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art_cart_ron's review against another edition
3.0
Sadly, but also magically, this book falls square into flawed masterpiece territory.
The final product is ponderous.
The first half of the book reads like a serious attempt to write a biography - mostly in images. Then the number of splash pages continues to grow, and the story thins, and you realize that something changed about the intention. What would earlier have been a relatively dense pair of pages describing early relationships, and chronology, becomes a pair of pin-up pages of Elvis (you read that right). What earlier in the book would have been about Bowie's relationships and working process and developing popularity - and the interesting circumstances that launched his image - becomes several pages covered with single-panel repetitive images from individual stops on a single concert tour.
The biography is Bowie's early years, to some extent - and then almost exclusively the tour for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Then it just ends, after two or three spreads of awkward ill-defined wordless montages that make it plain that 75% of David Bowie's life and career will go unaddressed. The funding or publisher support or creative team dynamics must have dissolved after the first half of the book - and it seems to have then become an effort to get it wrapped up and minimize the disappointment to the readership. There is also a "cover gallery", that doesn't include the book's cover... so I guess it was originally planned to be released as a comic book series rather than the final form that made it into our hands.
And that's the tragedy. Bowie is soo much more than Ziggy Stardust. Allred points out how he bonded with Neil Gaiman over discussion of Diamond Dogs... and diamond dogs is a one page afterthought in this volume. Thankfully The Man Who Sold the World and Hunky Dory get some coverage - but it's awkward. Everything is treated as the build-up to Ziggy Stardust... then Ziggy's era is identified by his haircut (Aladdin Sane, and Pin-Ups being placed under the umbrella of ZS - huh?).
I think Mike Allred's passion project hit production, editorial, and collaboration walls that compromised the intention. It hurts that the work couldn't become what it could have been. He leaves a pair of tiny half-hearted notes like "that's another story" or "if we can do future volumes"... but this is long after you've invested yourself in the promise of the cover blurb, which is that this is a biography. Not 25% of a biography.
It is well illustrated, Allred's heart as absolutely and strongly in the right place, but it didn't get the support it deserved on the front end, and now we won't know (any time soon) how amazing it could have been. Extra sadly - if it had been allowed to be what it could have been, it may very well have skyrocketed a wholly new and profitable and passionate era of music biography comics. The audience absolutely exists - it just needed a chance to eat up the product, and cutting this project short will discourage that trust and financial investment.
Flawed masterpieces are fascinating and valuable, and if the world is a remotely fair place - may someday give birth to proper masterpieces. In fairness to readership, fans, creators, and Bowie himself - I can't go beyond 3 stars. First half is a 5, second half is a 2. I love Mike Allred for his effort, and Neil Gaiman for his effort to boost it (exactly like Bowie floated effort to boost Mott the Hoople out of their downward trajectory).
PS - The 3 star rating becomes even more palatable when you look into some comparative biographies and see that there are several misrepresentations in this book. His marriage to Angie is far more complicated than represented here. His astounding drug use and number of near death experiences is sanitized for the reader. His sexuality is painted over - with an attempt by Gaiman to amend the important oversight slipped into the introduction. Humanity, life, art and posterity demand honesty. Actually tempted to rate it down to a 2 at this point, but I'll let the 3 stand.
The final product is ponderous.
The first half of the book reads like a serious attempt to write a biography - mostly in images. Then the number of splash pages continues to grow, and the story thins, and you realize that something changed about the intention. What would earlier have been a relatively dense pair of pages describing early relationships, and chronology, becomes a pair of pin-up pages of Elvis (you read that right). What earlier in the book would have been about Bowie's relationships and working process and developing popularity - and the interesting circumstances that launched his image - becomes several pages covered with single-panel repetitive images from individual stops on a single concert tour.
The biography is Bowie's early years, to some extent - and then almost exclusively the tour for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Then it just ends, after two or three spreads of awkward ill-defined wordless montages that make it plain that 75% of David Bowie's life and career will go unaddressed. The funding or publisher support or creative team dynamics must have dissolved after the first half of the book - and it seems to have then become an effort to get it wrapped up and minimize the disappointment to the readership. There is also a "cover gallery", that doesn't include the book's cover... so I guess it was originally planned to be released as a comic book series rather than the final form that made it into our hands.
And that's the tragedy. Bowie is soo much more than Ziggy Stardust. Allred points out how he bonded with Neil Gaiman over discussion of Diamond Dogs... and diamond dogs is a one page afterthought in this volume. Thankfully The Man Who Sold the World and Hunky Dory get some coverage - but it's awkward. Everything is treated as the build-up to Ziggy Stardust... then Ziggy's era is identified by his haircut (Aladdin Sane, and Pin-Ups being placed under the umbrella of ZS - huh?).
I think Mike Allred's passion project hit production, editorial, and collaboration walls that compromised the intention. It hurts that the work couldn't become what it could have been. He leaves a pair of tiny half-hearted notes like "that's another story" or "if we can do future volumes"... but this is long after you've invested yourself in the promise of the cover blurb, which is that this is a biography. Not 25% of a biography.
It is well illustrated, Allred's heart as absolutely and strongly in the right place, but it didn't get the support it deserved on the front end, and now we won't know (any time soon) how amazing it could have been. Extra sadly - if it had been allowed to be what it could have been, it may very well have skyrocketed a wholly new and profitable and passionate era of music biography comics. The audience absolutely exists - it just needed a chance to eat up the product, and cutting this project short will discourage that trust and financial investment.
Flawed masterpieces are fascinating and valuable, and if the world is a remotely fair place - may someday give birth to proper masterpieces. In fairness to readership, fans, creators, and Bowie himself - I can't go beyond 3 stars. First half is a 5, second half is a 2. I love Mike Allred for his effort, and Neil Gaiman for his effort to boost it (exactly like Bowie floated effort to boost Mott the Hoople out of their downward trajectory).
PS - The 3 star rating becomes even more palatable when you look into some comparative biographies and see that there are several misrepresentations in this book. His marriage to Angie is far more complicated than represented here. His astounding drug use and number of near death experiences is sanitized for the reader. His sexuality is painted over - with an attempt by Gaiman to amend the important oversight slipped into the introduction. Humanity, life, art and posterity demand honesty. Actually tempted to rate it down to a 2 at this point, but I'll let the 3 stand.
lwysong54's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
bowienerd_82's review against another edition
4.0
Lovely- fantastic art and a great deal of love went into this comic biography of Bowie's Ziggy Stardust period. Both fun and touching.
theyalibrarian's review against another edition
5.0
Gorgeous, just absolutely gorgeous artwork that honors Bowie's unique contributions music, fashion, performance
martianman's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
fast-paced
4.0
such a capturing story, with amazing artwork to pair it with. a very fun read
librarianlk's review against another edition
3.0
It’s not a very interesting story. Very clinically details who Bowie knew, the name of every band he was in, concerts he went to, what famous people were at his concerts...after a while the exhaustive lists become, well, exhausting. The redeeming feature? The artwork! I loved seeing the evolution of David Jones into Ziggy, then all of his many looks throughout the seventies. The book is misnamed. It should have been called Ziggy Stardust. I recommend skimming the text, and sitting back and enjoying the art.
bstratton's review against another edition
5.0
Best thing Mike and Laura Allred have ever done. And they have done some amazing things. Just absolutely gorgeous.