Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2012 April 11 • Wednesday

This graphic novel tells a story of race, class and family tensions leading to violence and catharsis in an Indiana farming community. The trigger is Orson Welles's famous radio dramatization of The War of the Worlds.

The action of the book occasionally cuts away to New York City, where we see Welles and company before and during the broadcast. The purpose of these scenes appears to be to suggest that it was Welles's intention to frighten people, which is too unlikely an idea to take seriously, though I guess it's an irresistible kind of story to many. (The back cover of The Broadcast refers to Welles's "infamous radio play" as a "hoax". I think the real story, that the reaction to the broadcast was entirely unexpected and unintended, is a better story.)

It's well done and entertaining even if it plays loose with what we know of the facts surrounding the broadcast. For instance, Welles tried to take credit for writing the adaptation of The War of the Worlds, which was the work of Howard Koch. This is alluded to in a panel where we see Welles cross out Koch's name on the script and write his own. Welles almost certainly never actually did that—and it wouldn't have made much difference if he had—but he tried to accomplish the same thing in a different way.