by Brandon Easton ; illustrated by Denis Medri ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 24, 2015
An earnest if colorless picture of both a career and a character.
A graphic biography of a gentle (outside the ring, anyway) giant who helped take professional wrestling from a grubby, localized sport to today’s glittering international spectacle.
The book opens with the abstract reflection that life is a struggle more between optimism and pessimism than good and evil, as the French-born fighter, whose real name was André René Roussimoff (1946-1993), lumbers from country to country, venue to venue, bout to bout, promoter to promoter until the early death brought on by his acromegaly. He’s awash in a sea of beer, but his other outsized appetites are only hinted at. Pro-wrestling fans may enjoy these inside views of the profession’s expansion and of renowned battles with Hulk Hogan and other fellow performers, but aside from playing Sasquatch in the Six Million Dollar Man and a single page about his memorable appearance as Fezzik in The Princess Bride, his film career goes unmentioned. Screenwriter, educator, and graphic novel creator Easton (Shadowlaw, 2012, etc.), who was a nominee for the 2014 Eisner Award, explores his subject’s inner life with bloviations (“In a world with no limits, temptation ceases to exist”) and defines his nonpublic one largely through his heavy drinking (he holds an unofficial record for most beers consumed in one sitting: more than 100), his body’s physical deterioration, and two poignant letters from his estranged daughter, Robin. The first-person narrative conveys a distinct sense of the champion wrestler’s melancholic temperament, and Medri’s brown-washed panel art captures his humongous bulk. Still, this is ultimately just a shorter alternative to Box Brown’s Andre the Giant: Life and Legend (2014), with most of the controversies and apocryphal incidents removed.
An earnest if colorless picture of both a career and a character.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-63140-400-9
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Roar Comics/Lion Forge
Review Posted Online: Sept. 4, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2015
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by R. Crumb ; illustrated by R. Crumb ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 19, 2009
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.
The Book of Genesis as imagined by a veteran voice of underground comics.
R. Crumb’s pass at the opening chapters of the Bible isn’t nearly the act of heresy the comic artist’s reputation might suggest. In fact, the creator of Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural is fastidiously respectful. Crumb took pains to preserve every word of Genesis—drawing from numerous source texts, but mainly Robert Alter’s translation, The Five Books of Moses (2004)—and he clearly did his homework on the clothing, shelter and landscapes that surrounded Noah, Abraham and Isaac. This dedication to faithful representation makes the book, as Crumb writes in his introduction, a “straight illustration job, with no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes.” But his efforts are in their own way irreverent, and Crumb feels no particular need to deify even the most divine characters. God Himself is not much taller than Adam and Eve, and instead of omnisciently imparting orders and judgment He stands beside them in Eden, speaking to them directly. Jacob wrestles not with an angel, as is so often depicted in paintings, but with a man who looks not much different from himself. The women are uniformly Crumbian, voluptuous Earth goddesses who are both sexualized and strong-willed. (The endnotes offer a close study of the kinds of power women wielded in Genesis.) The downside of fitting all the text in is that many pages are packed tight with small panels, and too rarely—as with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah—does Crumb expand his lens and treat signature events dramatically. Even the Flood is fairly restrained, though the exodus of the animals from the Ark is beautifully detailed. The author’s respect for Genesis is admirable, but it may leave readers wishing he had taken a few more chances with his interpretation, as when he draws the serpent in the Garden of Eden as a provocative half-man/half-lizard. On the whole, though, the book is largely a tribute to Crumb’s immense talents as a draftsman and stubborn adherence to the script.
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-393-06102-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009
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by Brian Fies illustrated by Brian Fies ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019
Drawings, words, and a few photos combine to convey the depth of a tragedy that would leave most people dumbstruck.
A new life and book arise from the ashes of a devastating California wildfire.
These days, it seems the fires will never end. They wreaked destruction over central California in the latter months of 2018, dominating headlines for weeks, barely a year after Fies (Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?, 2009) lost nearly everything to the fires that raged through Northern California. The result is a vividly journalistic graphic narrative of resilience in the face of tragedy, an account of recent history that seems timely as ever. “A two-story house full of our lives was a two-foot heap of dead smoking ash,” writes the author about his first return to survey the damage. The matter-of-fact tone of the reportage makes some of the flights of creative imagination seem more extraordinary—particularly a nihilistic, two-page centerpiece of a psychological solar system in which “the fire is our black hole,” and “some veer too near and are drawn into despair, depression, divorce, even suicide,” while “others are gravitationally flung entirely out of our solar system to other cities or states, and never seen again.” Yet the stories that dominate the narrative are those of the survivors, who were part of the community and would be part of whatever community would be built to take its place across the charred landscape. Interspersed with the author’s own account are those from others, many retirees, some suffering from physical or mental afflictions. Each is rendered in a couple pages of text except one from a fellow cartoonist, who draws his own. The project began with an online comic when Fies did the only thing he could as his life was reduced to ash and rubble. More than 3 million readers saw it; this expanded version will hopefully extend its reach.
Drawings, words, and a few photos combine to convey the depth of a tragedy that would leave most people dumbstruck.Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3585-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Abrams ComicArts
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
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