The journey of immigrants across the world and their contributions to society are far-ranging and prolific. The need to emphasize this point is one that seems to need to be reinforced during the pandemic. In America, xenophobia and nativism have suddenly become synonymous with what it means to be part of the national identity. This, of course, is not isolated to the United States, but seemingly everywhere, making BIPOC understandably cautious.

As people who were once welcome to shores worldwide were now being looked at as burdens. What is strangely true is that no country on earth would thrive without outside influence. Just about every modern innovation has its ties back to immigrants or people of color. In Ginseng Roots #7, Craig Thompson gives readers another reveal, of the first family to harvest ginseng in America, who just so happens to be Hmong.

We find the Thompson siblings who come to the realization that their Saturday’s watching cartoons were no more and they would have to spend their weekends working the ginseng gardens with 30-50 other workers, of whom half were Hmong immigrants. One of those workers, Chua, we find out that his family was one of the first to harvest ginseng in America and definitely the first to harvest in Wisconsin. As Thompson regales the reader on the long and arduous journey the Hmong people have had to face, being displaced everywhere they settled from China to eventually aid to America in their fight in Vietnam.  We also find a bit of back-story about Chua’s family, how they never felt at home wherever they went and how it took a family in Tennessee to sponsor his, for their journey to come to America. By the issue’s end, Thompson gains an appreciation of his friend, Chua but ultimately, the immigrant journey.

Overall, Ginseng Roots #7 is an issue which shows just how many people this one root affects. The story by Thompson is genuine. The art by Thompson is amazing. Altogether, Thompson imbues Chua to the reader and gives an utterly compelling look at refugees.

Story: Craig Thompson Art: Craig Thompson
Story: 9.0 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy

Purchase: Uncivilized Books

How we use the soil beneath our feet says a lot about humankind. Humans have toiled the land for our sustenance. This fact makes the future bleak, as this skillset is slowly disappearing and fewer and fewer farmers exist. Industrialization has made this profession an option but it’s still a necessity for our future.

Unfortunately what happens is that the world tilts to big corporations and the world of farming has gone this way as well. Family-based farmers are slowly becoming a thing of the past. The tradition goes back further than most people would even know. In Ginseng Roots #5, Craig Thompson gives readers another lesson in history. It’s one that shows how early Americans ate off the land.

We find the Thompson siblings visiting their neighbor, Bear, who also owns a Ginseng farm, as we soon find out it has been with his family for a very long time, going back to when the French first came to America and started to trade with the Native Americans. As Thompson eventually tells the reader of the Beaver Wars, where the French, Dutch and indigenous peoples fought each other to reap profits off of the natural resources that the land yielded and how it lead to the Treaty Du Chen which divided the state of Wisconsin amongst the tribes and designated plots of land for white settlement. We also find out how the Great Depression and the age of industrialization where the introduction of chemicals into soil gave a crushing blow to what were Ginseng empires all throughout Wisconsin, as the rule of Chairman Mao, changed China’s trade agreement in 1950 from agricultural to industrial, making the need for Ginseng from America almost obsolete. It was not until 1970, where the American Ginseng industry got revived, but one dependent on the chemicals that the big corporations mass-produced. By the issue’s end, Thompson introduces us to his other love after comics, guns, one which allowed him to find himself.

Overall, Ginseng Roots #5 is a mesmerizing issue that is a pure master class. The story by Thompson is genuine. The art by Thompson is breathtaking. Altogether, Thompson gives the reader, a class in geopolitics.

Story: Craig Thompson Art: Craig Thompson
Story: 9.0 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy

Purchase: Uncivilized Books – Zeus Comics

As a native of New York, I have seen the city change over the years. My neighborhood changed demographics within waves of five to ten years. It went from being influential to the middle class. Then right after I joined the military, it went through one more transformation, gentrification.

Neighbors whom I knew for a lifetime, lost their homes. It wasn’t lost on me that this was part of the larger machine. As it is with the “Haves and Have Nots”, those with money have choices. Those who don’t are at somebody’s will.  In the years since then, it has increasingly more prevalent and pervasive, with no urgency for equity. In Ginseng Roots #4, Craig Thompson gives readers another dimension to gentrification, as he illuminates the reader on how it affects rural communities.

We find the Thompson siblings visiting an old friend, Rollie, whom they work for in the summers they did not work the Ginseng gardens. There they did even more grueling work, rock picking. The reader soon finds out just how crucial the work was to pruning ginseng, and how it helped the different Ginseng farmers. The reader eventually finds out there are a plethora of different types of ginseng roots, and all of them are used differently, even inspiring some childhood friends to make Ginseng beer. By the issue’s end, Thompson tethers his childhood experiences to the concept that ginseng is more than root to him and the people he loves.

Overall, Ginseng Roots #4 is a fascinating issue that illuminates while it educates. The story by Craig Thompson is authentic. The art by Thompson is wonderful. Altogether, Thompson gives the reader an issue that focuses on something that matters.

Story: Craig Thompson Art: Craig Thompson
Story: 9.0 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy

Purchase: Uncivilized Books

One of my favorite shows of all time is the short-lived October Road. The series focused on a famous writer who goes back home and suffers the wrath of the town and its people he wrote about. The show only lasted two seasons and suffered from extended episode count fatigue. The story’s premise remained undeniable nonetheless.

It dove into why writing any autobiography can ultimately be problematic. As the intention is everything, but so is perception. Ultimately, it is how you make those people feel when you write about them, is what the main character learned right away. In Ginseng Roots #2, Craig Thompson returns home and introduces us to the people who made those summers.

We find our author flying back home to Wisconsin, where Marathon is hosting the first-ever International Ginseng Festival. We also meet our author’s sister, who was omitted from his previous work, but shares the same memories as her brothers, toiling day after day in the Ginseng gardens, but had a wholly different experience, as she often felt solitude, away from her brothers, an issue the family finds difficult to deal with at present. We also meet Harold and Judy, their neighbors who once were some of the biggest Ginseng farmers in the area, and who employed the family, to only quit because of the changing nature of the soil. By the issue’s end, we get a more complete picture of who our narrator is and what lead him to write this immensely entertaining and affecting book.

Overall, Ginseng Roots #2 is a personal issue that brings home the struggle of the working class. The story by Thompson is heartfelt. The art by Thompson is prominent and engaging. Altogether, Thompson much like Nick Garrett in October Road finds that sometimes going gives us the reason to aspire for more.  

Story: Craig Thompson Art: Craig Thompson
Story: 9.0 Art: 9.0 Overall: 9.0 Recommendation: Buy

Purchase: Uncivilized Books – TFAW