Paolo Parisi

Another of those graphic biographies that assumes the reader already has knowledge of the subject and skitters through his life hitting high points that are largely left out of context. I was unfamiliar with Keith Haring's name and work going into this and feel I now know barely a little more than if I just read a Wikipedia entry.

Which raises, the next point: If you are doing a biography of an artist and cannot secure rights to actually show his artwork, it may be time to consider doing a different book instead. This book is like sitting through an Elvis biopic that cuts to the next scene every time he opens his mouth to sing. I had no idea of what Haring was actually creating in the course of this book. It was only in googling his name that I saw imagery that I immediately recognized but had previously been ignorant of who had produced it. Too bad this book hadn't been able to put that together for me.

The art was a little vague and didn't always manage to capture a real person's likeness or make all the characters wholly distinguishable, but I did like the blue, yellow, and pink color scheme. It really made the pages pop.… (meer)

This is a beautiful biography of Jean-Michel Basquiat, one of my favourite artists.

Parisi has used key colours in wondrous ways to wander throughout Basquiat's life, as told through the voices of his father, a former agent, a former lover, and others. His life is told in a jazzy, free-flowing sensibility that, to me, perfectly matches Basquiat's life and art.

Aspects of Basquiat's life that are perhaps not very attractive, for example his vanity, drug abuse, and flip ways, are on display in ways that are just as well put as the rest of this book is.

The colours sting, in a great way, while Parisi's style of writing and storytelling is just as beautiful as his drawing and painting.

This is one of the best biographical graphic novels that I've ever had the pleasure to read.… (meer)