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A review by squid_vicious
Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns, & Moonage Daydreams (Ogn Biography of Ziggy Stardust, Gift for Bowie Fan, Gift for Music Lover, Nei by Mike Allred
4.0
After spending an evening riveted to my television watching “Moonage Daydream”, a recent documentary on David Bowie (which I highly recommend, though it must be noted that it is an unusual format of documentary, with no voice-over narration – just hypnotically edited footage of live performances, interviews and random bits of movies – and trippy AF), I was reminded of this comic book/biography that had been sitting on my shelf for some time, and I immediately picked it up.
I know it’s pretty common place to say that one adores David Bowie – he was the highest selling recording artist in the world for a significant part of his career, so his appeal was obviously not fringe – but he has a special place in my heart, for teaching me that it was OK to be myself unapologetically and wear whatever the fuck I liked, that one could be a literal rock-god/alien and still be incredibly well-read and amazingly kind. He has always been inspiring to me, as an artist, creator and human and I can’t believe I let this book gather dust as look as I did.
This book is by no means a comprehensive biography, but it attempts to cover the early part of Bowie’s career and his reinvention of himself as Ziggy Stardust. It covers his first band all the way to “Let’s Dance”, documenting his tours, his collaborators, his relationships and his experiments with music and art in general.
The highlight is the absolutely stunning artwork by Michael and Laura Allread: it is a delight for the eyes, the line work clean and confident, the colors popping vividly. They clearly had so much fun drawing Bowie and his ever-changing look and creative styles. From a narrative perspective, it’s a little meandering and incomplete, but it really is such a pleasure to leaf through as you blast what are (arguably) Bowie’s best records in the background.
I know it’s pretty common place to say that one adores David Bowie – he was the highest selling recording artist in the world for a significant part of his career, so his appeal was obviously not fringe – but he has a special place in my heart, for teaching me that it was OK to be myself unapologetically and wear whatever the fuck I liked, that one could be a literal rock-god/alien and still be incredibly well-read and amazingly kind. He has always been inspiring to me, as an artist, creator and human and I can’t believe I let this book gather dust as look as I did.
This book is by no means a comprehensive biography, but it attempts to cover the early part of Bowie’s career and his reinvention of himself as Ziggy Stardust. It covers his first band all the way to “Let’s Dance”, documenting his tours, his collaborators, his relationships and his experiments with music and art in general.
The highlight is the absolutely stunning artwork by Michael and Laura Allread: it is a delight for the eyes, the line work clean and confident, the colors popping vividly. They clearly had so much fun drawing Bowie and his ever-changing look and creative styles. From a narrative perspective, it’s a little meandering and incomplete, but it really is such a pleasure to leaf through as you blast what are (arguably) Bowie’s best records in the background.