Graphic non-fiction biographies of three conservative ultra-rich (read ultra-controlling) billionaires; the lines they crossed and the lives they ruined to achieve their prominence.

Robert Murdoch: “poisonous ethics-free ultra-competitive culture of headlines at all costs” p 49 His empire began in Australia, moved to the UK and eventually led to the US and Fox news and the blurring between journalism and entertainment commentators such as Sean Hannity whose show is listed by Fox itself as ‘entertainment’ and not journalism.

The Koch brothers: A complicated family marked by infighting of the four brothers on their way to become energy moguls. Their father, Fred Koch, was the cofounder of the John Birch society.

Jeff Bezos and the foundation of Amazon. Bezos began as an online book seller in his garage, leading to the online monopolistic powerhouse his company is today. While Bezos grows richer, this doesn’t lead to living wages and benefits for his employees.

It's problematic that corporations have the same rights as individual citizens.

Final paragraphs pretty much sum it up: ”The choice isn’t between unrestrained capitalism or some centrally planned Soviet nightmare. There is a sensible middle road. You don’t need to be a Marxist to want Day Care, schools, fire departments, sanitation, roads and a clean environment, instead of another tax break for the vastly rich. The previous gilded age came to an end and this one could, too. Capitalism doesn’t need replacing. It needs reform. Government should break up monopolies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon and promote competitive markets. “ p264 ( )

Billionaires is Darryl Cunningham's 2021 graphic novel. It is a biography of three of the world's current billionaires, Rupert Murdock, Jeff Bezos and the Koch Brothers. Billionnaire Robert Maxwell plays heavily in Rupert Murdock's story. At 244 pages, each of the billionaires receives about 90 pages of space in the book. Cunningham begins each biography with the birth and childhood of the person. They continue until their death or their current state of affairs. Each of them was driven to succeed by destroying every competitor they had. The key word here is destroy. They were not content to push the competition out of business but rather destroy the owners themselves. All of them had instincts that drove their businesses far above their competitors and created new ways of doing business that other companies have followed.

While I had previously read alot about each of these men, when I looked at them as a group I saw similarities that I had not seen before. The last four pages of the book discussed the economic and societal problems that stem from the actions of these billionaires. It did sound a little sanctimonious even though I agree with the author's conclusions. However, I cannot think of any way that Cunningham could have said it differently. He addresses the effects they had on American policy making and political campaigning.While each of these men used a philosophy of small government and low oversight over corporations to build their empires, what society has received is the exact opposite. We have alot of government oversight of American businesses. How did this happen? These men used political power to stop any competition. This can only happen if government oversees the affairs of all of the other companies.

The political power these men held influenced world affairs in a negative way. The founder of the Koch dynasty supported Nazi Germany with its oil refineries. Murdock's love of gossipy newspapers and his media mergers is what gave us opinionated news anchors. In my opinion he gets the bad rap for creating Fox News. Bezos' predatory acquisitions brought us his vision of The Everything Store. No one seems to be able to succeed in selling any products because Bezos will just start selling the product cheaper, putting other companies out of business.

Billionaires is an insightful graphic novel that gives the reader all the knowledge they need about the lives of these three men. The author has successfully told their stories but in a funny way. There are alot of laughs throughout the book and I can confidently rate it 5 out of 5 stars. ( )