IVETTE FELICIANO:

Kirk found the visual style of a graphic history well-suited for bringing to life the stories of the people who lived through nuclear testing, stories he helped collect in an oral history project partly funded by the U.S. Departments of Energy and Education.

Participants are literally drawn into the panels and describe not fully knowing about the hazards of radiation, how soldiers experienced the blasts at close range, and were then ordered to march toward the test site to see how they would respond during an actual attack.

But the tests weren't all "doom and gloom," according to Las Vegas news photographer Don English, who recalled how his photographs of a dancer in front of an atomic cloud became iconic images of Nevada's nuclear testing legacy. And how the blasts in the Nevada desert became a draw for tourists.