Category: Biography

Posted on

Alice in Cryptoland – Bitcoin, NFT and Other Curiosities


By Nicolas Balas, Daniel Villa Monteiro, translated by Margaret Morrison (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-355-4 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-356-1

This book also includes some Discriminatory Content included for dramatic and literary effect.

Sequential narrative is a nigh-universal, overwhelmingly powerful medium fluent in a host of topics and genres, but the area where it has always shone brightest is in its chimeric capacity to convey complex arguments, positions and states in a clear and compelling manner. Although daubing marks on a surface is possibly our oldest art form, the potential to ask questions, make stories and concisely communicate via that primal process remains infinitely adaptable to modern mores and as powerful as it ever was in exploring the unchanging basics of the human condition.

Narrative plus image – and the interactions such conjunctions can embrace – underpin all of our communal existence and form the primary source for how we view our distant forbears; especially as if employed by incisive, sensitive, uncompromising agents and interlocutors…

That’s never been more apparent than in this short sweet deep dive into one of the most controversial of new modern innovations.

Crafted during the Covid lockdowns and released on the continent in 2023, using the avatar of a cute and appealing young woman disaffected with the contemporary financial, governmental and environmental status quo, writer/educator Daniel Villa Monteiro and animator/illustrator Nicolas Balas jointly outline the pros & cons of cryptocurrencies, addressing the history, development, advantages and pitfalls of Bitcoin, Non Fungible Tokens, Blockchain and other trade/pecuniary artefacts of the digital age in a staggeringly accessible manner that even I could grasp.

Just before coronavirus is set to change human society forever, art student Alice receives an inheritance from her grandmother. Constantly harassed by her “breadhead” banker/financier dad on how best to invest the nest egg, self-aware, system-suspicious, rebellious Alice eventually discovers alternate currency Bitcoin and after some trepidation dives into a new world. As an artist, she thinks visually, using cartoons and graphics to enhance her understanding of this brand new world and even explain what she’s doing to her little brother. The results are so effective that soon she is sharing her images and online tutorials with other curious pre-converts, becoming well known to advocates of digital economy and is on the cusp of a promising new career.

If only she can completely convince herself that it’s all safe and secure…

Warm, beguiling and immensely straightforward Alice in Cryptoland is a charming and readily comprehensible argument for its subject that puts understanding of a bewildering subject first and foremost, not only in its context-rammed ‘Foreword’ and utterly crucial ‘Glossary of Terms’ but also on every lovely welcoming cartoon page.

Why not invest some of your actual capital resources on something that could end your dependence on it?

Originally published as Alice au pays des cryptos by Editions du Faubourg, © 2023. All rights reserved. © 2025 NBM for the English translation.
Scheduled for UK release on 13th May, Alice in Cryptoland is available for pre-order now.

Posted on

High Command – The Stories of Sir Winston Churchill and General Montgomery


By Frank Bellamy & Clifford Makins (Dragon’s Dream)
ISBN: 978-9-06332-901-3 (PB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Inexcusably absent as we commemorate the achievements and sacrifices of earlier generations are these twin neglected classics of British comic strip art, crafted by one of the world’s most talented narrative illustrators. These wonderful biographical series originally ran in Eagle, the most influential comic of post-war Britain, which launched on April 14th 1950, astounding readers weekly until 26th April 1969.

It was the brainchild of a Southport vicar, the Reverend Marcus Morris, who was at that time concerned over the detrimental effects of American comic books on British children. He posited a good, solid, thoroughly decent Christian-inspired antidote and sought out like-minded creators. After jobbing around a dummy to numerous British publishers for over a year with little success, he eventually found an unlikely home at Hulton Press, a company producing adult general interest magazines like Lilliput and Picture Post. The result was a huge hit, spawning clones Swift, Robin and Girl (targeting other demographic sectors of the children’s market), as well as radio series, books, toys and all other sorts of merchandising.

An incredible number of soon-to-be prominent creative figures in many arenas of media worked on the weekly, and although Dan Dare is deservedly revered as the star, many other strips were as popular at the time, often rivalling the lead in quality and entertainment value. As was the trend of the times, the content combined fact with fiction, stressing learning and discernment equally with adventure, thrills and fun…

At its peak, Eagle sold close to a million copies a week, but before changing tastes and “musical owners” killed the title. In 1960, Hulton sold out to comics megalith Odhams, who then became Longacre Press. A year later they were bought by The Daily Mirror Group who evolved into IPC. And so it goes in publishing…

In cost-cutting exercises, many later issues carried (relatively) cheap and oh-so-trendy Marvel Comics reprints rather than British originated material. It took time, but the Yankee cultural Invaders won out in the end. With the April 26th 1969 issue Eagle merged with Lion, and eventually disappeared altogether. Successive generations have revived the prestigious glamour-soaked title, but never its success.

From its glorious Reithian heyday (“Educate, Elucidate and Entertain”) came a brace of brief biographical serials devoted to two men crucial to the war effort that had imperilled the readership’s forebears, and these were originally collected into a classy album by Dragons Dream in 1981.

The first half was reprinted in 2014 as a slim, scarcely seen paperback and hardcover album from Uniform. The Happy Warrior: The Life Story of Sir Winston Churchill as Told Through the Eagle Comic of the 1950’s (ISBNs 978-1-90650-990-3 for the HB and 978-1929154340 for the softcover) came with a scholarly commentary from Richard M. Langworth CBE, but we’re long overdue for the combined volume to resurface.

If you can, go for the High Command edition, but in whatever form you can devour the life story of Sir Winston Churchill and the quiet general (both scripted by Clifford Makins), beginning with the icon of Bulldog Spirit.

Originally titled The Happy Warrior, the prestigious full-page back cover feature (running from October 4th 1957 to September 1958) was Frank Bellamy’s first full colour strip. He followed up with Montgomery of Alamein (Eagle volume 13, #10-27, spanning March 10th to 7th July 1962), delivering twice the punch and more revelatory design in 2-page colour-spreads that utterly spellbound readers, whether they were war fans or not.

Churchill himself approved the early strips and was rumoured to have been consulted before the artist began the experimental layouts that elevated Bellamy from being merely a highly skilled representational draughtsman into the trailblazing innovator who revolutionized the comic page in features like Doctor Who and Garth. The tireless experimenter also began the explorations of the use of local and expressionistic colour palettes that would result in the extraordinary Fraser of Africa, Heros the Spartan and deservedly legendary Thunderbirds strips.

The Churchill story follows the great man from his early days at Eton through military service in Cuba as a war correspondent, and into politics. Although a large proportion deals with World War II – and in a spectacular, tense and thrilling manner – the subtler skill Bellamy displays in depicting the transition of dynamic, handsome man of action into burly political heavyweight over the weeks is impressive and astonishing. It should be mentioned, though, that this collection doesn’t reproduce the climactic, triumphal last page, a portrait that is half-pin-up, half summation and all hagiography.

Bernard Law Montgomery’s graphic biography benefited from Bellamy’s burgeoning expertise in two ways. Firstly, the page count was doubled, and the artist capitalized on this by producing groundbreaking double page spreads that worked across gutters (the white spaces that divides the pictures). This allowed him to craft even more startling page and panel designs.

Secondly, Bellamy had now become extremely proficient in both staging the script and creating mood with colour. This strip is pictorial poetry in motion.

Makins doesn’t hang about either. Taking only three episodes to get from school days in Hammersmith, army service in India and promotion to Brigade Major by the end of the Great War, Monty’s WWII achievements are given full play, allowing Bellamy to create an awesome display of action-packed war comics over the remaining 15 double-paged episodes. There really hasn’t been anything to match this level of quality and sophistication in combat comics before or since.

If you strain you might detect a tinge of post-war triumphalism in the scripts, but these accounts are generally historically accurate and phenomenally stirring to look at. If you love comic art you should hunt these down, or at least pray that somebody, somewhere has the sense to reprint this work.

© 1981 Dragon’s Dream B.V. ©1981 IPC Magazines Ltd.

Posted on

John Muir: To the Heart of Solitude


By Lomig, translated by Christopher Pope (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-352-3 (Album HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-352-353-0

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

We don’t get nearly enough access to philosophy or big thinkers in comics, but whenever some creator does set out to explore and address deeper issues or formative moments in human culture, the results are more often than not splendidly successful.

Self-schooled author, cartoonist and illustrator Lomig (Le cas Fodyl, Dans la forêt) cut his teeth on edgy, Speculative Fiction graphic novels exploring the declining relationship between humanity and its environment, and here turns his questioning gaze on one of the USA’s greatest naturalists: a man who literally changed the way the nation thought about its lands and populations – human and otherwise.

Here in the form of a bucolic memoir via the explorer’s own words and stunning sepia toned line drawing, Lomig traces Muir’s 1000 mile walk in the woods. It began in September 1867, and on it he collected plant samples, made drawings and recorded the variety of life – plant and otherwise – all the way from Indiana to Florida (and even Cuba). The genesis of the jump from unhappy 29-year-old carpenter to inspired naturalist was almost losing his sight in an accident at a lumber mill.

During his long and dreary convalescence – six months in a darkened room under the care of the remarkable Catharine Merrill: educator, Civil War nurse/physician, cofounder of Indianapolis Home for Friendless Women and the second ever female university professor in the United States – Muir had a revelation. He decided that the rest of his life would benefit humanity by understanding nature…

The long, eventful but astoundlingly non-thtreatening trek ends with Muir finding his promised land in the wild of Yosimte and experiencing another mind-expanding vision of revelation…

Born in Dunbar, Scotland on April 21st 1838, “John of the Mountains” was 11 when his father moved the whole family of nine to Wisconsin. From ealrly on, Muir was a prolific and inspired inventor, earning many patents and attending college unhappily before taking up the family business as a woodworker. The accdent that ended that period of his life led to not just the epic trek detailed here, but also a life of pioneering efforts to preserve America’s wild places. The naturalist, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, geologist and glaciologist advocated tirelessly, using skilled argument, charismatic example, books and articles and by creating in San Francisco in 1892 grass roots movement turned activism focal point The Sierra Club.

He also had no truck with war mongers or racists and truly lived his life hoping everyone would just get along with each other. He died on December 24, 1914 and John Muir Day is celebrated on his birthday in California and Scotland as well as many other places..

This beautiful and lavish commemoration is filled with appreciation and wonder for Muir’s life, lifestyle and achievements, and it’s truly terrifying to consider that all the great works of Muir  and his many converts could be so easily undone by a bunch of greedy jerks with mean hearts, stupid policies, orange bottle tans and big black Sharpies…

This lavish, deliciously oversized (280 x 216 mm) sepia-toned hardback is not a history or biography text. You won’t learn much about Muir’s formative experiences in Scotland or time at the Unversity of Wisconsin, but the comprehensive essay and appreciation at the back does cover that in detail, copiously adorned with a wealth of photograpic, drawn and found images from his notebooks. The biography comes from archivist and scholar MikeWurtz – Director of the Holt Atherton Special Collections and Archives/Library of the University of the Pacific at Stockton, California – filling some gaps whilst clarifying the first American naturalist’s place in history and legacy for the modern world.
© Sarbacane, Paris 2023 published in arrangement with Sylvain Coissard Agency. © 2025 NBM for the English translation.

John Muir: To the Heart of Solitude will be published on April 15th 2025 and is available for pre-order now.

Posted on

Kusama: Polka Dot Queen (Art Masters)


By Simon Elliott (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-91422-430-0 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced for dramatic effect.

The Sixties were an amazing time, I remember them well – which apparently means that I wasn’t really there. However, many others were and this potent revisitation and exploration of one of the most misplaced icons of that era reveals in fabulous fashion how she overcame institutional neglect, habitual sidelining, racial intolerance and gender prejudice to finally see her merit and achievements acknowledged.

Moreover, the long climb and her subsequent fame and influence have been magnified in the decades since, both abroad and – most crucially – in the land of her birth and where she was first discarded. Apparently, living long and well and true to oneself is the best revenge…

Legal eagle Simon Elliot (art obsessive, criminal barrister and stand-up comedian by night) adds to his list of side hustle successes with another superb artist biography to supplement Hockney: A Graphic Life (Frances Lincoln, 2023), and 2024’s Vincent: A Graphic Biography by here encapsulating and reassessing, in potent pictorial terms, the life of Japanese sensation and grande dame Kusama Yayoi.

Avant-garde icon, globetrotting art ambassador, Pop Art Darling and perennial target and headline fodder for paparazzi and media parasites, Kusama is best known for literally thousands of artworks comprised of countless dots painstakingly painted, drawn and stuck down, and her vast “infinity nets” works. However, as seen in this compelling biography, her unique manner of perceiving the world and addressing her mental health issues has also been impressively expressed in other forms of conceptual art, including filmmaking, poetry, fashion design, fiction, performance and video art, as well as tradition but novel sculptural and painted forms. You can actually own a piece of her massive and monumental output simply by buying a copy of the 2012 Penguin Classics Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland which she illustrated.

Born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Kusama Yayoi grew up in a wealthy home, afflicted by appalling abusive parents in the go-getting yet ferociously hidebound and formal Japan ruled by empire-building militarists. Subjected to a cruel home life and the whims of capricious parents at war with each other, the little girl was ostracised by her siblings and became obsessed with nature and art. She also suffered from periodic hallucinogenic episodes…

Enduring war, occupation in the aftermath and parental pressure to marry beneficially and strategically for the sake of the family, Yayoi pursued her art intensely and reached out to other women artists. In 1958 she managed to escape to America just in time for the art and social revolution to swallow her…

As with other women during the Pop Art era, Yayoi “inspired” white male artists including Andy Warhol and particularly Claes Oldenburg. The latter shared studio space with Kusama, whose rubber and fabric installations only coincidentally predated Oldenburg’s soft sculpture phase… and that’s when her story, artistic ascension, international expansions and eventual triumph begins…

Gloriously vibrant and ebullient, this light-looking but heavy-hitting appreciation, history and assessment of a figure unique even for the weird world of gallery art is a beguiling and powerful introduction to a much overlooked (here in the west at least) artist who deserves to be a household name right beside her avant-garde contemporaries and cherished for everything she’s done since…
Text and images © 2025 Simon Elliot.

Kusama: Polka Dot Queen will be published on 10th April 2025 and is available for pre-

Posted on

Maids


By Katie Skelly (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-68396-368-4 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic and literary effect.

Illustrator Katie Skelly hails from Brooklyn by way of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and caught the comics bug early, thanks to her newsstand owner dad. Her Barbarella inspired series Nurse, Nurse began after graduating from Syracuse University with a BA in Art History and becoming a postgrad at City College of New York. Thanks to her inquisitive insights, striking art style and potent narrative voice, Skelly has been the subject of many gallery shows and is a star on the global lecture circuit. She has been agonisingly quiet of late but hopefully there are more wonders in store (Sorry! No Pressure!)

Her first graphic novel – again inspired by Gallic trailblazer Jean-Claude Forrest but also with seductive scents and flavours of horror-meister director Dario Argento – was My Pretty Vampire (2017), supplemented by latter collections Operation Margarine and The Agency. All her works ask uncomfortable questions about the role and (permissible) position of women in society, as seen through exploitation genres of mass entertainment, and that’s never been more effectively explored than in this “semi-autobiographical” tome recounting the true-crime story of the Papin sisters.

History says that on February 2, 1933, former convent girls Christine and Léa (working as maids for the wealthy Lancelin family in Le Mans) bludgeoned and stabbed to death Madame Léonie and her daughter Genevieve. The case was manifestly open & shut, but became a Cause Celebre in France following reports of the killers’ early lives and years of service and physical abuse becoming public. Intellectuals championed the Papin sisters and the case was cited as a perfect example of the dangers of inequality and privilege…

In this graphic re-evaluation, Skelly brings her own incisive interpretation to the case, and it’s a little gem that you will find hard to put down and impossible to forget…

Verdict? Read this book.
© 2020 Katie Skelly. This edition © 2020 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Punk Rock in Comics


By Nicolas Finet & Thierry Lamy, illustrated by Joël Alessandra, Antoane, Will Argunas, Katya Bauman, Romain Brun, Céheu, Christopher, Janis Do, Benoît Frébourg, Thierry Gioux, Kongkee, Estelle Meyrand, Yvan Ojo, Gilles Pascal, Christelle Pécout, Lauriane Rérolle, Toru Terada, Martin Texier, Léah Touitou, Martin Trystram & various: translated by James Hogan (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-350-9 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-351-6

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect and historical verity.

Having been (an extremely minor) part of the revolution and probably seen at most of the UK gigs and events cited here, I found it most difficult to remain dispassionate about the book under review today. It’s really very good, and I apologize if I seem less than my effusive self. Apparently, being fair and neutral is actually quite hard if one is involved. Moreover, it’s rather sad to realize that when all those disenfranchised kids warned of “no future”, right here, right now is what they were shouting about….

Graphic biographies are all the rage these days and this one is the most personally affecting yet. It’s strange to have lived long enough to find that the history people are writing and drawing is just “recently” and “remember when…” to some of us.

Part of NBM’s Music Stars in Comics series and guaranteed to appeal to a much larger audience than most comics usually reach, Punk Rock in Comics is a roundup of key bands and significant moments helpfully garnished with articles on the US and British antecedents and precursors, as well as a look at who joined late and what came next. It certainly deserves to reach as many as possible and will make a perfect gift if any of us make it to the next Great December fun-fest/Gig in the Sky…

… And just a note of clarification: between 1975 and 1981 us youth thought we were at the spear tip of a revolution, but it turns out it was a wave of similar-seeming local brush fires that were stamped out or died down of their own accord. Punk was music and fashion and guerilla graphics and SHEER ATTITUDE. All of it was primarily self-generated by triggered by example and a Do It Yourself philosophy sparked by the realization that no one in authority was ever going to help or rock a sitting status quo.

We concentrate on bands and music here but as a nod to the other great benefactor – self-publishing – this book is craftily delivered via distractingly faux-distressed pages meant to mimic the abundant and vibrant fanzine culture that came with us kids getting involved. Buying or trading a pamphlet did so much to popularise the movement in an era utterly devoid of social media and digital connection, but don’t whine you spend a few hours trying to flatten out wrinkle and glue stains that aren’t really there, okay?

Still with us? Okay then…

As if cannily re-presented popular culture factoids and snippets of urban history accompanied by a treasure trove of candid photographs, posters, badges fashions and other memorabilia aren’t enough to whet your appetite, this annal of arguably the closest we ever got to taking over the kingdom also offers vital and enticing extra enticements… but you’ll have to have your consciousness raised a bit before then.

Author, filmmaker, journalist, publisher, educator, translator/music documentarian Nicolas Finet has worked in comics over three decades: generating a bucketload of reference works – such as Mississippi Ramblin’ and Forever Woodstock. He adds to his graphic history tally (Prince in Comics, Love Me Please – The Story of Janis Joplin 1943-1970 and David Bowie in Comics) with this deep dive into the crazed career of the ultimate cosmic explorers and rebellious cultural pioneers. His scripts of the comics vignettes compiled in conjunction with frequent collaborator Thierry Lamy (Force Navale, David Bowie in Comics, Pink Floyd in Comics) are limned here by a spitting, pogo-ing posse of international strip artists, visually actualising vividly vocal and vociferous key moments in really recent history…

It begins with Céheu depicting ‘1969-1970 An American Prehistory’ as disillusionment in the1970s New World triggers reactions from young musicians like Jim “Iggy Pop” Osterberg and Richard Hell, and groups of iconic nearly-men such as MC5, Television and the New York Dolls set the scene and laid the groundwork for what came – quite unfairly – to be regarded as a British revolution…

Following a fact-packed essay, the state of our nation is assessed in ‘1971-1975 The United Kingdom of Pub Rock’, courtesy of Gilles Pascal. A growing hunger for cheap live music and short songs led to an extinction event for “Prog Rock” and the rise of bands and performers who would score no real chart success but reshape the industry for decades to come…

A text discussion of bands like (Ian Dury’s) Kilburn and the High Roads, Brinsley Schwartz, Nick Lowe, Eddie and the Hot Rods and more enjoying a growing London-centric live gig scene leads to Antoane’s proto-punk assessment ‘1974-1976 On the fringes of Punk Rock, a few Inspired Trailblazers’ (Dr. Feelgood, Graham Parker and the Rumour, Elvis Costello) before the cultural main event kicks off with Thierry Gioux’s coverage of ‘1975-1978 The Sex Pistols Endless Rebellion’ and a detailed biopsy of the Clash in ‘1976-1985 Combat Rock’ limned by Martin Trystram.

Further mini-bios follow in comics and essay combinations, exploring lesser gods of revolt such as ‘1976-1980 Buzzcocks Energy Made in Manchester’ by Katya Bauman, ‘1974-1996 We, The Ramones’ from Toru Terada, Benoît Frébourg’s ‘1976-2015 The Damned May the Farce be with You!’ and an assessment of lost wonders in Yvan Ojo’s ‘1975-1978 Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers’…

As I said, Britain got the lion’s share of global headlines (and reactionary authoritarian blamestorming) but the process and progress were international. Romain Brun illustrates ‘1974-1977 Meanwhile, in New York’ where the club CBGB was building a rep through outsider bands such Television, New York Dolls, Blondie, Talking Heads, the Dead Boys and poet Patti Smith, and by staging the first UK band to play America: The Damned…

A few more individualists are explored in ‘1976-1996 Siouxsie and the Banshees The Punk Sorceress’ by Léah Touitou, and Martin Texier reveals just how different The Vibrators were in ‘1976-2020 Never Stop Vibrating’ prior to Janis Do detailing the effect, influence and ultimate tragedy of Jimmy Pursey and Sham 69 in ‘1976-1980 Working Class Heroes’… It was a time of change, fervour and febrile opportunism and many acts were caught up in the money and mood, if not movement, usually against their will and at the behest of old-guard record companies. Christopher illuminates how The Jam rode the storm in ‘1974-1979 Not Quite Punks: a handful that can’t be put in a box’ and Lauriane Rérolle details ‘1975-1983 The Irish Wave’ that picked up and spat out The Undertones and Stiff Little Fingers but lost so many others.

‘1975-1982 Girls to the Front!’ by Christelle Pécout focusses on how “the kids” demand to be heard somehow didn’t apply to The Slits – until they put their big booted feet down – whilst Estelle Meyrand explores international wonders most of us missed at the time – no, not Belgium’s Plastic Bertrand but Australia’s The Saints and US phenomenon and political activist Jello Biafra and The Dead Kennedys in ‘1976-1980 Punks from Elsewhere’…

Despite constant accusations of nihilism Punk was always an inviting and inclusive arena and ‘1975-1981 Punks and Rastas’ from Joël Alessandra details cultural cross pollination and active inclusivity – leading to the Two Tone era – and Will Argunas recalls ‘1975-1983 Punks and Hard Rock: Loud, Fast, and in Your Face!’ via the life and achievements of Lemmy Kilmister and Motörhead, before Kongkee draws this tome to a close with a trip through ‘1981 and Beyond: The Post-Punk Legacy’ encompassing Electropop, New Wave/Romanticism, Grunge and more, citing bands such as Pere Ubu, Devo, et al…

This compelling and remarkable catalogue of cultural change and artistic hostage-taking includes a Selective Discography of the bands most crucial cuts, Further Reading, listings of Films and Videos, Photo Credits and a copious Acknowledgements section.

Punk Rock in Comics is a comprehensive and intriguing skilfully realised appreciation of a unique moment in time and society, boldly attempting to capture a too-big rocket in a very small bottle but still doing a pretty good of recalling the when, how and who, if not quite the why of the era. It’s also a true treasure for comics and music fans if they weren’t actually there: one to resonate with all those probably still quite angry and disaffected veteran kids who love to listen, look and wonder what if..?
© 2024 Editions Petit as Petit. © 2025 NBM for the English translation.

Punk Rock in Comics will be published on 18th March. 2025 and is available for pre-order now. NBM books are also available in digital editions. For more information and other great reads see http://www.nbmpub.com/

Posted on

Women Discoverers: 20 Top Women in Science


By Marie Moinard & Christelle Pecout, translated by Montana Kane (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-270-0 (Album HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-271-7

Comics and graphic novels have an inconceivable power to deliver information in readily accessible form, and – exactly like all the best human teachers – do so in ways that are fascinating, fun and therefore unforgettable. Here’s a crucial past highpoint in a wave of historical and biographical visual celebrations seeking to redress centuries of gender injustice while providing true life role models for coming generations… if we have any.

Crafted by writer, editor and journalist Marie Moinard (En chemin elle recontre, La petite vieille du Vendredi) & Christelle Pecout (Lune d’Ombre, Hypathie, Histoires et légendes normandes), Les découvreuses is a cheery compendium made comprehensible to us via translation into English by the fine folk at NBM. As the name suggests, Women Discoverers focuses on 20 NOT MALE scientists and researchers who generally sans fanfare, or even fair credit, changed the world. Some are thankfully still doing so.

A combination of comics vignettes and short illustrated data epigrams preceded by an impassioned Introduction from Marie-Sophie Pawlak (President of the Elles Bougent scientific society), the revelations begin with an extended strip history citing some of the achievements of the peerless Marie Curie – whose discoveries in chemistry and physics practically reinvented the planet. She is followed by brief vignettes of French biologist Françoise Barré-Sinoussi (discoverer of the HIV retrovirus), Canadian physicist Donna Théo Strickland (laser amplification) and African-American Dorothy Vaughan whose mathematical and computing skills served the world at NASA.

It’s back to comics for Ada Lovelace who revolutionized mathematics and invented computer programming, after which single page biographies describe the achievements of and lengths undertaken by French mathematician Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet AKA Émilie du Châtelet to attend men-only institutions in the days of the Enlightenment, before writing world-changing philosophical magnum opus Institutions de Physique.

Although separated by centuries, mathematicians Emmy Noether (Germany 1882-1935) and Niger-born Grace Alele-Williams (December 16th 1932 to March 25, 2022) both excelled and triumphed despite male opposition, but their stories pale beside the strip-delivered hardships of screen star, engineer, plastic surgeon and computing/mobile phone/internet pioneer Hedy Lamarr…

Another Nasa stalwart, mathematician/astrophysicist Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson, famously calculated Apollo 11’s life-saving orbit, while paediatrician Marthe Gautier discovered the origins of Downs’ Syndrome. Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani’s geometry discoveries were tragically cut short by illness, whilst the shameful treatment and fate of British researcher Rosalind Franklin also ended in unjust sidelining, a cruelly early death and belated fame, unlike French mathematician, philosopher and physicist Sophie Germain whose many (posthumous) triumphs never brought her inclusion in the numerous scientific organisations barring female membership during her lifetime and far beyond it…

Whereas Marie Curie’s daughter Iréne Joliot-Curie won similar accolades to her mother, astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered pulsars, only to have her (male) supervisor steal the credit. At least she’s still alive to see the record set straight and reap belated fame and awards (go Google Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell to see a rare happy ending)…

In pictorial form, astronaut Mae Jemison reveals her life and medical successes on Earth, before this potent paean closes with a trio of one-page wonders: Kevlar inventor Stephanie Kwolek, Navy mathematician Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (writer of the notorious, ubiquitous and utterly essential programming language COBOL) and Chinese chemist Xie Yi, whose advances in nanotechnology are still making the world a very different place.

Sure, you could ride a search engine to learn about them all, but this book is a far more satisfying and charming alternative and the very fact that you probably haven’t heard of most of these astounding innovators – or even a few of the more ancient ones – only proves why you need this book.
© 2019 Blue Lotus Prod. © 2021 NBM for the English translation.

Posted on

Willie Nelson: A Graphic History – softcover edition


By T.J. Kirsch, Adam Walmsley, Jeremy Massie, Jason Pittman, Håvard S. Johansen, J.T. Yost, Coşkun Kuzgun, Jesse Lonergan, & various (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-332-5 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-263-2

I live a pretty blessed life these days. I love history and am addicted to comics and many of the best ones are just sent to me. The present trend is to combine both of my passions in graphic biographies – or even autobiographies. Our European cousins have pretty much collared the market on the former, with a range of personal histories featuring the great, the good and especially the extremely cool, but today we’re happily revisiting via a nifty, thrifty paperback and All-American(ish) confection that deftly hits that elusive sweet spot.

Whether you’re a fan or not of the music, you can’t deny the tenacity and enormous spirit of musician, writer, actor, filmmaker and activist Willie Nelson… the outsider’s outsider.

Utilising the talents of a group of indie artists, writer T.J. Kirsch has compiled an effective, effusive and moving monochrome testament to the troubadour’s talent, determination and resilience, which begins in 1933 in ‘Hill County, Texas’.

Rendered throughout in evocative, dried & dusty monochrome, the history begins with Coşkun Kuzgun detailing a hard life for a young boy wedded to mischief and addicted to music.

As they grew, Willie and sister Bobbie became local celebrities – but not rich ones – through performing, so he began a career in radio, using the opportunity to plug his own material. Never finding that elusive hit, Willie joined the Air Force in 1951, serving until a persistent back injury forced him out of the armed forces, just in time to stumble into matrimony. ‘A Humble Picker’ (limned by Jeremy Massie) traces that tempestuous relationship and Willie’s attempts to feed his family in and out of showbiz, before sliding back into disc jockeying and discovering marijuana…

The slow painful climb begins in Håvard S. Johansen’s ‘Country Willie’, continues in ‘Grinding Away’ (Jesse Lonergan) and culminates in professional breakthroughs and personal breakdowns in ‘Austin, Texas’ (art by Jason Pittman) as 1970 sees the true commencement of the legend…

J.T. Yost then depicts a life hard-lived but well worth the effort in ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ before the saga sparkles to a close – for now – in the all-T.J. Kirsch chapter ‘Elder Statesman’, revealing that music and legends just keep on going. That’s where the 2020 edition ended but here an ‘Epilogue’ by Kirsch catches us up, detailing the COVID days, “Sister Bobbie” Nelson’s passing and the outlaw gigs where Willie – well into his 90’s – still commands attention and applause. As of 20 minutes ago, and as far as I know, Willie’s still going strong…

Another addition is a bonus feature going behind-the-scenes into the book’s genesis and completion, complete with deleted pages, studies and sketches, embellished with creator commentary to back up original extras including Intro, Outro, Chapter and Endpaper illustrations by Adam Walmsley, ‘Bibliography’ and ‘Song Credits’ listing. This is an immensely likable pictorial testament that feels like a journey shared with a most interesting stranger. You may or may not like the music – yet – but you’ll be unable to not love the indomitable, irrepressible man.
© 2020 T.J. Kirsch. All rights reserved and managed by NBM Publishing, Inc.

Most NBM books are also available in digital formats. For more information and other great reads see NBM Graphic Novels

Posted on

Django, Hand on Fire: The Great Django Reinhardt


By Salva Rubio & Efa, translated by Matt Madden (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-287-8 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-288-5

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

The world has now formally and officially gone to hell in a handcart, so how about some soothing, jolly music – or at least some comics about that music?

Publisher NBM’s line of European-originated biographies never fails to delight, with this oversized luxury hardcover (also available in digital formats) one of the most engaging thus far: skilfully deconstructing – when not actually aiding and adding to – the myths and legends surrounding a top contender for the title of greatest guitar player of all time…

Django, Hand on Fire rewardingly reunites award-winning screenwriter, historian and novelist Salva Rubio (Max; The Photographer of Mauthausen) with animator/illustrator Ricard Fenandez (AKA Efa of Les Icariades; Rodriguez; L’Âme du Vin; Le Soldat). Their other collaborations are also beautiful biographies – Monet: Itinerant of Light and Degas & Cassatt: A Solitary Dance.

Originally released in France, the translated story of Django, main de feu is preceded here by an introductory prose appraisal from Thomas Dutronc before a stunning confection of painterly images traces the life of the troubled and unfortunate Roma musician from his fraught birth in a frozen field in Belgium to his second birth and reunion with the true love he threw away and found again. That natal moment was in 1910 as his father and the other itinerant performers of their tribe were eking out a wage entertaining outworlders.

By 1922, the troupe were resident in Paris’ “Zone”: an enclave for “his sort” where social outcasts like gypsies could reside until posh folks found a use for them. The lad was cocky and troublesome, an arrogant illiterate born for mischief but blessed with astounding musical skill. His life turned around when his mama acquired a six-string banjo for him and all his energies suddenly refocussed on mastering music. Soon Django was making money – and losing it gambling – even before he was considered a man…

Still an emotional child, he became the star of a professional (adult) band but his actions and attitude lost him many friends and family and ultimately the girl who adored him: Irma AKA Naguine. She faithfully trailed in his wake as producers and record publishers tracked the young man and watched in resignation as he succumbed to the shining blonde glory of faux flower artisan Florine/Bella. Naguine left the Zone entirely when Django and the flower girl wed, but swore to return…

The musician’s meteoric rise stalled only as he awaited his first child’s birth. As they slept in their wagon, it caught fire and although Bella got out, Django was badly burned on his legs and left hand. How – driven by his formidable mother – he battled back to overcome his life-changing injuries and, by changing his style, mastered another instrument, found undying fame and finally realized where his true love lay is a fabulous (if not strictly accurate) tale to warm the heart and gladden the eyes…

The pictorial paean to persistence and testament to passion is supported by a Bibliography and Creator Biographies plus ‘Django Reinhardt, from mystery to legend… In the light of History’: a fulsome, copiously-illustrated essay detailing the author’s factual choices and path to this particular truth, categorised and examined in ‘A mythical birth’; ‘The Zone’; ‘An interloper in the world of bal-musette’, ‘J’ai deux amours: Naguine and …le jass…’, ‘The Cross of Blood…’; ‘…and the fiery flowers’; ‘Hospital for the Poor’ and ‘Hand on fire’…

Sparkling and inspirational, this is treat for every music historian and intrigued dilettante: a beguiling magic window into another world and one you should seek out tout de suite…
© DUPUIS 2020 by Rubio, Efa. All rights reserved.

Posted on

Ginette Kolinka Adieu Birkenau


By Ginette Kolinka, JDMorvan & Victor Matet, Cesc & Efa, Roger, Tal Bruttmann & various; translated by Edward Gauvin (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-91422-423-2 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: An Awful Truth That Must Be Told… 8/10

This book includes Discriminatory Content included for dramatic effect.

With its world-shaking reordering of society and all the consequent, still-felt repercussions of the rise of fascism and (hopefully) temporary triumph of totalitarianism, World War II – and the apparently ongoing/slowly gaining momentum third one – remain very much in people’s minds. I fear current events may well be inviting the world to revisit and reemphasise those hard learned lessons in the months and years to come…

The role of history in avoiding repeating past mistakes has never been more crucial and -thanks to brave and talented individuals and a trend for biographical and autobiographical sequential narratives – better armed than now. One chilling yet charming case in point is this testament, detailing the life and work of a Frenchwoman who survived Nazi concentration camps and enjoyed a “normal” life before latterly dedicating her last years to educating the world and preventing the reoccurrence we’re all anticipating today…

Born in February 1925, Parisian Ginette Kolinka (nee Cherkasky) enjoyed an unexceptional early life within a large, loving, non-religious Jewish family. That changed in 1940 when the Nazis took over. Fleeing across the divided nation (half under direct German administration and half under the puppet “Vichy” regime), Ginette and her kin were inevitably captured, processed through a methodically inhuman system and sent to Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Birkenau. Ginette somehow survived as so very many did not and was liberated in May 1945.

She returned to France, married and remained silent about what she endured for fifty years, but was convinced by other Shoah survivors to share her experiences – particularly with school children. Kolinka became a tireless and passionate “ambassador for the memory” of those dark days and actions. Her efforts have been acknowledged with fame and numerous accolades, including a knighthood from (and eventual officer status in) the Legion of Honour, and appointment as commander of the Ordre des Palmes académiques for services to education.

Kolinka is a major force in spreading awareness of atrocity and in 2022 her life and achievements became this engaging and compelling graphic tome thanks to writers JDMorvan & Victor Matet, illustrators Cesc & Efa and colourist Roger. Rather than further précising Kolinka’s amazing story, I’ll just say that the tone seamlessly switches from sweetly engaging to appallingly chilling (and back again) with deft ease and the narrative conceit of contrasting flashbacks of Ginette’s historical recollections with a present day trip back to camp with a group of modern-day schoolchildren is shockingly effective and powerfully evocative.

Adding academic vigour and heartbreaking veracity, the tale is appended by Tal Bruttmann’s pictorial essay ‘Ginette Kolinka: A Survivor’s Story’, detailing everything from Paris under Nazi occupation to life in the camps, supplemented by photos, sketches, recovered artefacts and family memorabilia.

This tale is a potent counterpoint to the usual shock-&-bombast approach, devoting as much time to showing how far we’ve come and what we all stand to lose if those days and attitudes are allowed to resurface. Adieu Birkenau reveals how inhumanity, stupidity and simple evil can only be defeated by endurance and will. Here, we see acknowledgment of the nigh-universally disregarded contributions of women caught up in the conflict, and how the way to win against monsters is to not to be like them and never let them win.
© Éditions Albin Michel Départment bande dessinée, 2023. All rights reserved.