4chan who made their bones causing mischief for the Church of Scientology. After crafting their brand of darkly ironic ominousness, with Guy Fawkes masks and doom-laden pronouncements—sketched here by Shadmi with appropriately sharp, bold lines, mixing realistic art and some cartoonish representations—Anonymous sprawled worldwide, targeting broad bad sorts, from student rapists in Steubenville, Ohio, to the Tunisian dictatorship. Enthusiasm quickly outran judiciousness in many cases, as when Anonymous’s intervention into the Ferguson riots resulted in innocent people being doxxed and targeted without pause to verify their presumed connection to the police shooting that kicked off the protests. This short, pungent history of the online protest phenomenon simulates its anarchically idealistic spread , but stops short of nuanced consideration of the big questions about tech vigilantes and ethics that it raises. Agent: David McCormick, McCormick Literary.

February 1, 2020

Kushner (Rise of the Dungeon Master: Gary Gygax and the Creation of D&D) and Shadmi (The Twilight Man: Rod Serling and the Birth of Television) reveal the history of Anonymous, described by member named Commander X in the opening pages as "not a group, and it's not a person. Specifically, it is the idea that all of us deserve freedom." After explaining that hacktivism was born when hackers calling themselves the Cult of the Dead Cow refused to acquiesce to the Church of Scientology's demands they stop criticizing them online, and how the earliest incarnation of Anonymous emerged through a 4chan forum, the authors focus their history on a series of Anonymous operations. In 2008, they gain notoriety in their own battle against Scientology. In 2010, Anonymous attacks Sony, resulting in a data breach that exposes the personal information of 24 million people. Members of Anonymous assist protesters in Egypt after the government disables internet access and cellular networks, target rapists in Ohio, and mobilize in Ferguson, MO, following the shooting of Michael Brown. Scenes of hacktivists sitting at their computers are made compelling by Shadmi's clever use of surrealist imagery. VERDICT A thought-provoking history of an oft-misunderstood subject, as well as the evolution of social protests over the past three decades.

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.