THE BOMB

A graphic history of the original weapon of mass destruction.

A team of French writers and artists frames this history of the atomic bomb by means of an unexpected narrator: uranium, present as Earth solidified billions of years ago but possessed of “an inkling that a great destiny awaited me.” The narrative leaps forward to the age of the Curies, who divined hidden powers in the element, which then declares, “The world’s greatest scientists are interested in me and my attributes. My day is dawning.” Many of those scientists worked for the Axis powers, which used their military might to secure uranium around the world. As one Japanese military leader remarks to a scientist named Dr. Nishina, “Lieutenant Colonel Suzuki has assured me that Japan has plenty of uranium thanks to our actions in Korea.” Via a European mine owner in Africa, though, a large quantity of uranium was shipped to, of all places, Staten Island, and Allied scientists began to work on it even as Norwegian commandos set to work blowing up German water facilities. The illustrations are deep-dark black-and-white, in keeping with the funereal consequences of the subject matter, with grimly detailed attention to the appearances of the victims of Hiroshima, including the iconic shadow left on a stone step by a vaporized victim. The storyline is well rendered, with the principal actors developed thoroughly and with all their foibles: Enrico Fermi’s arrogance, Robert Oppenheimer’s philandering, Gen. Leslie Groves’ hunger for fame and power. The authors and illustrator leave open numerous unresolved historical questions, appropriately, such as the matter of whether Werner Heisenberg deliberately delayed the development of the Third Reich’s version of the bomb. The story ends with uranium crowing about the prospects for the future—and they’re appallingly good.

The illustrations are chilling, the narrative certainly so, all perfectly fitting the subject.