Germ Warfare: A Very Graphic History (2020)

Max Brooks has partnered with the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense to produce GERM WARFARE: A Very Graphic History, a highly stylized and engaging graphic novel depicting previous biological warfare events, the possibilities for the future, and the continued need for public health security.

Germs. They are too small to see with the naked eye, but they have killed more human beings than all the wars in history.

Before humans even knew that germs caused disease, they knew disease could be a weapon of war.

“Germ Warfare” traces the long, brutal story of those microscopic weapons. From the infected arrows of Bronze Age archers, to the plague factories of World War 2, up through the biological arms race of the Cold War into our modern age of genetically manipulated terrorism.

This graphic history is both a lesson from the past and a warning for the future. It reminds us never to take public health for granted, because we never know when, or how, the next pandemic will rise.

Voiceover by James Lewis