WHAT FOLLOWS IS TRUE

Fitzgibbon’s graphic novel details a historically creepy old hotel.

The author takes as his subject the infamous Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, which opened in 1886 and trundled along as a hotel and a school for girls until the Great Depression ended both concerns in 1934. In 1937, the sprawling, ornate building was converted into a cancer clinic by a man named Norman Baker, who attracted a wide clientele by promising a cure for the disease. “To gaze into the lobby and see the folks, young and old, sitting around contentedly enjoying themselves, one would hardly think of them as being sick, but upon inquiry you would learn that many of them have been pronounced incurable and have come to the Baker Hospital as a last resort.” Fitzgibbon inserts himself into the narrative, depicting himself researching the story of Baker and his clinic, delving into old newspaper accounts and hearing from some people who had direct experiences with the crackpot medical regimens practiced at the old hotel. The author also includes details from correspondence and private memoranda, such as a “For Patients Only” notice Baker circulated in 1939: “Be determined,” it reads. “Make up your mind that you are going to get well. Do not let those poisonous, good-for-nothing thoughts enter your mind.” Fitzgibbon frames this history for maximum cinematic effect—a pair of young boys warily walk through the cobwebbed empty rooms of the abandoned Crescent, examining the dusty remnants of the horrifying quackery that harmed many hopeful patients under Baker’s dubious care. Fitzgibbon illustrates most of his story in evocative sepia tones and muted colors, and his use of the various historical source materials is very effective throughout. This is a powerful interpretation of the real horrors behind an infamous institution.

A gripping, moody, illustrated chronicle of the notorious Crescent Hotel.