{"id":36575,"date":"2026-09-25T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T08:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=36575"},"modified":"2026-09-24T17:49:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T17:49:35","slug":"the-great-marc-evers-the-true-story-of-a-champion-against-all-odds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/09\/25\/the-great-marc-evers-the-true-story-of-a-champion-against-all-odds\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Marc Evers: The True Story of a Champion Against All Odds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Ivo van Woerden<\/strong>, adapted & illustrated by Gemma Plum<\/strong>, coloured by Marloes Dekkers<\/strong> and translated by Michele Hutchison<\/strong> (SelfMadeHero)
\nISBN: 978-1-914224-51-5 (HB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced for dramatic effect.<\/em><\/p>\n

Comics are the natural home of triumphal heroes and extraordinary feats, but in general the victories (and rare defeats) of fictive sporting heroes have been restricted to Britain and Japan where many, many panel stars have been footballers, drivers, runners, jockeys, wrestlers, boxers, speedway riders, cricketers, basketball & baseball heroes, skiers, skateboarders and the like. Deeply provincial America never bothered much except for pugilists Popeye<\/strong> & Joe Palooka<\/strong> (or in transitory promotional sallies like Marvel\u2019s truly awful NFL SuperPro<\/strong> title in 1991), and even impressively broadminded Europe has been fairly selective in its sporting choices – like B\u00e9ka (AKA Bertrand Escaich & Caroline Roque) & Poupard\u2019s comedy strip Les Rugbymen <\/em><\/strong>\/ The Rugger Boys<\/strong> or that apparently immortal race driver Michel Vaillant<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The exception to all those statements is the subgenre of graphic biographies, where exceptional individuals including track and field stars overcoming initial disadvantages are a popular and growing category. In recent years we\u2019ve covered many – like Roberto Clemente, Tillie Walden, Mylo Choy, Emile Griffith, Harry Haft, Suzanne Lenglen, and so many more, but none as remarkable as The Great Marc Evers<\/strong>…
\n\"\"
\nAt two-year old, Evers was (finally) diagnosed with profound intellectual impairments comprising a specific Learning Disability as well as severe ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). Despite prognoses ranging from \u201cgive up now\u201d to \u201cjust go away\u201d, Marc\u2019s parents and siblings toiled constantly to make a human life for their boy, who had been written off as hopeless: incapable of learning to talk, dress, coordinate his actions or even vacate his bowels without aid. However, and thanks to help from forward thinking agencies and specialists, Frank<\/em> and Gitty Evers<\/em> found places he could fit in and ways to develop his autonomy and agency.<\/p>\n

Swimming became a lifeline for the boy and he excelled. After years of steadfast effort, Marc represented Holland at the 2012 London Paralympics. He won gold, as he done so many times before and would do again. Taking five Paralympic medals and numerous world records, he is the Netherlands\u2019 greatest Paralympic swimming champion; in both disability and all-comers divisions Evers has been Paralympic, World and European champion in the 100m breaststroke and is the Netherlands\u2019 greatest aquatic sportsman…
\n\"\"
\nOf course, you can read up on his sporting achievements and full life elsewhere (such as in the original biography, or this Graphic Novel or even online) but for now let\u2019s talk some more about comics and acknowledge illustrator-adaptor Gemma Plum and colour-artist Marloes Dekkers who transformed journalist Ivo van Woerden\u2019s prose biography of the swimming superstar\u2019s progress into a masterful exhibition of the power of graphic narrative.<\/p>\n

The most telling tactic is the use of silence. There are few conversational gambits. Marc\u2019s world is full of extended quiet moments, whether under water or locked in his bubble of isolation and hyper-observation.
\n\"\"
\nHere you will see a combination of traditional sequential narrative describing the life story of the characters interacting with an ingenious array of visual flourishes (such as pictorial tics to mirror Marc\u2019s distracted states and carefully utilised panel repetitions reproduced over and again to emphasise the conceptual freezes and pauses that make up the life of those with any degree of ASD). These old \u201cpresponses\u201d to new variations neatly and repeatedly hammer home the point that dealing with an ASD child is relentless, surprising, wearisome, tedious and has no ending in sight, but shows also that with effort and dedication, and the right help, any situation can be managed…
\n\"\"
\nMoving, rewarding, inspirational and ingeniously inventive, The Great Marc Evers<\/strong> is an intimate, candid, powerfully optimistic and relentlessly hopeful coming-of-age tale reminding us of the value of perseverance, resolve and trust.
\nText and artwork \u00a9 Stichting Grafische Journalistiek, 2026. Translation \u00a9 Michele Hutchison, 2026.<\/p>\n

Win\u2019s Christmas Gift Recommendation: All You Need to Know About Fitting In Whilst Standing Out\u2026 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Great Marc Evers <\/strong>will be published on 1st<\/sup> October 2025 and is available for pre-order now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ivo van Woerden, adapted & illustrated by Gemma Plum, coloured by Marloes Dekkers and translated by Michele Hutchison (SelfMadeHero) ISBN: 978-1-914224-51-5 (HB) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced for dramatic effect. Comics are the natural home of triumphal heroes and extraordinary feats, but in general the victories (and rare defeats) of fictive sporting heroes … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Great Marc Evers: The True Story of a Champion Against All Odds”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[115,214,122,216,210,254],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biography","category-european","category-historical","category-lifestyle","category-sport","category-young-adult"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-9vV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36581,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36575\/revisions\/36581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}