The Accidental Candidate: The Rise and Fall of Alvin Greene
Long-form journalism meets sequential art in this startling and informative investigation of South Carolina politics. The titular subject is an unbalanced and unconnected man who was rumored to have been guided by Republicans to get his name on the Democratic ticket in South Carolina’s 2010 Senate contest. Hutchins, Axe, and Delliquanti explore the story and its lead persona with skill and a well-paced reconstruction of the extraordinary debasement of the political system, as Greene hijacked the ballot from more rational candidates to run against Jim DeMint. The black-and-white artwork provides excellent reportage of persons, dispositions, and the interplay between Greene’s delusions of grandeur and his reality. The reporters include themselves in the report, showing how and where they posed questions, as well as the responses elicited by various players. This is an important story that deserves wide reader attention as journalism, as well as providing a fine example, in a smaller frame, of the kind of work Joe Sacco has been doing for years. --Francisca Goldsmith--This text refers to an alternatePaperbackedition.