Here is the latest in our year-long look at one cool comic (whether it be a self-contained work, an ongoing comic or a run on a long-running title that featured multiple creative teams on it over the years) a day (in no particular order whatsoever)! Here's the archive of the comics posted so far!

Today we look at Howard Chaykin, David Tischman and Niko Henrichon's original graphic novel, Barnum!

Enjoy!

I can't help but think that this graphic novel was originally intended as an ongoing series, or at least a mini-series. Either way, it'a a fun piece of historical fiction.

The story opens when P.T. Barnum and his circus fellows save the life of the President of the United States, Grover Cleveland...

This inspires one of Cleveland's aides to hire Barnum and his circus as undercover government agents...

An interesting aspect of historical fiction is seeing who gets made into the bad guy. In one story, Thomas Edison is a hero. In another story, he's a villain. Similarly, Nikola Tesla draws the short end of the stick in Barnum, as he is the villain, but he's an interesting one...

Here is Barnum and friends at work...

Chaykin and Tischman clearly have a lot of fun with this story, and it is an enjoyable tale. Henrichon is a very good artist, so the art is great. Basically this is just a good ol' fun graphic novel from Vertigo.