History Comics: The National Parks: Preserving America's Wild Places

As a person who has been to a good many of them, I feel that the National Parks are one of the best parts of the USA. They are full of stupendous views, fantastic landscapes, unique flora, and surprising fauna. All of these features are sumptuously captured in the artwork of this volume of History Comics, and what's more it also provides excellent historical context for their creation and the people behind the scenes.

Have I mentioned that it is narrated by a Sasquatch and an eagle? It is!

This book details the major figures behind the origins and continuation of the National Park Service, warts and all. It tells about how Native Americans were removed from many of these spaces and how their concerns were largely ignored. It chronicles the racism experienced by the buffalo soldiers who were among the first rangers protecting Yosemite National Park. It portrays the many accomplishments of naturalist and The Sierra Club co-founder John Muir while also noting his racist and paternalistic tendencies. In all, I feel it is an excellent piece of scholarship that balances facts with entertainment, not shying away from the more negative aspects of history. The National Parks is one of the best of this fantastic series of graphic novels.

That this book is so well crafted is no surprise, given that it was written and drawn by Falynn Koch. She is a veteran of the History Comics series, having drawn The Wild Mustang. She has also drawn a couple of entries in the Science Comics series, Bats and Plagues, as well as a Makers Comics book about baking.

All of the reviews I have read about this book have been positive. Kirkus Reviews called it "a witty yet complicated history of the national parks." Johanna Draper Carlson wrote that it "can be read multiple times, with new facts standing out to the reader each time through."

The National Parks:  Preserving America's Wild Places was published by First Second, and they offer a review and more information about it here.