Review: The Broadcast by Eric Hobbs and Noel Tuazon

Halfway through Orson Welles' War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938 a rural Indiana town loses power. Believing the show to have been real, tensions escalate between a small group of families as they fight over how and who should survive.

This premise was absolutely irresistible to me. The story of what happened around the War of the Worlds broadcast has always been interesting to me, and the idea of being so cut off from the world that losing power during a storm and not knowing what's really going on is very foreign to me in this internet age. I am always fascinated by the psychology behind survival stories as well, the selfishness and the sacrifice. So The Broadcast has a lot going for it.

The emotional core of the story is also very timeless and there were several times I wasn't sure how things were going to turn out. I'm still kind of a newbie to graphic novels, but I'm always amazed at how the images and writing work together to deliver well defined characters in such a short space. The images really do an amazing job of filling in for the lack of words, so that you are allowed to truly experience the story--to feel tension, surprise, and wonder. I really feel that Noel Tuazon's artwork evokes a certain feeling of dread, mystery, and suspense that the characters are experiencing.

Hobbs manages to weave together his compelling storylines of a small town cut off from the world when they think it's ending and explores the dark nature within us all. I really enjoyed reading The Broadcast.

Rating: 4/5
Things You Might Want to Know: Some profanity
Source of Book: Received from writer for review
Publisher: ComicsLit (an imprint of NBM Publishing)