Daryl Cunningham has a proven track record of communicating extensively researched graphic journalism/biography with a remarkably accessible eloquence. We’ve seen it before in books like Supercrash: How to Hijack the Global Economy, Billionaires: The Lives of the Rich and the Powerful, and Putin’s Russia: The Rise of a Dictator. All books of huge social relevance, bringing complex ideas and situations to wider audiences in formats that are easily digestible without compromising analysis. His most recent book Elon Musk: American Oligarch, from Seven Stories Press, is perhaps his most impressive to date in this regard.
In one chilling image the cover of American Oligarch immediately captures the essence of what is to come. Its stark re-creation of what most will have interpreted as Musk’s fascist salute at a rally celebrating Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration remains a truly shocking moment in recent global history. Cunningham’s approach though, is not simply about relaying events as we have seen them play out in recent years. It’s as much about investigating why the world’s richest man behaves the way he does and the complex array of forces that shaped him.
To do this Cunningham looks back on Musk’s lineage and upbringing – his grandfather’s position in the Technocracy movement, his privileged yet difficult early family life, and his opportunistic beginnings as a supposed tech innovator. It’s a story that takes in his involvement in PayPal; explores how government funding support played crucial parts in the success of SpaceX and Tesla; recounts his acquisition and gutting of Twitter as it became a platform for the far right; and examines his sinister position as part of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Cunningham pulls no punches in his examination of Musk’s rise to prominence. He’s fair in his assessments of where his business operations have succeeded but never overlooks the wider picture of why. There’s a trail of ethical carnage that follows in the wake of this as Musk ruthlessly pursues his various agendas, often claiming credit for the innovations of those around him. What emerges is a picture of a man who is drawn to authoritarianism, who places a techno-elite over democracy, and for whom a misplaced belief in his own intelligence has birthed a superiority complex. Or as Cunningham puts it in one key passage in the book: “No one should have the unaccountable power Elon Musk does. He has not earned it. He did not gain it alone. Does he understand just how much privilege and luck played in his success? He seems to believe he is far cleverer than he actually is.”
As ever, Cunningham makes use of a cartooning style that appears deceptively uncomplicated but is actually extremely sophisticated in the way in which it connects with the reader. This shifting mixture of stark realism, cutaway sequences, visual metaphor, and occasional sidesteps into something approaching the diagrammatic are a key ingredient in Cunningham’s success to date with this style of graphic biography. An ability to condense information without trivialising it that has allowed him to form such a close bond with his audience over the years. Elon Musk: American Oligarch is yet another piece of outstanding non-fiction comics work from a master of his craft.
Darryl Cunningham (W/A) Seven Stories Press, £18.99
Buy online from Gosh! Comics here
Review by Andy Oliver
