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Billionaires: The Lives of the Rich and Powerful
The super-rich are often portrayed as self-made, but is this true? In his latest graphic book, celebrated cartoonist Darryl Cunningham examines the evidence, featuring graphic biographies of media baron Rupert Murdoch, oil and gas tycoons Charles and David Koch, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Despite the growing inequality in the world, are such wealthy individuals necessary to finance progress? Would we be porter without them? Is this the world we want?
Despite the growing inequality in the world, are such wealthy individuals necessary to finance progress? Would we be porter without them? Is this the world we want?
263 pages, Paperback
First published November 7, 2019
21 people are currently reading
514 people want to read
About the author
Darryl Cunningham
17 books123 followersBritish Artist Darryl Cunningham is the creator of the web-comics, 'Super-Sam and John-of-the-Night' and 'The Streets of San Diablo'. Darryl's work can also be found at his blog and flickr page. His book Psychiatric Tales has been published by Blank Slate in the UK and by Bloomsbury in the US.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews
June 13, 2021
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? Yes. Does it still bother me? Yes.
**Thanks to the artist, publisher, and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
**Thanks to the artist, publisher, and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
July 2, 2021
great book to read if u like being angry and want to hate billionaires even more than u already do. :))
honestly great biographical reading. most of us know these names but may not know about how they became who they are. the author details how each billionaire built their fortune, and what they do with their influence. he does not let them off light. he highlights amazon's unsafe working conditions, the devastation to the environment caused by the koch brothers, and the dangerous far-right political influence that rupert murdoch's empire wields.
i just have one problem with this book, and that's on the very last page, where the author writes "capitalism doesn't need replacing, it needs reform." lmao, capitalism absolutely needs to be destroyed. i was actually a little surprised to see him say that, after everything else he'd written, and it makes me wonder if his publisher made him write that last bit just to soften up the book for a wider audience.
honestly great biographical reading. most of us know these names but may not know about how they became who they are. the author details how each billionaire built their fortune, and what they do with their influence. he does not let them off light. he highlights amazon's unsafe working conditions, the devastation to the environment caused by the koch brothers, and the dangerous far-right political influence that rupert murdoch's empire wields.
i just have one problem with this book, and that's on the very last page, where the author writes "capitalism doesn't need replacing, it needs reform." lmao, capitalism absolutely needs to be destroyed. i was actually a little surprised to see him say that, after everything else he'd written, and it makes me wonder if his publisher made him write that last bit just to soften up the book for a wider audience.
February 28, 2023
yeah… so… this was a strange but unfortunately unsurprising pro-capitalism pro-american dems propaganda indictment of billionaires (but we should hate daddy bezos the least 🥺 he is just holding his workers to the same high standards as he holds himself and he like star trek how coooool 😊😊😊) straight out of the dungeon of flat aesthetics . like fuucckkk offfff m8 🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮
August 20, 2022
This book shows you that "business ethics" is an oxymoron. A well researched fantastic summary of unethical practices that happen behind the screen of supposedly successful corporations. Scary.A must read for everybody but especially for any aspiring want to be entrepreneurs to learn what not to do when the money accumulates.
July 25, 2023
A good summary, but I wish it was infused with more commentary, not just the last few pages of the afterword. A lot of the book felt like a Wikipedia article in graphic form. Also, there was no commentary on general complaints of capitalism and how we are in late-stage capitalism fuelled by these billionaires, rather saying we only need a few government reforms to curtail the billionaires and everything will be fine (even climate change).
December 23, 2019
In my opinion Darryl Cunningham is a national treasure. Writing informative and engaging books on important topics.
This one covers 3 examples of extremely wealthy people (Rupert Murdoch, the Koch brothers and Jeff Bezos) and the disproportionate power and influence they wield.
This one covers 3 examples of extremely wealthy people (Rupert Murdoch, the Koch brothers and Jeff Bezos) and the disproportionate power and influence they wield.
August 26, 2021
This book will make you want to roll out the guillotine.
December 15, 2022
I have mixed feelings. After laying out all the negative and horrific ways the 1% affects our world, it still concludes with the opinion that capitalism is good.
April 20, 2025
Great explanations of how these billionaires manipulated their workers, friends, politicians, laws and other businesses to gain absurd levels of power. Small insights into their lives as their views are changed by money and how the dark personality traits that helped get them this power are foisted onto those around them.
Pretty dry reading though, I wish the author had added more commentary and analysis of the effect of these men's lives on the world throughout the book. Particularly with Bezos, more analysis of the downstream effects of Amazon would have fit well. Koch industries was rightfully tied to pollution and setting back climate science, News Corp to spreading and intensifying political division. What about Amazon's effect on individual consumption habits? How does encouraging completely frictionless shopping for anything imaginable affect our happiness, our climate? What might the world look like if Jeff's goal comes true and there is no marketplace but Amazon?
Pretty dry reading though, I wish the author had added more commentary and analysis of the effect of these men's lives on the world throughout the book. Particularly with Bezos, more analysis of the downstream effects of Amazon would have fit well. Koch industries was rightfully tied to pollution and setting back climate science, News Corp to spreading and intensifying political division. What about Amazon's effect on individual consumption habits? How does encouraging completely frictionless shopping for anything imaginable affect our happiness, our climate? What might the world look like if Jeff's goal comes true and there is no marketplace but Amazon?
July 2, 2021
This should be the new Bible.
September 26, 2021
should be required reading in American classrooms
September 4, 2021
A fantastically depressing exploration of the lives of some of the worlds most MASSIVE arseholes!!
There is no scarier horror story or science fiction novel you could find to match what is documented here about some the worlds most controlling mega-rich.
There is no scarier horror story or science fiction novel you could find to match what is documented here about some the worlds most controlling mega-rich.
January 24, 2020
Not something I would normally read but I am tending to enjoy non-fiction like this more and more.
I don’t know enough about the ideas and people shown in this book to judge the accuracy of the information shown. I also don’t know if I agree with all of the politics in this book however I will say that this kept me hooked and I feel like I have gained from understanding the authors viewpoints. I will check out more from this author as the style of writing and illustration kept me engaged and interested to learn more.
I am giving this book a five star review for being accessible, interesting and thought provoking.
I don’t know enough about the ideas and people shown in this book to judge the accuracy of the information shown. I also don’t know if I agree with all of the politics in this book however I will say that this kept me hooked and I feel like I have gained from understanding the authors viewpoints. I will check out more from this author as the style of writing and illustration kept me engaged and interested to learn more.
I am giving this book a five star review for being accessible, interesting and thought provoking.
December 13, 2024
4/5
This was a well written introduction to the influence, power and impact of the extraordinarily wealthy, which really helped the 'big picture' of a lot of social and political issues click in my mind. A lot of the content is very America-centric, but found this interesting nonetheless.
The language used was really clear and got everything across well, and the simple art style helped illustrate everything really well.
I'd definitely recommend it to those interested - if you didn't dislike billionaires already, you probably will be after!
This was a well written introduction to the influence, power and impact of the extraordinarily wealthy, which really helped the 'big picture' of a lot of social and political issues click in my mind. A lot of the content is very America-centric, but found this interesting nonetheless.
The language used was really clear and got everything across well, and the simple art style helped illustrate everything really well.
I'd definitely recommend it to those interested - if you didn't dislike billionaires already, you probably will be after!
March 2, 2025
This graphic novel presented the 3 stories of billionaires: Rupert Murdoch, the Koch Brothers, and Jeff Bezos in a super informative and digestible way. The book ultimately warns about the dangers that come with such a small group of people having so much power. It’s a great book to read if you want to learn more about how corrupt people and systems work and what role you play as a consumer. It’s an especially timely read given the current government administration
July 18, 2022
I thought this book was going to help me flesh out my very detailed and mundane fantasies of day-to-day life being uber-rich, but it turned out to be three actual biographies of specific men. It did help me crystalize my plans for how to first buy and then take down the oil and coal industries without putting people out of work, how to first buy and then dismantle FOX News without anyone noticing so they don't build it back up again, and how to funnel all my money into electing lawmakers who will then get corporate, foundation, and private money out of politics.
January 6, 2025
Quick and easy graphic nonfiction book. Loved the illustrations. If you want to see the face of pure evil, I suggest reading this book. It’s both enlightening and infuriating. Highly recommend it. In the afterword the author is a little too apologetic for capitalism, which made me laugh out loud. He thinks capitalism doesn’t need to be dismantled, but rather reformed. Seems a bit naive to me.
April 8, 2021
My review of this book is forthcoming to The Comics Journal sometime this month or next.
August 1, 2021
Savor the irony of rating this book on Goodreads...
Well presented insights into the lives and business practices of 3 billionaires (individuals or families) clear and interesting as all of Darryl Cunningham’s books have been so far. It would be interesting to see him do a “Billionaires II” and look at several super wealthy people from the other end of the political spectrum. He touches on this briefly at the end but it feels like those points could be expanded into a book as well.
Well presented insights into the lives and business practices of 3 billionaires (individuals or families) clear and interesting as all of Darryl Cunningham’s books have been so far. It would be interesting to see him do a “Billionaires II” and look at several super wealthy people from the other end of the political spectrum. He touches on this briefly at the end but it feels like those points could be expanded into a book as well.
March 29, 2022
A must-read graphic novel portraying the history of some of the ultra-wealthy 1 % of our times.
December 29, 2022
This book is Excellent.
July 27, 2024
2024 Summer Reading Challenge- read a graphic novel
September 19, 2021
Looking forward to reading more from darryl Cunningham
January 16, 2023
Boycotting Amazon after reading this
November 8, 2021
I read Billionaires shortly after finishing Cunningham’s earlier book, How to Fake a Moon Landing, which had underwhelmed me. Billionaires is better, if only because its premise, the damaging political and social influence of hyper-capitalistic robber barons, gives full vent to Cunningham‘s potential for polemic. Whereas How to Fake a Moon Landing devotes much of its space to scientific exposition, this book, divided into three distinct chapters on, respectively, Rupert Murdoch, the Koch brothers, and Jeff Bezos, allows Cunningham to engage in more focused and ferocious criticism. Each chapter is a bomb with a long fuse, starting with the bland recitation of biographical facts but then building, inexorably, to an exposé of the damage done by the concentration of power in an oligarch’s hands.
There is an awful lot in this book that I did not know, and some of it makes for gripping if befuddling reading – for example, the details of the phone-hacking scandal that brought down Murdoch’s tabloid, News of the World, or Margaret Thatcher’s use of the police to help Murdoch break unions, or the absurd litigious feuding among the Koch brothers (definitely a study in family dysfunction). Also, Cunningham is graphically fiercer in this book, with more varied layouts, bold, even assaultive, color choices (check out the huge swaths of red), and freer, more aggressive cartooning. He seems to dig in with greater energy, or confidence. This subject matter seems to embolden his needling wit. On the other hand, keeping track of the various players in these sordid business stories can be difficult – too many people are represented by generic cartoons, and their names and actions become a blur. Only the billionaire protagonists, with all their willfulness and hubris, register as personalities, and even then Cunningham’s focus is on large-scale processes and their impacts, not on human motivations. Often his recitations of fact stand apart from the accompanying images; the book contains a great deal of info that Cunningham does not seek to visualize, which for me means some tough slogging.
This is an angry and useful book. I imagine I will keep it around, at least for a while. But I have a hard time getting interested aesthetically in Cunningham’s work. He does know how to mount a fierce argument, but as comics the work seems utilitarian and dry. (I felt similarly about Filiu and David B.’s Best of Enemies, and GR readers may notice similar complaints in several of my reviews of didactic comics!)
There is an awful lot in this book that I did not know, and some of it makes for gripping if befuddling reading – for example, the details of the phone-hacking scandal that brought down Murdoch’s tabloid, News of the World, or Margaret Thatcher’s use of the police to help Murdoch break unions, or the absurd litigious feuding among the Koch brothers (definitely a study in family dysfunction). Also, Cunningham is graphically fiercer in this book, with more varied layouts, bold, even assaultive, color choices (check out the huge swaths of red), and freer, more aggressive cartooning. He seems to dig in with greater energy, or confidence. This subject matter seems to embolden his needling wit. On the other hand, keeping track of the various players in these sordid business stories can be difficult – too many people are represented by generic cartoons, and their names and actions become a blur. Only the billionaire protagonists, with all their willfulness and hubris, register as personalities, and even then Cunningham’s focus is on large-scale processes and their impacts, not on human motivations. Often his recitations of fact stand apart from the accompanying images; the book contains a great deal of info that Cunningham does not seek to visualize, which for me means some tough slogging.
This is an angry and useful book. I imagine I will keep it around, at least for a while. But I have a hard time getting interested aesthetically in Cunningham’s work. He does know how to mount a fierce argument, but as comics the work seems utilitarian and dry. (I felt similarly about Filiu and David B.’s Best of Enemies, and GR readers may notice similar complaints in several of my reviews of didactic comics!)
January 23, 2023
Made me hate rich people even more
June 18, 2021
Billionaires is an anti-billionaire cartoon-graphic biography book focusing on the lives and businesses of Rupert Murdoch, the Koch brothers, and Jeff Bezos. The writing seems a bit lazy at times; the book is very biased (though the author is pretty honest about it); and the Murdoch section, while initially and then generally interesting if you know nothing about him, drags itself down into dull details at times. In the end, the reader learns quite a bit about these mostly-horrible rich people and their various companies (did you know Jeff Bezos owns Goodreads? I already did but it's fun to re-state it here on Goodreads. Sigh).
Rupert Murdoch, to sum up, in addition to running Fox News and helping Trump get elected (page 90):
For more than half a century, Murdoch had ruthlessly bulldozed over competitors, cast friends and business allies aside when they were no longer of use, interfered through [collusion], bullying and intimidation in Australian, UK, and U.S. politics, and allowed his newspapers to break numerous laws and destroy lives.
The Koch brothers were a bunch of rich, over-privileged, greedy bastards who made most of their money through oil/gas and chemicals while polluting the planet, denying climate change, and funding right-wing think tanks (except Frederick, he seems to have been a rich patron of the arts at least). Strongly anti-government, they did some positive things, such as support widespread prison reform -- but it seems it was all motivated purely by self-interest in terms of increasing their wealth and power, and the wealth and power of the rich at the expense of everyone else.
Jeff Bezos had an interesting childhood and was a brilliant kid with interesting parents. He's incredibly hard-working, driven, innovative and talented -- but he also treats his employees like garbage and is one of the least philanthropic super-rich people on earth. He loves Star Trek: TNG, but his dream seems to be creating capitalism in space as opposed to the capitalism-free reality of The United Federation of Planets. He made Amazon the behemoth it is today, and it's amazing that you can easily order something (minus Covid supply shortages) and have it delivered quickly for a reasonable price (moreso in the US than Canada)... but Amazon became what it is by crushing the competition, putting bookstores and downtowns out of business, threatening the future of books themselves and so forth. It seems like everything is just a tool for Bezos, and all people and things are expendable and their discarding or destruction a worthy means to his end of flying his stupid rockets around in space, largely for his own childish amusement. What a waste.
Oh, 3.8 Stars
Notes (spoilers I spose)
November 8, 2023
Cunningham's artwork does not appeal to me HOWEVER, it works well in his factual overviews. I love his work and this one might be my favourite. Three separate biographies of multi-billionaires (I typed million and realised changing one letter meant an enormous difference to their wealth!). Ironically I'm writing a review on a site owned by Jeff Bazos' Amazon. Should I be supporting him in this way?
Firstly we meet Rupert Murdoch, then the Koch Brothers and finally Bezos himself. All the characters are so high in the stratosphere beyond my knowledge, wealth (!) and morality that it's hard to take seriously, but that's exactly why this book is so valuable. Wealth for these people is way beyond what their forebears knew - and in 2 out of 3 cases, that was enough already! Murdoch comes across as ruthless, but I understand pyschopaths are. What scared me more was how he could make promises to governments and then just ignore the promises and get away with it - whilst feeding his media empire such awful one-sided propaganda. The Koch brothers seem to have fought among themselves and polluted the planet to such an extent I'm surprised we don't name global warming "Koch Climate Change". And as for their foundations - formed to avoid tax and appear benevolent...!
Bezos' story certainly begins better than the previous two, but then soon falls into the usual workaholic, HR-nightmare, acquisitive, ruthless person, the others are.
An essential read to see how far money trickles upwards but in bucket-loads and how impoverished we all are as a result!
Should I be using this platform as a result of reading this book? Yes, it's where people meet and if this is not censored, you might have seen I'm serious that this book is a seriously important one.
Firstly we meet Rupert Murdoch, then the Koch Brothers and finally Bezos himself. All the characters are so high in the stratosphere beyond my knowledge, wealth (!) and morality that it's hard to take seriously, but that's exactly why this book is so valuable. Wealth for these people is way beyond what their forebears knew - and in 2 out of 3 cases, that was enough already! Murdoch comes across as ruthless, but I understand pyschopaths are. What scared me more was how he could make promises to governments and then just ignore the promises and get away with it - whilst feeding his media empire such awful one-sided propaganda. The Koch brothers seem to have fought among themselves and polluted the planet to such an extent I'm surprised we don't name global warming "Koch Climate Change". And as for their foundations - formed to avoid tax and appear benevolent...!
Bezos' story certainly begins better than the previous two, but then soon falls into the usual workaholic, HR-nightmare, acquisitive, ruthless person, the others are.
An essential read to see how far money trickles upwards but in bucket-loads and how impoverished we all are as a result!
Should I be using this platform as a result of reading this book? Yes, it's where people meet and if this is not censored, you might have seen I'm serious that this book is a seriously important one.
October 13, 2022
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
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
March 4, 2022
One of the very few mementos I have of my friend Chris Kim is his tattered copy of Maus by Art Spiegelman. He handed me this “graphic novel” about a dozen years ago in his Boston apartment and insisted I read it. I opened to discover a cartoon-drawn cat-and-mouse tale of … the Holocaust? The book is still controversial but it blew me away and I tumbled into the graphic novel hole -- falling in love with works like Persepolis, Summer Blonde, and The Park Bench. I find the format so compelling for communicating twisting stories and detailed histories on a slightly tilted emotional valence. The graphic novel universe continues to expand. Billionaires is marketed as “comics journalism” and reads like a detailed and well-researched biography of Rupert Murdoch, the Koch Brothers, and Jeff Bezos. Cunningham doesn’t just take the simplified position of “billionaires are bad” but rather wades through denser reads like Dark Money by Jane Mayer, The Everything Store by Brad Stone, and Dial M for Murdoch by Tom Watson and sort of shakes out enough provocative facts and stories to stitch together their lives. Not a definitive read in any way but a great catchup on some of the most powerful people of our time.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews