Paul Bunyan

Written and illustrated by Noah Van Sciver · Written by Marlena Myles

How an advertising man turned a lumberjack into an American legend.

48 pages· GN750L· AR 3.8 · 0.5 AR pts

$17.99Save 6%

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Bookroo's summary

Paul Bunyan and his blue ox seem like old folk heroes, but the legend owes much to a lumber company's marketing man, W.B. Laughead, who spun ever bigger tall tales. This comic shows how the myth was created and spread, framed by contributions from Native artists and storytellers whose connection to the land the Bunyan stories often hide.

From the publisher

Did you know that a mainstay of American folk culture was in fact created as an advertising ploy? Few people realize that Paul Bunyan, the legendary lumberjack, and his blue ox are the product of corporate marketing by a highly industrialized commercial enterprise. Cartoonist NOAH VAN SCIVER shows us the myth creation as real life marketing man extraordinaire W.B. Laughead spins ever more wondrous tall tales. Van Sciver's story is bracketed by rich contributions from contemporary Native artists and storytellers with a very different connection to the land that the Bunyan myths often conceal. Readers will see how a lumberjack hero, a quintessential American fantasy, captures the imagination but also serves to paper over the seizure of homeland from First Peoples and the laying bare of America's northern forests. It's a tall tale with deep roots . . . in profit-making!

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