The parallels may not be subtle, but they are not forced either. Protests opposing violence and historic injustices are met with the deployment of a police state and mass violence.
It was a different cause at a different time, but the similarities with our current moment are uncanny. The student protests that led to the National Guard's deployment in Kent, Ohio were centered on the Vietnam War. Waves of tear gas washing over unarmed protestors, uniformed men with guns covering their names with tape, and the image of a young man lying dead on cement resonate with me as a resident of Omaha, Nebraska where James Scurlock was shot and killed this summer while protesting against police brutality. Most Americans will recognize different details depending on where they live in the country. Imagery, details, and other connections call out on almost every page, reminding readers that these events are not so distant and too different from our present reality. Reviewing the facts of this incident 50 years later and many facets of the story reflect nightly news stories from our current moment. It is a work of years with copious notes and excellent sourcing supporting the brief narrative of four worsening days along with examinations of the surrounding culture and causes that made the tragic incident possible. This cartoon volume is, first and foremost, a work of history-carefully examining the Kent State massacre and three preceding days with special focus paid to the lives of the four students murdered by the National Guard on May 4, 1970. "History doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes." Whether or not Mark Twain said those words, their truth is made evident when reading Derf Backderf's newest graphic novel Kent State in the fall of 2020.
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