Adrian Matejka

This is some powerful poetry. A collection of pieces in the voices of fighter Jack Johnson and the white women he loved and betrayed, Adrian Matejka captures the rhythmic style of boxing in his phrasings, the lyrical punch of the pugilist in his words. I found myself going back and rereading passages just for their sheer impact, be it beauty or brutality.

This is fifteen rounds of pure and powerful poetry. Seek it out.

“All we’ve gotten from the whites is THE WHIP, THE BIBLE and a FIST FULL OF PLATITUDES!”

This extraordinary graphic bio looks at the life of Jack Johnson, a black heavyweight champion, around the turn of the last century. Of course, I have heard about this man over the years and saw the film the Great White Hope but I did not know many of the details about this towering figure and the astounding amount of racial abuse that he dealt with all of his life. It truly is painful to read, but show more one everyone should read, just to remind us what we are capable of doing as a race. I highly recommend it. It will be one of my top reads of the year.

A big shout-out to Joe for recommending this gem. show less

This is a historical graphic novel (thanks Mark for the suggestion) about Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century. It was the boxing match contested in Reno Nevada in 1910, where Johnson became the first African American Boxing Champion. Daoudi, used the rounds of the match as chapters to tell the story of Johnson's life and how the match came to be, his tumultuous personal life and what happened to him in the years after the fight. This was an excellent read. It has an interesting mostly show more monochromatic drawing style, and he uses poetry intermixed with regular prose to tell the story. Recommend.

When I hook a man, it's like being hit by frustration show less

Johnson vs Jeffries July 4, 1910 in Reno, Nevada.
Review of the Liveright (W.W. Norton & Company) hardcover edition (February 21, 2023)

TW: This book includes the use of many racial slurs used to attack Johnson, especially as ringside taunts by spectators. There are also mockups of racist newspaper editorials and cartoons from the early 20th century period.

I came across this book while researching the background to Michael Winkler's Grimmish (2021) which centred around boxer Joe Grim's 1908/09 show more tour of Australia where he was a sparring partner to both Jack Johnson and Tommy Burns before their December 26, 1908 matchup in Rushcutters Bay, Sydney. I had previously enjoyed French artist Youssef Daoudi's graphic novel Monk!: Thelonious, Pannonica, and the Friendship Behind a Musical Revolution (2018) about the jazz musician Thelonius Monk and this is his 2nd ever book with an English language writer, in this case the poet Adrian Matejka. Matejka's earlier work The Big Smoke (2013) consisted of poems inspired by Jack Johnson.

See panels at https://th-thumbnailer.cdn-si-edu.com/kevGbIazBkbtoLgwloApFTzA9fI=/1000x750/filt...
Two panels from "Last On His Feet" showing boxers Jack Johnson and James Jeffries. Image sourced from the Smithsonian magazine review (linked below).

Last On His Feet is again a sweeping accomplishment which encompasses all of Johnson's life even while centering on the 15 rounds of the Johnson/Jeffries which are treated as chapters. The story leaps back and forth in time as Johnson is portrayed later in life performing as a standup at theatres while telling tales of his life and the Jeffries fight. The book does not hide the downsides to Johnson's character and actions with instances of domestic abuse and the criticism by prominent Black-Americans of his time such as W.E.B. Du Bois.

See photograph at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Johnson_jeff.jpg
A colorized photograph from the original 1910 fight. Image sourced from Wikipedia Public Domain, Link.

Soundtrack
As with Grimmish I'm going to go again with the Miles Davis’ Jack Johnson (1971) album. This album was used as the soundtrack for the 1970 Jack Johnson documentary film by director William Cayton.

Other Reviews
Library Journal by Tom Batten, December 1, 2022.
Publishers Weekly, February, 2023.
Smithsonian Magazine by Brandon Tensley, April/May 2023.

Trivia and Links
The book Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2004) by Geoffrey C. Ward is referenced in the Last on His Feet bibliography. That book became the basis of the PBS documentary Unforgiveable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson by Ken Burns in 2004 for which you can see the trailer here. show less