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Post by localhero on Jun 23, 2023 22:10:13 GMT
I really liked "Life of Che" by Héctor Germán Oesterheld, Alberto Breccia, and Enrique Breccia. Fantagraphics has done a nice job with their Breccia library.
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Post by owaddled on Jun 23, 2023 22:17:15 GMT
I mean... I guess....but isn't, like, all of existing time and history and the universe "pre-existing IP" for non-fiction? Like why biography over other types of history? Or books about, I dunno, anything else you can read on Wikipedia (which is how I describe most of those autobio comics these days) manoopuesta you win you win! That rocks! definitely wins! I think biography is one of the top selling non-fiction genres so it's also likely that bio is what the big book publishers know best. One that I haven't read but looked interesting was the Robert Moses: The Master Builder of New York City by Olivier Balez and Pierre Christin. Has anyone read the Peter Bagge bio comics? I didn't even know he had a 3rd one called Credo about Rose Wilder Lane until right now. I borrowed Strange Fruit II by Joel Christian Gill on Hoopla, it's a collection of short biography comics on undercelebrated Black Americans. I didn't finish it before it was due back but if I had kids I'd buy it for them. (I can't help myself, but does anyone else find it a little funny that Brad Meltzer tried to bring 'adult' sensibilities to Silver Age superhero comics in Identity Crisis and now makes picture books about historically famous adults for children?) |
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Post by cmautner on Jun 23, 2023 23:32:59 GMT
One of the best comics biographies that comes to mind is Joe Ollmann's "The Abominable Mr. Seabrook," which -- as far as I know -- is the only biography of the author in print currently.
The Bagge books that owaddled mentioned are also solid. In addition to the one on Rose Wilder Lane, there's one on Zora Neale Hurston and Margaret Sanger.
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Post by grubcubman on Jun 24, 2023 14:16:15 GMT
One of the best comics biographies that comes to mind is Joe Ollmann's "The Abominable Mr. Seabrook," which -- as far as I know -- is the only biography of the author in print currently. The Bagge books that owaddled mentioned are also solid. In addition to the one on Rose Wilder Lane, there's one on Zora Neale Hurston and Margaret Sanger. I don't read many comics biographies but I did love the Seabrook book when I read it a few years ago. He really was abominable! On Box Brown -- he's worked in at least a couple genres, and his minis and his Number series are all entertaining and well done. I also enjoyed his Andre the Giant book but I'm a wrestling fan; haven't read much of his non-fiction stuff since then, but he hasn't always been and isn't always now a pure :01 Second/Nib guy. (He was also the Retrofit publisher for several years, another point in favor.) |
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Post by robindh on Jun 24, 2023 16:18:28 GMT
I liked Arnaud Nebbache's book about Brancusi, though I'm not sure that it counts as biography because it mostly concerns itself with the court case rather than Brancusi's life. It didn't get a physical release in English (though I have a feeling Nobrow or Selfmadehero will publish it), only digitally through Europe comics.
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Post by owaddled on Jun 24, 2023 17:03:11 GMT
Reading the Comics Journal 2022 Yearbook reminded me that the Stephen Crane bio comic in Detention No. 2 is one of my all time favs.
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Post by eheitner on Jun 24, 2023 17:41:49 GMT
On Box Brown -- he's worked in at least a couple genres, and his minis and his Number series are all entertaining and well done. I also enjoyed his Andre the Giant book but I'm a wrestling fan; haven't read much of his non-fiction stuff since then, but he hasn't always been and isn't always now a pure :01 Second/Nib guy. (He was also the Retrofit publisher for several years, another point in favor.) I think Box Brown can put together some really visually interesting pages! I actually haven't read any of his non-fiction, I liked a lot of his short sci-fi stories well enough. I'd be curious if he is visually entertaining enough to pull off what look like very "wikipedia" non-fiction stuff.....
Anyone read the David B. series "Best of Enemies"? He had the advantage of working with a real proper historian for the words, and I fucking love David B.'s art, but I still had a hard time with it being too "here's some words, here's some pictures illustrating what the words just said."
Just to push back on you owaddled - "Maus" was not a biography, in this sense, of having any name recognition, in that Art Spiegelman's dad was not a celebrity or famous person that everyone was clamoring to read a comic book version of their life. Though would be funny if he was. |
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Post by BubblesZine on Jun 25, 2023 11:58:57 GMT
I've realized I am way more likely to enjoy the biography genre if it's not heavily narrated. Comics like Joseph Smith and the Mormons by Noah Van Sciver, Bill Griffith's Invisible Ink or Nobody's Fool (and definitely the new Bushmiller one will follow this format), and Chester Brown's Louis Riel of course.
Nobody's Fool is what made me realize what I want in these non-fiction comics is an author that does so much research that they can get into the heads of the characters and write dialogue and create scenes. Schlitzie the Pinhead is a rather mysterious piece of history, but Griffith went in deep and portrayed scenes that were never captured, creating a visual for history forever lost. I think that's something that the medium of comics can actually contribute to the non-fiction genre, that's something a regular novel would have a harder time doing, and a docudrama movie would almost be too fictionalized. The ability to add in a little narration of facts here and there helps move the imagined scenes along. Nobody's Fool didn't get enough shine. I'm excited to know people will be reading the Bushmiller book I'm sure, it's going to be amazing. Another character that has a lot of lost history that Griffith surely dove incredibly deep into researching.
What I'm not too interested in is illustrated wikipedia articles and pages with too many words on them.
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Post by Scott Gerard Ruhl on Jun 25, 2023 20:17:59 GMT
Calamity Jane The Calamitous Life of Martha Jane Cannary, 1852-1903 Written by Christian Perrissin with art by Matthieu Blanchin. CALAMITY JANE collects three albums and is a thick meaty book at 368 pages. The art is sketchy and cartoony but there's lots of detail and it has an incredible life to it. It's kind of a cross between Gilbert Shelton, George Herriman and Christophe Blain. Early in life Martha Jane's family wagon trained across the prairie. Eventually both of her parents died leaving Martha who was the eldest of 6 kids to look after the rest. She couldn't do it and simply left her siblings with the hopes a nearby farmer would look after them. Later in life she runs into one of her brothers who asks her why she left and she has no answer. Because of all the rape Martha had a few kids too who she also gave up. It seemed to be a cycle that repeated itself and took it's toll on Martha Jane over time. She leaves her daughter, who she very much loves, with a rich couple and while she's happy to see the girl grow up to be a proper educated woman she's also torn by the loss of not being her mother and active in her life. It pulls it's info from 3 books about her life (one is a book of letters she wrote to her daughter) and goes on what is actual facts as much as possible. During her life she was already a legend so plenty of tall tales and bs surrounded her. It's all pretty damn fascinating and is a great western frontier period piece. Lot's of rape. Lots of bewilderment. Lots of mud, dirt and monotony. If even a sliver of this book is true then Jane Canary led a very large life, one that is almost incomprehensible to our modern sensibilities. IDW offers a grand hardcover tome that fits the epic nature of this larger than life frontier icon. Black and white all the way through the book offers no insight beyond the story, no extras or forward. Still very much recommended and delight to read.  |
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Post by snailcomic on Jul 3, 2023 2:37:42 GMT
I really liked Lars Fiske's Grosz comic. Fantastic visual language and an optimistic sense of anarchy which suits the subject's fight against censorship.  |
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Post by eheitner on Jul 6, 2023 12:59:03 GMT
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Post by wigshop on Jul 6, 2023 15:09:28 GMT
THREE ROCKS is really special, I think. I got to review it for Kirkus a month or so ago. Griffith does this amazing collage trick where every Nancy or Sluggo that appears on the page is actually drawn by Bushmiller, cut-out from the dailies and (sorta) re-appropriated into the biography.
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Post by disneyweirdness on Jul 14, 2023 19:19:18 GMT
does Fun Home count? that's the only one i've read that i've liked, someone (santoro?) mentioned that they often read like illustrated wikipedia entries which seems pretty accurate in my experience. I know stuff like what Box Brown is known for have gotten the "Wikipedia comics" label on Gutter Boys in the past. I just placed a hold on his new toy nostalgia book, whenever that comes out. I liked the Tetris book a lot, the Andre the Giant book less. I read his weed strips on Instagram and those are really Wikipedia Comics, like illustrated powerpoints. |
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Post by disneyweirdness on Jul 26, 2023 17:46:34 GMT
I know stuff like what Box Brown is known for have gotten the "Wikipedia comics" label on Gutter Boys in the past. I just placed a hold on his new toy nostalgia book, whenever that comes out. The He-Man Effect just came in from my library. Flipping through it looks better-designed than the Legalization strips, more narrative than slideshow. I am looking forward to sitting down with it. |
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Post by franseen on Jul 26, 2023 18:38:31 GMT
Why is it that biographies have become THE breakout genre for non-fiction comics? There are so goddamn many these days.... Fully aware that this answer annoys many readers, BUT it seems to me like the path of least resistance for lost of non-cartoonists to get into what they think is a genre and not an art form in itself. You "just" write the book and break it up into narrative captions for an artist to labour over. More often than not, there's little interaction between words and pictures in these nonfiction comics, which is *shocker* terrible for comics. As OP pointed out "they seem to be more of a list of facts rather than proper storytelling," which is accurate. I'd also wager that non-comics publishers find that to be a low barrier for entry into the market because they know how to edit words (comics--not so much). I'm sure there's a hasty and too easily made generalization to be made about a race to the bottom in terms of quality to be made so I'll stop there. As one of many Los Bros. Hernandez simps on this forum, I unequivocally support the Frida nod |
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