In the Shadow of Stalin, the Gareth Jones Graphic Novel

In comics and graphic novels, reporters are supposed to work on behalf of truth and justice (and maybe even the American way). So, what would Superman do if he discovered his fellow Daily Planet reporters were covering up crimes against humanity, including genocide, for their own ideological and pecuniary reasons? That was Gareth Jones dilemma when he visited Ukraine during Stalin’s deliberate famine. Tragically, Jones was not a Superman, but his commitment to the truth was heroic. After telling his story as the screenwriter of Agnieszka Holland’s film Mr. Jones, Andrea Chalupa now chronicles his pursuit of the truth in the graphic novel, In the Shadow of Stalin: The Story of Mr. Jones, which releases today.

Mr. Jones was not an idiot. After interviewing Hitler, he was convinced the new Chancellor was a long-term threat to peace and democracy. Consequently, he was determined to secure an interview with Stalin, to convince the Soviet dictator to serve as a second front against Hitler. In the long-run, he was quite prescient, but in the short-term, he completely misunderstood the nature of the Soviet regime that would sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Germany in 1939.

Yet, as soon as Mr. Jones arrives in Moscow, he senses something amiss. Similarly, he cannot ignore the obvious hedonistic corruption of Walter Duranty, the New York Times’ Pulitzer-Prize-winning Moscow correspondent, who controls other journalists’ access to the regime. His symbiotic relationship with the Soviets is a clear conflict, but most reporters just go along, including Duranty’s exploited colleague Ada Brooks.

As a real journalist, Jones decides to follow the money. Everyone tells him Stalin pays for his huge industrial spending with grain sales from Ukraine. Jones also wants to visit the farm where his mother once lived years ago. Essentially, she was like an independent Peace Corps worker, long before such things were done on either a private or governmental level. Of course, he finds her old community has been devastated by mass-starvation and the horrors hunger invariably produces.

Chalupa’s graphic novel closely follows the structure of her screenplay, which is probably to be expected. Notably, she thanks Holland and executive producer Leah Temerty Lord in the dedication, so presumably the film team sees the graphic novel as a further means of spreading awareness of Jones and Stalin’s Ukrainian genocide, often referred to as the Holodomor. The narrative and characters are very similar, but the nature of the “novel” part of “graphic novel” allows Chalupa to better explain the domestic politics in England and America that made the situation worse. Lloyd George might even get tougher treatment this time around.

Brazilian artist Ivan Rodrigues illustrates the narrative in a sophisticated noir stye that suits the intrigue and betrayals. Appropriately, he also deliberately recreates powerful images associated with the film, particularly that of Jones secretly stealing photos of the horror amid the snowy Ukrainian killing fields.

In the Shadow of Stalin is an excellent graphic novel, but Holland’s Mr. Jones is an even better film. However, it might help this history reach more readers, particularly if parents take an interest and recommend it for school libraries. Considering the Pariah Putin regime still wages an unprovoked war against Ukraine and the New York Times still clings to Duranty’s undeserved Pulitzer, there is clearly a need for the graphic novel and film. By the way, next time the NYT lectures readers on “the truth,” remember they denied Holland’s film permission to directly quote from Duranty’s dispatches. There is plenty of cold, hard truth in In the Shadow of Stalin, thanks to Jones’s sacrifices. Very highly recommend, it goes on-sale today (9/3) wherever books and comics are sold.