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Nov. 30, 2007
Graphic tales of U.S. history
Rays of light enter James Sturm's dark portrayal of humanity.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
An illustrated history of the United States in three acts. That's James Sturm's America: God, Gold and Golems in a nutshell. Published by Drawn and Quarterly (Montreal), it's not a glorified, strident and proud-to-be-American history that focuses on famous people or celebrated events. Rather, it highlights three disparate, relatively unremarkable, periods with an honesty that's sometimes brutal, but which always contains an element of hope.
James Sturm, an award-winning artist, is the co-founder and director of the Centre for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vt. America is a graphic novel that brings together stories that he has previously published individually.
The first section is called "The Revival," and follows Joseph and Sarah Bainbridge as they travel to Caine Ridge, Ky., from Ohio, in 1801, to see Elijah Young: "the stricken heal and the fallen rise when he's preachin'."
"Hundreds of Feet" is set at a gold mine, in Solomon's Gulch, Idaho, in 1886. Initially run by Chinese workers, the mine is brutally overtaken by a gang of whites, led by business partners Jem and Ned, who have no more success with it than did the Chinese. Tensions rise between the owners and their workers, and it doesn't end prettily.
Finally, "The Golem's Mighty Swing" is the story of a Jewish baseball team in the 1920s, called the Stars of David, which allows a promoter to dress up their one black player as a golem to increase public interest in the team and, hopefully, game revenues.
Each chapter is longer than its predecessor and each focuses on a different aspect of how difficult it is to create a foundation and build a life.
"The Revival" is set in a time where relatively minor diseases killed and when drinking, gambling, promiscuity and cruelty were rampant. Sturm's drawings of the wild-eyed and crazy-haired preacher highlight the madness and futility of looking for miracles from a mortal and his dark, many-lined illustrations reinforce the frantic fervor of the pilgrims. Though gloomy to the end, Sturm doesn't finish the story with bleakness. While the Bainbridges don't receive any miracles, they do leave the revival hopeful: "Hard work starting fresh," Joseph tells Sarah, "but I believe we could build a new life in Missouri." She agrees: "Yes. I believe we can."
From God, Sturm moves onto gold – and the greedy, violent nature of human beings. He doesn't shy away from vividly portraying people killing each other. The artistry is even darker in this chapter, with heavier lines and deep black backgrounds, in part because some of the action takes place in the mine, underground, but also because of the subject matter above ground. The story's subplot shows how the town's non-mining residents – women – are just as trapped and miserable as the miners. Here again though, while the final death toll is high, Sturm doesn't leave readers completely bereft of hope.
The final chapter, "The Golem's Mighty Swing," takes up more than half of America. In it, baseball, meant to be a pleasant distraction from life's harsh realities, a source of entertainment, turns ugly and real, with anti-Semitism overshadowing what there is to love about America's favorite game. At the height of a riot that pours into the field and threatens the Stars of David players, coach Noah Strauss hears his father's voice in prayer – it's actually his teammate and brother, Mo (Moishe), saying the Sh'ma. "For thousands of years Jews have tried to die with the Sh'ma on their lips," notes Strauss.
It's moments like these that make America more than a simple comic book. Sturm has pored an extensive amount of research into these stories. His minimalist style and ability to write natural-sounding dialogue evoke the periods represented. And both the artwork and the narrative seem to develop as the history becomes more recent: "The Revival" has messy lines, which, by "Golem," become cleaner and thicker, with sepia-toned shading, rather than black. In "Golem," while it's an upsetting story as well, there is more brightness.
America should make readers question how far, or not so far, we have come in the past two centuries. Belief in false gods, greed, betrayal and racism still thrive – and there are still a few people who rail against these things and who provide hope for us all.
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