James Sturm's America (M)

Edition excerpt from James Sturm's America: God, Gold, and Golems (2007): Focusing on less sensational times in U.S. history (non-war and pre-Depression), James Sturm's America draws a portrait of the people and their dreams that make up this country. Comprised of three chapters -'The Revival,' 'Hundreds of Feet Below Daylight,' and 'The Golem's Mighty Swing' - the story grows as the country grows; from pioneers searching for a place to call home, to ghost towns gutted by greed and racism, to the distractions and fantasies of popular entertainment. James Sturm is one of the most important figures to have emerged in comics in recent years, both as a cartoonist and as the founder and director of the Center For Cartoon Studies. The work collected in this book has been praised by numerous cultural luminaries, from novelists Jonathan Lethem and Russell Banks to Doonesbury's Gary Trudeau. Sturm won an Eisner Award for his Fantastic Four graphic novel, Unstable Molecules.