What do you think?
Rate this book
Johnny Appleseed: Green Dreamer of the American Frontier
The first scholarly comic art biography of the legendary John Chapman. Johnny Appleseed made himself famous by spreading the seeds of apple trees from Pennsylvania to Indiana. He was also an early follower of theologian Emanuel Swedenborg. Along with apple trees, he offered the seeds of nonviolence and vegetarianism, good relations with Indians, and peace among the settlers themselves. The story of John Chapman operates as a kind of counter-narrative to the glorification of violence, conquest, and the "winning of the West" in the story of the Westward movement, and clears up many of the half-myths of Johnny Appleseed's own life and work. His apples, for instance, were prized for many reasons, but mainly for the making of hard cider, portable alcohol. His method of operation was a form of land speculation, purchasing potentially fertile acres on contract (such as "bottom land"), planting saplings, reselling the land, and then moving onward. He had less interest in becoming prosperous than in spreading his own gospel, based on visions of peace and love.
Noah Van Sciver is member of Mad Magazine's usual gang of idiots, and the author of The Hypo and Fante Bukowski.
Paul Buhle, formerly a senior lecturer at Brown University, produces radical comics. He founded the SDS journal Radical America and the archive Oral History of the American Left and, with Mari Jo Buhle, is coeditor of the Encyclopedia of the American Left.
Noah Van Sciver is member of Mad Magazine's usual gang of idiots, and the author of The Hypo and Fante Bukowski.
Paul Buhle, formerly a senior lecturer at Brown University, produces radical comics. He founded the SDS journal Radical America and the archive Oral History of the American Left and, with Mari Jo Buhle, is coeditor of the Encyclopedia of the American Left.
112 pages, Hardcover
Published December 13, 2016
About the author
Paul M. Buhle
78 books62 followersNow retired as Senior Lecturer at Brown University, Paul Merlyn Buhle is the author or editor of 35 volumes including histories of radicalism in the United States and the Caribbean, studies of popular culture, and a series of nonfiction comic art volumes.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
August 2, 2019
(Movie trailer voice) At a time of change… in a new world… there was a man… a bearded man… who wandered the land spreading a message of peace, kindness, love… and apple seeds. A legendary man some called JC… probably. John Chapman was – Johnny Appleseed! And he had a boring life!
I’m not sure how I’m tangentially aware of the American folk hero Johnny Appleseed but I suspect the answer is, like with most things in my brain, because of The Simpsons. I didn’t realise how little there was to his story though!
I mainly got it for the Noah van Sciver art – I’m a big fan of Noah’s comics - and tried to use that to trick my brain into thinking I was reading one of his comics but it was no good. Paul Buhle writes like the scholar he is: dryly. Not that he has the material to work with in the first place!
Unlike Paul Bunyan, John Henry and Abraham Lincoln, John Chapman was a real person. He liked wandering about planting apple trees and generally behaving like the proto-hippie he was. He also got into a religion called Swedenborgianism. Still awake? Well, that was it anyhoo.
There’s so little to Appleboy’s story that Buhle has to resort to lengthy digressions on kinda similar subjects in order to beef up the page count. So there’s filler on early settlers who went native with the injuns; people’s perceptions of the American frontier; the many uses of apples and the symbolism of the apple through the ages; who Swedenborg was and what his religion was all about; spiritualism; mini bios on Lincoln and John Muir; and Johnny Appleseed’s lasting legacy that supposedly influenced the likes of Woody Guthrie and Jack Kerouac.
And almost none of it is interesting! I enjoyed Noah’s art as always and I guess it’s an informative read but I found Johnny Appleseed to be one helluva dull comic.
I’m not sure how I’m tangentially aware of the American folk hero Johnny Appleseed but I suspect the answer is, like with most things in my brain, because of The Simpsons. I didn’t realise how little there was to his story though!
I mainly got it for the Noah van Sciver art – I’m a big fan of Noah’s comics - and tried to use that to trick my brain into thinking I was reading one of his comics but it was no good. Paul Buhle writes like the scholar he is: dryly. Not that he has the material to work with in the first place!
Unlike Paul Bunyan, John Henry and Abraham Lincoln, John Chapman was a real person. He liked wandering about planting apple trees and generally behaving like the proto-hippie he was. He also got into a religion called Swedenborgianism. Still awake? Well, that was it anyhoo.
There’s so little to Appleboy’s story that Buhle has to resort to lengthy digressions on kinda similar subjects in order to beef up the page count. So there’s filler on early settlers who went native with the injuns; people’s perceptions of the American frontier; the many uses of apples and the symbolism of the apple through the ages; who Swedenborg was and what his religion was all about; spiritualism; mini bios on Lincoln and John Muir; and Johnny Appleseed’s lasting legacy that supposedly influenced the likes of Woody Guthrie and Jack Kerouac.
And almost none of it is interesting! I enjoyed Noah’s art as always and I guess it’s an informative read but I found Johnny Appleseed to be one helluva dull comic.
November 25, 2020
A comics biography by scholar about John Chapman, a nineteenth-century icon more familiarly known as Johnny Appleseed. Hundreds of children's books memorialized him throughout the twentieth-century and who knows whether he is still known to kids today. But this is not a book for kids, it's a biography of Chapman that I bought because I am a fan of Noah Van Sciver, who illustrated the book. And maybe, too, because the blurb makes it clear it his story provides a kind of alternative model to the violent tale of westward expansion that whites actually took place. And because Johnny Appleseed (JA) was part of a nineteenth-century environmental movement about living in harmony with nature.
JA was known for spreading (and selling) appleseeds everywhere as he walked steadily west. He was also a pacifist, an advocate for non-violence, for living in harmony with Native Americans. Too much time in this book perhaps is spent on his associations with religions such as Swedenborgianism, spiritualism, and beliefs that were common in the nineteenth century and influenced folks such as Emerson and Thoreau and Whitman. JA himself influenced a lot of these folks, including early environmentalist John Muir, and as Buhle makes maybe too tediously clear, everyone from the Beats to hippies to the even contemporary environmentalists. And road advocates like Kerouac, or walking/wandering advocates.
The book is not really a comics biography but more of an illustrated biography with too many words and too many ideas, could have been more focused, but for the reasons above I still enjoyed parts of it quite a bit.
JA was known for spreading (and selling) appleseeds everywhere as he walked steadily west. He was also a pacifist, an advocate for non-violence, for living in harmony with Native Americans. Too much time in this book perhaps is spent on his associations with religions such as Swedenborgianism, spiritualism, and beliefs that were common in the nineteenth century and influenced folks such as Emerson and Thoreau and Whitman. JA himself influenced a lot of these folks, including early environmentalist John Muir, and as Buhle makes maybe too tediously clear, everyone from the Beats to hippies to the even contemporary environmentalists. And road advocates like Kerouac, or walking/wandering advocates.
The book is not really a comics biography but more of an illustrated biography with too many words and too many ideas, could have been more focused, but for the reasons above I still enjoyed parts of it quite a bit.
May 20, 2024
According to this bullshit, John "Johnny Appleseed" Chapman is the most important figure in American history, restructuring all of the existing religious belief, basically causing the Civil War and then ending it through his proxy, Abraham Lincoln, before going on to write Jack Kerouac's books for him.
Actually, the author isn't so much interested in Chapman as he is the delusional religious movements of the 19th century, especially the one kicked off by a strange man who talked to Martians, Emanual Swedenborg. Chapman often wanders away from the book's pages -- off planting trees? -- as we hear about Swedenborg and an endless string of other people who may have inspired or may have been inspired by Chapman. King Arthur gets thrown in there at one point. Yikes.
So, yeah, a good book to read if you're not particularly interested in Johnny Appleseed.
Actually, the author isn't so much interested in Chapman as he is the delusional religious movements of the 19th century, especially the one kicked off by a strange man who talked to Martians, Emanual Swedenborg. Chapman often wanders away from the book's pages -- off planting trees? -- as we hear about Swedenborg and an endless string of other people who may have inspired or may have been inspired by Chapman. King Arthur gets thrown in there at one point. Yikes.
So, yeah, a good book to read if you're not particularly interested in Johnny Appleseed.
August 28, 2017
Of the many versions of the story of Johnny Appleseed, graphic novels or otherwise, this one stands apart as the story of the powerful American impulse to just pick up and get the hell out--to move down the road, see what's around the next curve, discover what lies beyond the last visible range of mountains. Sometimes the impulse is an urge to solve a glorious mystery. Sometimes it's about finding and pocketing someone else's wealth--Route 66 vs. Route 666, you might say. Sometimes it's a slow road through the woods discussing matters with the birds, but more often it's the lure of the fast macadam highway, all straight lines and blurred landscapes.
This book is definitely about the slow, thoughtful journey. It keys on the legend of Johnny Appleseed because he is the most familiar figure in American culture who championed the investigative stroll into natural creation over the chase for riches. After establishing the few actual facts of what is known about John Chapman, the new Englander who earned the affectionate monicker, writer Paul Buhle wrings from them a kind of intellectual history of the guy who refused to enter the frontier with a gun. In our childhood memories (mostly from a Disney cartoon) we see a short, bearded, shoeless man carrying a bag of apple seeds over a shoulder and wearing on his head a tin pot with the handle turned to the side like the brim of a hipster's baseball cap. As Johnny A he is a kind of Holy Fool, safe from danger because he doesn't acknowledge it. Uniquely in Buhle's version, Chapman's sacred insouciance is understood as deriving from a view of the world that is particularly European, a tradition that arose during the Renaissance as the Christian interpretation of the Hebrew Kaballah (spelled Qaballa to distinguish it as a separate literature). It survived in a somewhat popular form in the works of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), and it was Swedenborg's work that Chapman carried with him across the frontier and into the deepest wilderness, the spiritual equivalent of the apple seed, a carrier of Edenic knowledge and, in its aspect as hard cider, a glimpse of a higher intoxication in the lower one.
If this is the heart of the book, Buhle does not confine himself to it. He moves on to show a kind of pantheon of Appleseed-like figures in European and U.S. history who acted as powerful protectors whose powers derived in part from an ascetic or natural knowledge--St. Francis, Robin Hood, the Woman in the Wilderness of Ephrata, PA, the young Abe Lincoln, the radical hoboes of the IWW, spiritualists, poets and beatniks on the road to Buddhahood in a distant lifetime.
There is an associational quality to the book that invites the mind to wander toward one's own nominations for figures of this genus. In my tradition, I would nominate Nicolaus Zinendorf (1700-1760), who established the radical pacifist and qaballistic communities of Moravians in Pennsylvania and Ohio and whose astonishing theology is explored in Aaron Spencer Fogleman's scholarly book, "Jesus is Female"). Another nomination would go to Charles Fletcher Lummis (1829-1928), like Chapman a New Englander. He was a newspaper journalist working as a reporter in Cincinnatti in 1884 when he was offered a job as the first city editor of the spanking new Los Angeles Times (when LA had 12,000 residents). He accepted the job but said he would be delayed in taking up his duties because he was going to walk the 2,200 miles through the Southwest. What he learned from the rivers and canyons of his new land and from the Pueblo cultures he visited along the way carried him into a career as a supporter of the Indian causes and a defender of the Hispanic history of California.
No doubt the reader will have his or her own nominations. That's part of the point--to understand Johnny Appleseed as emblematic of an idea with its own history and to roam through historical space with a new understanding of a largely submerged tradition. If the narrative here is often rather loose, it's because the story seems to have been written from the inside out, following the same impulse its creators are describing--that is, to find out what's around the bend of the next episode.
"Johnny Appleseed" continues Buhle's turn to comics as a medium for scholarship. Where once his graphic novels were intended to retell stories familiar from other contexts, he has since taken another turn, one in which he uses the medium as a vehicle for new knowledge, as in his best work in this vein, "Bohemians: A Graphic History" (2014), whose theme is intimately related to Appleseed and his fellow mystics but pushed deeper into history and with a purpose that scrapes much closer to theology than to radical social history.
Noah van Sciver wrote and drew "Hypo," an extraordinary story about Abraham Lincoln's early manhood on the frontier as a young lawyer, when he almost succumbed to a suicidal depression. His panels here are absolutely stuffed with twisting roots, tree leaves and tiny birds observing every step of the human journey. The result is a memorable book that opens its pages to those who will find the thread and follow it to its end.
This book is definitely about the slow, thoughtful journey. It keys on the legend of Johnny Appleseed because he is the most familiar figure in American culture who championed the investigative stroll into natural creation over the chase for riches. After establishing the few actual facts of what is known about John Chapman, the new Englander who earned the affectionate monicker, writer Paul Buhle wrings from them a kind of intellectual history of the guy who refused to enter the frontier with a gun. In our childhood memories (mostly from a Disney cartoon) we see a short, bearded, shoeless man carrying a bag of apple seeds over a shoulder and wearing on his head a tin pot with the handle turned to the side like the brim of a hipster's baseball cap. As Johnny A he is a kind of Holy Fool, safe from danger because he doesn't acknowledge it. Uniquely in Buhle's version, Chapman's sacred insouciance is understood as deriving from a view of the world that is particularly European, a tradition that arose during the Renaissance as the Christian interpretation of the Hebrew Kaballah (spelled Qaballa to distinguish it as a separate literature). It survived in a somewhat popular form in the works of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), and it was Swedenborg's work that Chapman carried with him across the frontier and into the deepest wilderness, the spiritual equivalent of the apple seed, a carrier of Edenic knowledge and, in its aspect as hard cider, a glimpse of a higher intoxication in the lower one.
If this is the heart of the book, Buhle does not confine himself to it. He moves on to show a kind of pantheon of Appleseed-like figures in European and U.S. history who acted as powerful protectors whose powers derived in part from an ascetic or natural knowledge--St. Francis, Robin Hood, the Woman in the Wilderness of Ephrata, PA, the young Abe Lincoln, the radical hoboes of the IWW, spiritualists, poets and beatniks on the road to Buddhahood in a distant lifetime.
There is an associational quality to the book that invites the mind to wander toward one's own nominations for figures of this genus. In my tradition, I would nominate Nicolaus Zinendorf (1700-1760), who established the radical pacifist and qaballistic communities of Moravians in Pennsylvania and Ohio and whose astonishing theology is explored in Aaron Spencer Fogleman's scholarly book, "Jesus is Female"). Another nomination would go to Charles Fletcher Lummis (1829-1928), like Chapman a New Englander. He was a newspaper journalist working as a reporter in Cincinnatti in 1884 when he was offered a job as the first city editor of the spanking new Los Angeles Times (when LA had 12,000 residents). He accepted the job but said he would be delayed in taking up his duties because he was going to walk the 2,200 miles through the Southwest. What he learned from the rivers and canyons of his new land and from the Pueblo cultures he visited along the way carried him into a career as a supporter of the Indian causes and a defender of the Hispanic history of California.
No doubt the reader will have his or her own nominations. That's part of the point--to understand Johnny Appleseed as emblematic of an idea with its own history and to roam through historical space with a new understanding of a largely submerged tradition. If the narrative here is often rather loose, it's because the story seems to have been written from the inside out, following the same impulse its creators are describing--that is, to find out what's around the bend of the next episode.
"Johnny Appleseed" continues Buhle's turn to comics as a medium for scholarship. Where once his graphic novels were intended to retell stories familiar from other contexts, he has since taken another turn, one in which he uses the medium as a vehicle for new knowledge, as in his best work in this vein, "Bohemians: A Graphic History" (2014), whose theme is intimately related to Appleseed and his fellow mystics but pushed deeper into history and with a purpose that scrapes much closer to theology than to radical social history.
Noah van Sciver wrote and drew "Hypo," an extraordinary story about Abraham Lincoln's early manhood on the frontier as a young lawyer, when he almost succumbed to a suicidal depression. His panels here are absolutely stuffed with twisting roots, tree leaves and tiny birds observing every step of the human journey. The result is a memorable book that opens its pages to those who will find the thread and follow it to its end.
March 23, 2021
This curious, rambling book, described as a “graphic biography” of John Chapman, is really more of a meditation on 19th-century American mystic radicalism and its subsequent influence on progressive, democratic, and environmentalist thinking. The narrative line leapfrogs back and forth unpredictably (e.g. 1796 to 1747 to 1755); unnamed speakers set forth the tenets of philosophical and religious sects; frontier anecdotes and legends spill out unexpectedly; and Chapman’s death comes less than 80 pages into the book’s 116 pages. The book reaches out to take in, for example, Lincoln, Emerson, and Muir; William Blake and Vachel Lindsay; Lydia Maria Child and the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848; William Dean Howells and Howard Fast; Woodie Guthrie and the Beats; St. Francis and Robin Hood!
The book focuses particularly on mystical religious thought, establishing that Chapman was a Swedenborgian and situating that faith in relation to Anabaptist, Shaker, Spiritualist, and other utopian or dissenting beliefs. (There’s a lot about Swedenborg and his influence in here!) What emerges is a picture of frontier America as a hotbed of Utopianism and radicalism, consistent with Buhle’s other graphic books on left-progressive history (and in tune with the work of progressive historians like Eric Foner and Howard Zinn). Boy, does the book get around.
What holds it all together, for me, is a look — that is, the look of Noah Van Sciver’s splendid cartooning: wonderfully organic and alive, textured, rough, and raw, and filled with leafy, intertwining, vinelike forms that recall both Chapman and the illuminated plates of Blake. This art generates a sense of ethos, of unifying spirit, that makes sense of the book’s shaggy, seemingly digressive form, and kept me entranced from end to end. The result is a drawn meditation: an intellectual and cultural portrait rather than a conventional biography. I can’t imagine the book’s structure working well in words alone, without the advantages gained through comics’ tolerance for abrupt juxtaposition and digression. It works well here.
Good stuff. Editorially ragged, but man Van Sciver can cartoon.
The book focuses particularly on mystical religious thought, establishing that Chapman was a Swedenborgian and situating that faith in relation to Anabaptist, Shaker, Spiritualist, and other utopian or dissenting beliefs. (There’s a lot about Swedenborg and his influence in here!) What emerges is a picture of frontier America as a hotbed of Utopianism and radicalism, consistent with Buhle’s other graphic books on left-progressive history (and in tune with the work of progressive historians like Eric Foner and Howard Zinn). Boy, does the book get around.
What holds it all together, for me, is a look — that is, the look of Noah Van Sciver’s splendid cartooning: wonderfully organic and alive, textured, rough, and raw, and filled with leafy, intertwining, vinelike forms that recall both Chapman and the illuminated plates of Blake. This art generates a sense of ethos, of unifying spirit, that makes sense of the book’s shaggy, seemingly digressive form, and kept me entranced from end to end. The result is a drawn meditation: an intellectual and cultural portrait rather than a conventional biography. I can’t imagine the book’s structure working well in words alone, without the advantages gained through comics’ tolerance for abrupt juxtaposition and digression. It works well here.
Good stuff. Editorially ragged, but man Van Sciver can cartoon.
February 7, 2017
I really didn't like this much at all. It is an adult biography of John Chapman, more commonly known as "Johnny Appleseed". The book concentrates first on his theology and then moves on to his politics. He belonged to strange Christian sects and was even part of the Spiritualist movement. He loved the earth, lived in poverty, wanted to help the poor and believed in non-violence and rights for all. An all-around good guy, but all the crazy religion stuff is just weird and not something I could want anyoe to aspire to. Same with politics. This book shows him as an early member of the tree-hugging, liberal, socialist, communist political theories and both he and all his political descendants such as Woodie Guthrie and Jack Kerouac are again certainly not something I would want to emulate. So from this book I come to the conclusion that he was a weird, kooky religious fanatic socialist. Honestly, it totally bored me and I skipped the historical essay at the end. On the other hand, the art is very good. Stylistically it is very similar to Rick Geary with the crosshatching and intricate patterns in the backgrounds.
March 14, 2019
Too much theory, not enough Appleseed.
A non-coherent mess, with good art, that goes way out of topic.
A non-coherent mess, with good art, that goes way out of topic.
February 20, 2020
noah van sciver's art! it says something that i've only read one of his other books and his style is immediately recognizable.
as far the words .... what a mess. buhle seems to think making scattered references to five hundred things that are somewhat related to johnny appleseed is the same thing as ~deconstructing his legend. (also ...if you want to say something new about america's complicated relationship with the land/nature/history w native americans, get some different references than michael pollan, gary snyder, kerouac, muir, etc etc)
as far the words .... what a mess. buhle seems to think making scattered references to five hundred things that are somewhat related to johnny appleseed is the same thing as ~deconstructing his legend. (also ...if you want to say something new about america's complicated relationship with the land/nature/history w native americans, get some different references than michael pollan, gary snyder, kerouac, muir, etc etc)
August 2, 2018
I enjoyed this book well enough, although the text's focus isn't so much on Johnny Appleseed (or John Chapman) as it is the cultural times in which he lived. This is a different kind of comic for Noah Van Sciver, and one can tell that Paul Buhle was the primary writing force behind it. It has the kind of cultural/philosophical overview that characterizes much of his writing.
January 5, 2018
“Johnny Appleseed: Green Dreamer Of The American Frontier” bills itself as the “first scholarly comic art biography of the legendary John Chapman.” While I can’t confirm the declaration of that “first” statement, I wholeheartedly agree that it is “scholarly.” Probably to a fault. Every little kid knows the story of Johnny Appleseed, the poor colonist who wandered the American landscape planting the seeds for countless new apple orchards. What Buhle seeks to do with this book is separate fact from fiction and present the real man behind the persona: his religious beliefs, advocacy for non-violence, and his socialist leanings. It’s a huge undertaking to humanize a folk hero and Buhle goes way beyond the legends.
I got “Johnny Appleseed” because I’ve been following along with the artist’s social media accounts as he slowly worked his way through the pages. Noah Van Sciver is one of my favorite cartoonists and this type of book is right in his wheelhouse. Having already done a gorgeous book about a pre-presidency Abraham Lincoln’s melancholy early life, “The Hypo,” Van Sciver can illustrate colonial America practically in his sleep. These pages are tremendous; intricate and bursting with life, timeless but not stodgy. I was continuously in awe of his inventive layouts and lush borders. There’s a level of craftsmanship to these drawings that conveys a real passion, a passion that author Paul Buhle shares for the subject. This book is not your child’s Johnny Appleseed picture book. Buhle has meticulously researched the records about John Chapman and his findings are exhaustive. And exhausting. Maybe it was because I was so used to the childhood version of Johnny Appleseed, I found myself overwhelmed by the Bible verses, theological texts, and whatnot that Buhle uses to put Chapman’s life into context. It’s fascinating but it is unapologetically academic.
On a production note, “Johnny Appleseed: Green Dreamer Of The American Frontier” is possibly the most well-crafted book that Fantagraphics has ever released. They always publish beautiful work but this one goes above and beyond. The oversize format really lets the artwork shine, the paper stock is heavy and smooth, and the colors are just amazing. As an artifact, “Johnny Appleseed” is a strong statement for the value of physical books. While I may not revisit it much for the pleasure of reading it, “Johnny Appleseed” is a worthy addition to my graphic novels collection.
I got “Johnny Appleseed” because I’ve been following along with the artist’s social media accounts as he slowly worked his way through the pages. Noah Van Sciver is one of my favorite cartoonists and this type of book is right in his wheelhouse. Having already done a gorgeous book about a pre-presidency Abraham Lincoln’s melancholy early life, “The Hypo,” Van Sciver can illustrate colonial America practically in his sleep. These pages are tremendous; intricate and bursting with life, timeless but not stodgy. I was continuously in awe of his inventive layouts and lush borders. There’s a level of craftsmanship to these drawings that conveys a real passion, a passion that author Paul Buhle shares for the subject. This book is not your child’s Johnny Appleseed picture book. Buhle has meticulously researched the records about John Chapman and his findings are exhaustive. And exhausting. Maybe it was because I was so used to the childhood version of Johnny Appleseed, I found myself overwhelmed by the Bible verses, theological texts, and whatnot that Buhle uses to put Chapman’s life into context. It’s fascinating but it is unapologetically academic.
On a production note, “Johnny Appleseed: Green Dreamer Of The American Frontier” is possibly the most well-crafted book that Fantagraphics has ever released. They always publish beautiful work but this one goes above and beyond. The oversize format really lets the artwork shine, the paper stock is heavy and smooth, and the colors are just amazing. As an artifact, “Johnny Appleseed” is a strong statement for the value of physical books. While I may not revisit it much for the pleasure of reading it, “Johnny Appleseed” is a worthy addition to my graphic novels collection.
December 23, 2017
I read this graphic history of Johnny Appleseed, his times, and his legacy continually thinking, "this is pretty incoherent." We're introduced to Johnny, then to a religion he followed, then to other religions with similar views, then to non-violent societies in colonial America, and on and on and on, always getting further away from any clear connection to Appleseed himself. In fact, I'd hardly call this a biography of the man since he occupies maybe 20 pages of the book.
But then I read the post-script, an essay by Paul Buhle that clearly and coherently ties all the threads of the book together, demonstrating how Johnny Appleseed touched and was touched by all these other facets of colonial life, many of which still have a place in our society 250 years later. It was really quite fascinating. So, if you're interested in that kind of thing, definitely skip the illustrated part of the book and go right to the last few pages. Sure, it's all text at that point, but at least it makes sense. (Noah van Sciver's illustrations are kinda meh to me anyway, but I hesitate to fault an artist with a specific style)
But then I read the post-script, an essay by Paul Buhle that clearly and coherently ties all the threads of the book together, demonstrating how Johnny Appleseed touched and was touched by all these other facets of colonial life, many of which still have a place in our society 250 years later. It was really quite fascinating. So, if you're interested in that kind of thing, definitely skip the illustrated part of the book and go right to the last few pages. Sure, it's all text at that point, but at least it makes sense. (Noah van Sciver's illustrations are kinda meh to me anyway, but I hesitate to fault an artist with a specific style)
December 17, 2017
I bought the book because I am a huge Noah Van Sciver fan. I've read Disquiet, Fante Bukowski 1 and 2, Youth is Wasted, Slow Graffiti, The Hypo, Saint Cole, and several issues of his series Blammo (Kilgore). Not to mention entries in MOME and The Best American Comics series. Anyways, I am a fan. As for Johnny Appleseed I was not as impressed with the collaboration with Buhle. The story jumped all over the place and was challenging to follow. It was Van Sciver that saved this book. His nature scenes are otherworldly. Hands down he is this generation's R.Crumb. Not that anyone probably cares but my reading soundtrack for this one was the bleak, deep ecological black metal of Wolves in the Throne Room ( Portland). I always put on music to set the tone while I devour these graphic novels.
September 10, 2022
A beautifully illustrated volume about Johnny Appleseed. I've never really heard of Appleseed before this to be honest. Like others, I found this a bit boring and failed to really understand Appleseed's lasting impression on American history.
May 19, 2018
An all-too-brief look into the legend of John Chapman from which a million different branches and roots spring. On its own, small — but it leads down a million paths of inquiry.
May 22, 2019
Fascinating info about the historical figure John Chapman becoming the folk legend “Johnny Appleseed,” in particular the radical and pacifistic aspects of Chapman’s character and how they still resonate with activist causes, socialist, environmentalist, and anti-war alike. A collaboration between historian Paul Buhle and graphic novelist Noah van Sciver, Johnny Appleseed provides a brief overview of the outdoorsman, along with many other turn of the nineteenth century themes and movements. Along with van Sciver’s detailed and expressive art, evocative of the period, it was interesting to see the history of the American “frontier” presented through such a different viewpoint.
On the other hand, the narrative meandered to so many different topics related tangentially to Chapman’s life that the work seemed, in the end, unfocused. I was left unclear about much of Chapman’s life, what was historical and what folklore. Also, oftentimes these tangents (Swedenborgianism, Lincoln’s studies on the esoteric, the history of hard apple cider in American life, etc.) began and ended so abruptly I was left with more questions than answers. Worth checking out, if only for Van Sciver’s illustrations and some interesting ideas about the Johnny Appleseed story.
On the other hand, the narrative meandered to so many different topics related tangentially to Chapman’s life that the work seemed, in the end, unfocused. I was left unclear about much of Chapman’s life, what was historical and what folklore. Also, oftentimes these tangents (Swedenborgianism, Lincoln’s studies on the esoteric, the history of hard apple cider in American life, etc.) began and ended so abruptly I was left with more questions than answers. Worth checking out, if only for Van Sciver’s illustrations and some interesting ideas about the Johnny Appleseed story.
January 15, 2020
This book didn't take long to get through but I found myself wanting it to end after about 10 pages. The text was quite hard to follow and kept going off on tangents that wasn't linked very well back to the story, which left me feeling disinterested in the whole book.
Despite this, I absolutely loved the illustrations, perhaps some of my favourite that I've seen in a graphic novel, so I'm giving it three stars purely for that. The sketchy, detailed images accompanied by handwritten text is exactly the kind of thing I like. I'd maybe have preferred it in colour instead of black and white but that's probably more personal preference. I'm just dissapointed that the beautiful drawings weren't backed up by better writing.
Despite this, I absolutely loved the illustrations, perhaps some of my favourite that I've seen in a graphic novel, so I'm giving it three stars purely for that. The sketchy, detailed images accompanied by handwritten text is exactly the kind of thing I like. I'd maybe have preferred it in colour instead of black and white but that's probably more personal preference. I'm just dissapointed that the beautiful drawings weren't backed up by better writing.
January 18, 2018
This book had a lot to recommend it - e.g., fun artwork, attention to Chapman’s historical and societal and context - but the timeline of the story was very disjointed, jumping around in time and place, interrupting the narrative with tangents in topics that were barely related - e.g., the information about Swedenborgianism was pertinent and interesting, but the other religious movements had nothing to do with Chapman; new characters began talking without any introduction or context; and the end tried to be about his legacy but ended up talking mostly about Michael Pollan. I almost put the book down about halfway through.
July 27, 2018
Guys, Johnny Appleseed was freaking nutso.
Uh, but mostly in a good way? This was created by some dudes who clearly have a great and particular love of Johnny Appleseed and his weirdness, and they get way deep into lots of stuff that they don't explicate super-well to the reader. So, I kept being like OH COOL and then like...what...huh...ok I don't get it these are too esoteric of references.. It did make me reflect on the particular brand of crazy weirdo that is particularly American. I really liked The Hypo about that true and wonderful weirdo Abe Lincoln, so I hoped this would flow a bit more like that. Ah well.
Uh, but mostly in a good way? This was created by some dudes who clearly have a great and particular love of Johnny Appleseed and his weirdness, and they get way deep into lots of stuff that they don't explicate super-well to the reader. So, I kept being like OH COOL and then like...what...huh...ok I don't get it these are too esoteric of references.. It did make me reflect on the particular brand of crazy weirdo that is particularly American. I really liked The Hypo about that true and wonderful weirdo Abe Lincoln, so I hoped this would flow a bit more like that. Ah well.
January 20, 2021
I got this out of an interest in the life and times of Johnny Appleseed, but as someone who likes Paul Buhle’s writing in comics, I should’ve known that this wasn’t going to be a straightforward retelling of John Chapman’s world. Buhle links Chapman to the tradition of progressivism around the world and actually spends less time on Chapman himself than the movement he was part of. I enjoyed the book in the way I enjoy a good college lecture and came away perhaps becoming more interested in Swedenborg’s influence than Chapman’s. (Swedenborg is new to me.)
February 4, 2021
I wanted so badly to like this, but... it is such a boring book. I hate to come away with that feeling because I can only imagine how much time was spent on this.
However, it was terribly banal. If I hadn’t read it in one sitting, I doubt I would have returned to finish it. Van Schiver’s art is usually something I look forward to, but the writing didn’t do it any favors here, so I’m walking away with a strange feeling. Oh wait, that’s boredom.
2/5 stars, would only pick it up again to glance at the drawings. Back on the shelf it goes...
However, it was terribly banal. If I hadn’t read it in one sitting, I doubt I would have returned to finish it. Van Schiver’s art is usually something I look forward to, but the writing didn’t do it any favors here, so I’m walking away with a strange feeling. Oh wait, that’s boredom.
2/5 stars, would only pick it up again to glance at the drawings. Back on the shelf it goes...
June 27, 2018
Great drawings (once again) by Van Sciver, but Johnny Appleseed’s story - free spirit Apple seed scattering wander - is overshadowed by his religious proselytizing. In fact, a good portion of the book is dedicated to other people and their religious stories. This is not necessarily a bad thing because the focus is always on doing good deeds without seeking reward and practicing non-violent behavior, but it starts to get pretty tedious after awhile.
March 31, 2022
The art is beautiful and engaging, but the content is scattered and unfocused. If you want to know about John Chapman in particular, this isn't the place to go. However, if you want to be exposed to a TON of random info concerning early 19th century America, this was fun. There were a lot of tidbits of information about early America's various Christian sects that have inspired me to look further into.
January 16, 2023
Of Van Sciver’s three biographical graphic novels, this is my least favorite—maybe because Van Sciver didn’t write it. I have no complaints with the book’s artwork. That’s why I’m giving it four stars. But the book itself is a bit disjointed. Ultimately, it’s less about Johnny Appleseed’s life than about the world that influenced him and his influence on the world. And so much of it seems based on conjecture without being self-consciously so.
April 17, 2024
Incredibly interesting and inspiring for the first third! Before the half-way mark though it begins to leave Johnny behind and starts to get into the weeds on the theologies of various religious movements. This, on some pages, is hard is hard to follow and keep reading through.
Some great highlights on apples through history and legend, and also super interesting to learn how many counter-culture non-violence movements there have been in the US. A perspective that I have never seen before.
Some great highlights on apples through history and legend, and also super interesting to learn how many counter-culture non-violence movements there have been in the US. A perspective that I have never seen before.
September 12, 2017
Subtitle is actually "Green Spirit of the Frontier." But whatever -- really love this. It's so much more than one might think it's going to be -- way beyond the Disney cartoon version! Graphic novel, illustrated by Noah VanSciver of Fante Bukowski fame.
September 16, 2017
A fascinating look at the man, the forces that inspired him, and his lasting influence.
December 1, 2017
A beautiful book marred by a clumsy and bone-dry text.
January 26, 2018
Neka Ameriška skor legenda o Johhnyu ki je hodil okoli po Ameriki, živel preprosto življenje v sožitju z naravo in sadil jabolka...
September 22, 2018
Worth reading overall; much of the book deals with his beliefs and others before and after that had similar beliefs.
January 1, 2019
Couldn’t finish it due to lack of direction and dire need of editing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews