"Barbara Slate, graphic novelist, cartoonist, DC Comics legend, teacher and author ("You Can Do a Graphic Novel"), could not be more in the present than she is with her newest foray, a slim paperback called "Mirror Test: The Cassidy Hutchinson Story"...
...clever, witty and relevant, makes an important contribution to the genre of political art...
...Comics, with their origin as political commentary, have slyer subtexts. Clearly, Slate - a rarity in the world of cartoon illustration - wants to educate women to speak up and speak out. That's a tough order in a town like Washington D.C., overwhelmed with female second- and third-degree players, with most positions of real power in the hands of men.
...One of the hopes of political cartoonists is not only to savage the opposition and send up hypocrisy, but to encourage believers in The Right Thing to keep believing and to act on their beliefs. Graphic artists like Barbara Slate are particularly effective in this effort because their art is not just a one-panel shot like a magazine cartoon, but a narrative. There's a story to engage the viewer with text as well as visuals. An inference is that perhaps we will want to know more and seek out more information. In this sense graphic novels can serve as prompts to further, deeper reading - the very opposite of social media quickie news bites."
--Joan Baum, The Southampton Press,
