Christopher (2) (1969–)

A fairly simple telling of the too-short life of Janis Joplin. She was all about the sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll according to this.

It is a little odd that the book seems to be narrated by a Greek chorus comprised of the souls of Bessie Smith, Odetta, and Ma Rainey. It's even a bit odder when you realize that while Smith and Rainey died before Joplin in the 1930s, Odetta outlived her by nearly four decades, passing away in 2008.

Side note: As is often the case for historical graphic show more novels, there's a fun game to be had by searching Google for images of Janis Joplin and finding all the direct photo references the artist used in drawing the book.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents: Preface / Gilbert Shelton -- Chapter 1. Forget Port Arthur -- Chapter 2. The Temptation of Disaster -- Chapter 3. Spells and Charms -- Chapter 4. Lost and Distraught -- Character Gallery -- Further Reading and Viewing show less

I really don’t know much about Janis Joplin beyond the basics of Texas girl who went to San Francisco became a huge star, and died young from an overdose. After working my way through this uneven graphic novel biography I still don’t really know too much more beyond confirming that she seemed to have a self-destructive personality.

Maybe it’s a result of translation from the original French edition but this was a frustrating read. Narratively it jumped around from place to place with show more no explanations (more captions would have helped) while the overarching narration was at times too exposition heavy.

There is also a lot of people who rotated in and out of the story without context of their influence or impact on Janis. 45 of them are included in a “character gallery” of mini biographies at the back of the book, but this information would have been better served woven into the narrative itself.

I think it suffers from the creative team being so familiar with their subject that they included references, verbal and visual, assuming that the reader would understand them - but to the casual reader it just caused confusion and left you wondering what you’d missed. show less

Thank you to NetGalley for my Advanced Reader's Copy of this book.

This is by far one of the most comprehensive graphic biographies I have ever read and at times it felt too long. Audrey is such an icon in Hollywood but not all will know her background and childhood during the war. I wish the art had color and I didn't like the font or the font size but those are just personal preferences. I would recommend it for fans of the actress or anyone who likes in-depth graphic biographies.