Jonathan Fetter-Vorm

Trinity, the debut graphic book by the gifted illustrator Jonathan Fetter-Vorm, depicts in vivid detail the dramatic history of the race to build and the decision to drop the first atomic bomb. This sweeping historical narrative traces the spark of invention from the laboratories of nineteenth-century Europe to the massive industrial and scientific efforts of the Manhattan Project. Along the way, Fetter-Vorm takes special care to explain the fundamental science of nuclear reactions. With the clarity and accessibility that only a graphic book can provide, Trinity transports the reader into the core of a nuclear reaction—into the splitting atoms themselves. The power of the atom was harnessed in a top-secret government compound in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where some of the greatest scientific minds in the world gathered together to work on the bomb. Fetter-Vorm showcases J. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, and General Leslie Groves, the fathers of the atomic bomb, whose insights unleashed the most devastating explosion known to humankind. These brilliant scientists wrestled daily with both the difficulty of building an atomic weapon and the moral implications of actually succeeding. When the first bomb finally went off at a test site code-named Trinity, the world was irreversibly thrust into a new and terrifying age. With powerful renderings of the catastrophic events at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Fetter-Vorm unflinchingly chronicles the far-reaching political, environmental, and ethical effects of this new discovery. Richly illustrated and deeply researched, Trinity is a dramatic, informative, and thought-provoking book on one of the most significant and harrowing events in history.

Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb

A rich, full-color graphic exploration of our journey to the moon and a celebration of scientific achievement On July 20, 1969, something extraordinary happened, something civilizations had dreamed of for centuries: humans walked on the moon. Jonathan Fetter-Vorm’s Moonbound is the story behind those first steps. It begins with the tense, suspense-filled descent of the spidery Lunar Module, which transported Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the surface of the moon; the narrative offers a close-up view of the action. Then the story splits to an examination of the history of man’s fascination with space—from the earliest observers of the moon to the clear-eyed descriptions recorded by such visionaries as Galileo—and continues into the modern era, from Nazi atrocities and Soviet intrigues to square-jawed astronauts and a revolving cast of space-age dreamers. The narrative returns to July 20, 1969, the moment when our heroes made their historic moon walk, and finally moves on to the Space Shuttle program, the cosmic ambitions of deep-space probes, and the aspirations of companies like SpaceX. The story of space has always been about the conflict of imagination versus reality, of dreams versus politics. Publishing in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing, Moonbound revisits this classic story in a new way, as a graphic history.

Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight

Moonbound

Ari Kelman

"A graphic history of the Civil War, told through everyday objects"--

A Graphic History of the Civil War

Battle Lines

Michael Collins

Featuring breathtaking panoramas and revelatory, unforgettable images, Battle Lines is an utterly original graphic history of the Civil War. A collaboration between the award-winning historian Ari Kelman and the acclaimed graphic novelist Jonathan Fetter-Vorm, Battle Lines showcases various objects from the conflict (a tattered American flag from Fort Sumter, a pair of opera glasses, a bullet, an inkwell, and more), along with a cast of soldiers, farmers, slaves, and well-known figures, to trace an ambitious narrative that extends from the early rumblings of secession to the dark years of Reconstruction. Employing a bold graphic form to illuminate the complex history of this period, Kelman and Fetter-Vorm take the reader from the barren farms of the home front all the way to the front lines of an infantry charge. A daring presentation of the war that nearly tore America apart, Battle Lines is a monumental achievement.

Jonathan Fetter-Vorm

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