Jack Jackson's American History: Los Tejanos & Lost Cause
Jackson is one of the founders of the 1960s underground comics movement (his 1964 God Nose predates Zap Comix by four years), but he’s best known for his impressively researched, powerfully told graphic novels—the first of which appeared before the term even existed—relating the unvarnished history of his native Texas. This hardcover volume gathers two of his later works: 1989’s Los Tejanos, the story of Juan Seguin, a hero of the Texas revolution who fought at the Alamo but was later labeled a traitor by both Texans and Mexicans; and Lost Cause, a 1997 post–Civil War account of unreconstructed Texans who had supported the Confederacy, with a particular focus on notorious outlaw John Wesley Hardin. Jackson spins these sprawling, complex yarns with a skilled hand, imparting them with a rugged authenticity that makes them all the more compelling, never shying away from the violence and racism endemic to the period. His rough-hewn, craggy illustrations are an ideal vehicle for these tales of the rugged men who carved out the Lone Star State. --Gordon Flagg