You’ve probably heard of Helen Keller, one of the first (but not the first!) blind & deaf Americans to become educated. If so, then you probably also know the name Annie Sullivan – Helen’s teacher. Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller, by Joseph Lambert, is a graphic novel biography more of Annie than Helen, taking advantage of the comics medium to show symmetry in the lives and situations of the two women. It’s also pretty awesome.
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Written and drawn by Reinhard Kleist.
Abrams ComicArts, 2009.
This book is part graphic biography and part lyrical interpretation.
There were two major pieces of media that I enjoyed that had a strong impact on how I experienced this book. One was the 2006 film Walk The Line. The other was The Man In Black: His Own Story In His Own Words, his autobiography published in 1983. Cash would later revisit the autobiography, but Man In Black ends with the acceptance of sobriety, quitting smoking and returning to his Christian background with renewed faith.
I See A Darkness overlaps material from those two pieces. It deals mainly with the early years of Cash’s career, climaxing with his performance at Folsom Prison. There is some material set after the death of June, his wife, in the last year of his life while he is recording an album produced by Rick Rubin.
What this book offers is some interesting visual interpretations of Cash’s songs. Of particular note is Cocaine Blues from the Folsom Prison performance. The story of the song is played out over several pages, the lyrics recounted as text that weaves through the panels. The song A Boy Named Sue is also developed with this method, and to great effect. In a way it was able to do things which a song could not by providing images to accompany the text of the lyrics. In a way it Continue reading REVIEW: Johnny Cash – I See A Darkness
FLASHBACK! Tim and Brandon snack while examining Houdini: The Handcuff King and 24-hour Comics Day Highlights 2006! (Originally published May 21, 2007) Continue reading #076 “Houdini, the Handcuff King”
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11/24/08 Schulz and Peanuts pt. 2
Monte Schulz, son of Charles, claims to have been "horrified" by the David Michaelis bio of his father. Should he have been?
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Leading into our review of David Michaelis’ controversial Schulz biography, “Schulz and Peanuts,” Tim and Kumar talk about the strip itself, how it influenced what came after, and how, in politics and social issues, it took no sides — and all sides.
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