Let This Preview of Mandela and the General Inspire You to Political Action

In case you somehow haven’t had your fill of politics today from stress-following the United States midterm elections, Paste has a special look at John Carlin and Oriol Malet’s Mandela and the General, a historical graphic novel from Plough Publishing about a narrowly avoided race war on the eve of South Africa’s first post-apartheid elections in 1994. Carlin is an acclaimed journalist—his book on Mandela was made into the film Invictus—and Malet perfectly captures the tension of the era with the studied eye of a political cartoonist or courtroom sketch artist. The concept of a racially divided nation on the brink of chaos right before an election is…timely, to say the least. The idea that men in power might actually work together for the greater good is, unfortunately, more difficult to believe in 2018. Still, students of history should appreciate this carefully considered snapshot of Mandela’s incredible life, which boasts praise from the likes of Jon Lee Anderson (Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life) and Andrew Aydin (March). Check out an exclusive preview of Malet’s interior art below, and be sure to pick up Mandela and the General this week.

Mandela and the General Cover Art by Oriol Malet