Purchased from BetterWorldBooks.com
Former Baltimore County Public Library book

Amancay Nahuelpan (Illustrator)
Tyler Boss (Colorist)
Jim Campbell (Letterer)

Description:
What if a fascist, autocratic President took over the United States? And what if that President lost California, the sixth largest economy on Earth, by nearly 2-to-1...a margin of almost 3 1/2 million votes? What if the day after that President took power, the largest mass demonstration in history occurred, and the state with the largest turnout was California. And then, the following week, two of the largest international airports in the world, California’s LAX and SFO, were blockaded by protesters?

What if California refused to be ruled?

From the creators of YOUNG TERRORISTS, Matteo Pizzolo (GODKILLER) and Amancay Nahuelpan (CLANDESTINO), comes this tale of resisting oppression, punching Nazis, protecting each other, kicking ass, and demanding liberty for all.

In history, no oppression has ever changed until people got really angry and did something."
– Lexi Alexander

Conceived prior to Trump winning the election, Calexit is a liberal revolutionist's daydream. After Trump won the election, the graphic novel was already in progress but it was revised to encompass what was going on in the real world.

The book starts during the 2nd term of His Excellency's reign. California has seceded from the US after the president deemed all immigrants illegal and started having them all deported, and now he wants California back under his control. He's doing it for the good of the people, after all. California is torn between revolutionists, people trying to lead a 'normal' life, neo-nazis, occupying national guard/homeland personnel, rural citizens cutting off water and food to the major cities, and an underground network to move people and goods into and out of the cities and state.

The back matter of the book has an interesting section on the flags of each group and their symbolism.

The rest of the back matter contains interviews of people the author found interesting, including the person credited with the quote at the beginning of this review. There are a couple of interviews the author did for Entertainment Weekly and The Oregonian. It finishes with some additional artwork.

Additional note: The bear on the cover is wearing a mask. I know it has to do with the revolutionists hiding their faces...but it ties in with current events dealing with the 2020 pandemic. An unintentional tribute to Trump screwing up the pandemic response.

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One of the starting books for The Bookbox of the Apocalypse!

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I'm taking this from Spatial's Bookbox of the Apocalypse.

This was a quick read, and so I'm able to add it back into Spatial's Bookbox of the Apocalypse before I send it onward.

Unexpectedly, I found the book to contain more substance in its backmatter than in the graphic novel itself. The graphic novel is a reprint of issues #1-3 of CALEXIT comics, which have yet to be continued. The backmatter is a collection of interviews with a variety of individuals who discuss their experiences of progressive activism and resistance in the era of Trump. I read this in the period of time after Trump lost re-election in 2020 and before inauguration of Biden in 2021. We are in another interstitial time that will inevitably reshape history’s view of the period.

For fans of graphical writing, I would recommend Joe Sacco’s “Safe Area Goražde: The War in Eastern Bosnia, 1992-1995” for its portrayal of the consequences of modern civil war – and it happens to be real.

I'm claiming this book from the Bookbox of the Apocalypse. Couldn't resist the bear-in-a-mask on the cover!

Later: I waited until after Biden's inauguration to tackle this one. Not that the real-world political issues have gone away, but I feel a little better able to read about fictional (though fact-based) ones now {wry grin}. Set in a world where the US president planned to deport ALL immigrants, California responded by declaring itself a sanctuary - and with a resulting split from the US. Not all of California is on the same page (no surprise there), and outside forces don't want to lose such a valuable state either, but the book focuses on a small number of viewpoint characters to lead us through the Way Things Are Now. There's Jamil, a young man who's a "courier" - of anything people will pay him to carry, so he runs drugs and other less-savory things as the situation demands. And there's Zora, a charismatic resistance leader, who's being hunted - and who hooks up with Jamil to try and escape. We see the main antagonist, who will brutally torture people for information, sending severed heads to their neighbors to "encourage" them to toe the line - and who then goes home to his family to bemoan how hard his job is. [Seriously.] There are side characters who get little back stories or personality traits of their own, adding weight if/when they get killed or find redemption or just show up.

And, yes, the bonus information is quite entertaining in its own right, containing essays and interviews on the social and political themes of the book.

[There's a TV Tropes page on the comic, with some entertaining tidbits.]

Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.

I left this book in the roomy Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in ME here.]

*** Released for the 2021 Keep Them Moving challenge. ***