This book was super interesting and the format made it easy to follow and held my interest. I’m of the belief that billionaires should not exist and this book really cemented that. The corruption is outrageous and it brought attention to the leg up all of the “self made” billionaires got: it was very informative and gave me some new facts that aren’t exactly well known. I’m not usually a big fan of nonfiction but I found this book to be fascinating.

Three separate but thematically connected biographies of Rupert Murdoch, The Koch brothers, and Jeff Bezos, all of whom have accumulated massive amounts of money and influenced society, as this book argues, in ways more ill than good. I hadn't known as much about the histories of Murdoch and the Kochs, so it was a good education in their rise and they way they have intertwined business, ideology, and politics. Bezos, since he's not as (overtly) influencing and interconnected in politics seems not quite to fit, although the author does a good job of showing how he has used amazon to influence and impact the law to his benefit. The major thing they all have in common is a willingness to be underhanded, backstabbing, unethical, and evil in their dealings with family, competitors, and the general public. And to continue to use those tactics to advance their vision at the expense of all else (including the welfare of their workers and/or the general public). Do I recognize the irony as I review this on a platform owned by Bezos (goodreads)? Yes. Does it still bother me? Yes.

This book was really exhausting. Reading it felt like doing homework. The topics covered are very important ones and the corruption discussed is certainly rage inducing. Unfortunately the book felt very preachy. It was as if the author was shaking me screaming “BE ENRAGED!” every few moments. Character designs were inconsistent. The same person might be drawn three different ways. This combined with the fact the main people discussed were very physically similar (white men) and the fact that the author tended to throw out a bunch of names all at once made it hard for me to keep track of who was who.

Billionaires was both very readable and informative. I’m a little ashamed to say that I didn’t know much of anything about Rupert Murdoch or the Koch brothers, other than their respective fields of business, before reading this book—but now that’s not the case!

Cunningham did a great job of presenting biographies of four men (Murdoch, the Koch brothers, and Jeff Bezos) and showing why the money, which translates to political power and cultural influence, that they have is not good for our country or the world. He focused on Conservative and Libertarian billionaires but makes a point of saying in the afterward that the same general principal, that billionaires have too much power, could still easily be made if a similar book were written about left leaning billionaires.

Overall it was an eye opening and informative read. The graphic novel format made Billionaires easy to digest and far more entertaining than a traditional book on the same topic could possibly be.

"Billionaires" is a compelling look at the lives of Rupert Murdoch, the Koch Brothers and Jeff Bezos. The mix of personal biography and business history was well-done and offered a clear picture of each man's life and how he amassed wealth and power. Illustrations and layout are clean and made each narrative easy to follow. This is a great work of comics nonfiction - dense but still highly readable.