Edward Snowden gets his own graphic biography

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/20/edward-snowden-gets-graphic-biography-nsa-whistleblower

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Whistleblower Edward Snowden will appear on the pages of a comic book this week in a new graphic biography promising to reveal "the man behind the headlines".

By Marvel Comics' writer Valerie D'Orazio, Beyond: Edward Snowden is narrated by one Virgil Hall, a "scholar of the weird, the unexplained, the hidden and the suppressed" who will take readers through the issue, "looking at the story and the story behind the story", said D'Orazio. The book was announced by US firm Bluewater Productions this week, and will be published on 21 May.

An early extract explains how "in May 2013, Edward Joseph Snowden carried out one of the biggest leaks of classified information in US history … revealing an elaborate internet and phone surveillance programme conducted by the United States and British governments," writes D'Orazio. "He is one of the most wanted men on the planet … Just who is Edward Snowden?"

Another shows then Guardian writer Glenn Greenwald meeting Snowden for the first time. "Snowden told Greenwald that he could be identified by the Rubik's cube he held in his hand. Commented Greenwald after seeing his informant for the first time: 'I had expected a 60-year-old grizzled veteran, someone in the higher echelons of the intelligence service. I thought: 'This is going to be a wasted trip,'" writes D'Orazio, taking her cue from Guardian journalist Ewan MacAskill's report of the meeting. "But after an hour of listening to the 29-year-old … I completely believed him."

D'Orazio wrote on her blog that "ever since the NSA leaks last year, I've found Snowden to be a fascinating – and cryptic – public figure".

"There was this standard screenshot of him from his video interview that was always passed around in the media … and every time I looked at it, he had this inscrutable, sphinx-like quality to his face … I just wanted to know who he really was, what his motivations were … and what I found was surprising," said the author, who has previously written for publishers including Marvel and DC.

The Snowden comic is illustrated by Dan Lauer, and is part of a new "Beyond" series of books for Bluewater, which the publisher said would reveal "stories about the secret and suppressed, the stories 'They' don't want you to know".

Next up as a subject is The Joker, "which delves into the symbolism and power behind one of pop-culture's most fearsome villains", said Bluewater. The press has previously released graphic biographies of individuals including Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Donald Trump.

Beyond: Edward Snowden closely follows Greenwald's own account of the Snowden case, No Place to Hide, described in the Observer by Henry Porter as "clearly written and compelling", and "a vigorously executed and important book".