The Mueller Report Graphic Novel by Shannon Wheeler and Steve Duin (2020)

As I was going through a graphic novel phase last year, I was picking up whatever books I could for a bargain, and I came across this gem covering the American history from 2016-2019 that I’d missed while overseas. It informed me enough about our nation’s political goings on without boring me with legalese or overbearing partisanship, and I loved it. This book was very well done.

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Like 99.9% of all Americans, I never read the 448-page Mueller Report about Donald Trump‘s alleged collusion with Russia during his 2016 election campaign and the charges against him of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress—the two that got him impeached in December 2019. Instead, I heard about it every minute from every news outlet during our first COVID quarantine in January 2020 and never wanted to hear about it again. Now three years later, I’m glad for the detailed reminder in such a clear, systematic way. Now, I really never need to hear about it again.

Shannon Wheeler is, apparently, a well-known cartoonist for the New Yorker (which I’ve never read) and Steve Duin is a journalist for The Oregonian (which I’ve never heard of). Political reads are not normally my genre of choice, but if they keep coming out with graphic novels like this that simplify years-long political stories for laypeople like me, well I’d be jumping all over it.

In fact, throughout my reading of this Mueller Report, I kept wishing that they’d have also written a similar graphic novel about President Clinton The Starr Report from 1998—another political report I’ve never read and will never read. A quick Google search for “the starr report graphic novel” turned up nothing promising, so perhaps some up-and-coming graphic artist and her political science boyfriend can work on it for me. I can’t pay, but…

The fact that this book is essentially Mueller’s own narration from the report suggests that it’s about as partisan as was the investigation itself—so take that as you will. The fact that Wheeler and Duin chose to spend so much time on this project and teased their way through it both graphically and editorially suggests that it’s about as biased as the New Yorker is (77% liberal to 6% conservative), meaning it’s pretty Left-leaning. It didn’t really affect me, though. Like I said, this book was very well done.

The only thing I didn’t really understand from the book was the emphasis on Trump’s apparent friendship with President Zelensky from Ukraine. I mean, seriously? He takes phone calls from the guy and that’s a major security issue; but Biden’s paid the same dude nearly $80 billion since the beginning of the War in Ukraine, and that’s to be celebrated? Yeah, I don’t get it.

All in all, this was a great book, and I genuinely hope this creative team turns out more books just like it.

©2023 E.T.

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Read More Books Written by and about U.S. Presidents:

Abraham Lincoln

• Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer by James L. Swanson (2006)
• Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (2011)

Teddy Roosevelt

• Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt’s America by Eric Rauchway (2003)
• Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Story, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt by David McCullough (1981)
• Don’t You Dare Shoot That Bear! A Story of Theodore Roosevelt by Robert Quackenbush (1984)
• The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris (1979)
• Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris (2001)

John F. Kennedy

• Killing Kennedy by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (2012)

Jimmy Carter

• Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis by President Jimmy Carter (2005)

Ronald Reagan

• Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation by Ronald Reagan (1983)
• When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan by Peggy Noonan (2001)
• Ronald Reagan: a Life in Pictures, 1911-2004 by LIFE Magazine (2004)
• The Notes: Ronald Reagan’s Private Collection of Stories and Wisdom by Ronald Reagan, ed. Douglas Brinkley (2011)
• Killing Reagan: The Violent Assault that Changed a Presidency by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (2015)

Bill Clinton

• The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson (2018)

George W. Bush

• The Faith of George W. Bush by Stephen Mansfield (2004)
• Decision Points by George W. Bush (2010)

Donald Trump

• How to Get Rich by Donald J. Trump and Meredith McIver (2004)
• The Mueller Report Graphic Novel by Shannon Wheeler and Steve Duin (2020)