An artful book that just scratches the surface of D’s life in hip-hop.
An iconic MC sketches out his brushes with music, sports, and political celebrities.
Though not exactly a memoir and not arranged chronologically, this book by the Public Enemy frontman and accomplished graphic novelist (Summer of Hamn, 2023, etc.) does capture key moments on his path from Long Island deliveryman to hip-hop royalty. Each page typically features an ink-and-watercolor rendering of the person he met, along with some handwritten commentary. The drawings have a hasty-looking but still careful aesthetic—his renderings are remarkably accurate. Unsurprisingly, many of the subjects hail from the worlds of hip-hop and R&B: Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, Mavis Staples, Erykah Badu, and more. But there are some surprises, like Fox News chief Roger Ailes (who briefly hired Chuck D as an on-air analyst), Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, and Prince, seen administering a yard sale at his studio. He shares a few examples of awkward interactions—Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, a counterpoint to D’s late-’90s enthusiasm for file sharing, and Percy Sledge, whom D mistook for Fats Domino on a plane. And he remains a supporter of the controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, rendered here as a peacekeeper during the East Coast–West Coast rap wars and the Million Man March of 1995. But generally, his commentary reflects admiration and wide-eyed astonishment that he got to breathe the same air as the named celebrity. To that end, this book feels like a missed opportunity: You sense that D could create a full-dress graphic memoir and say much more about the likes of Spike Lee and his longtime friend and sidekick Flavor Flav, or moments that cry out for more explanation, like a concert at a Cleveland roller rink where he performed on skates.
An artful book that just scratches the surface of D’s life in hip-hop.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781636142043
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Enemy Books/Akashic
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.
Portraits in a post-pandemic world.
After the Covid-19 lockdowns left New York City’s streets empty, many claimed that the city was “gone forever.” It was those words that inspired Stanton, whose previous collections include Humans of New York (2013), Humans of New York: Stories (2015), and Humans (2020), to return to the well once more for a new love letter to the city’s humanity and diversity. Beautifully laid out in hardcover with crisp, bright images, each portrait of a New Yorker is accompanied by sparse but potent quotes from Stanton’s interviews with his subjects. Early in the book, the author sequences three portraits—a couple laughing, then looking serious, then the woman with tears in her eyes—as they recount the arc of their relationship, transforming each emotional beat of their story into an affecting visual narrative. In another, an unhoused man sits on the street, his husky eating out of his hand. The caption: “I’m a late bloomer.” Though the pandemic isn’t mentioned often, Stanton focuses much of the book on optimistic stories of the post-pandemic era. Among the most notable profiles is Myles Smutney, founder of the Free Store Project, whose story of reclaiming boarded‑up buildings during the lockdowns speaks to the city’s resilience. In reusing the same formula from his previous books, the author confirms his thesis: New York isn’t going anywhere. As he writes in his lyrical prologue, “Just as one might dive among coral reefs to marvel at nature, one can come to New York City to marvel at humanity.” The book’s optimism paints New York as a city where diverse lives converge in moments of beauty, joy, and collective hope.
A familiar format, but a timely reminder that cities are made up of individuals, each with their own stories.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9781250277589
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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