Gonick's irreverent style is unmatched! I read these books first many years ago and since then I've been patiently waiting for the next set.A quick, fun, and thorough review of history Gonick is not attempting to be the overall scholar that knows all and sees all about history. That is not the point of his "Cartoon History of the Universe" books. This probably is not the best way to read history, but it is a great introduction to that subject.
In Volume II he begins with the defeat of Alexander the Great in India, which never mentions his presence in any of their historical documentation of the time, and ends with the beginning of the "Dark Ages" and the appearance of visitors in a "surprising" direction between Europe and China.
None of this is a mystery, of course, it can be found in your history books, but most of it is a mystery to lay people because history books are inaccessible to most, and too dense in their materials.
And that is the point of the Gonick books: to give the average,on the street person a grasp of some sort of the history of the world. In the days where we seem to be trying to repeat some of history's mistakes (or maybe rectify them) this is a good way to find out just what those events were.
