“Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colours on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a sombre tone.
Well, there’s a reason for the things that I have on.
I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he’s a victim of the times…
…Well, there’s things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin’ everywhere you go,
But ’til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You’ll never see me wear a suit of white.
Ah, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything’s OK,
But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
‘Till things are brighter, I’m the Man In Black.”(Johnny Cash, the Man in Black)
Just over two years ago we were getting pretty excited here after German periodicals Die Welt and Spiegel posted pages from the acclaimed German comics creator Reinhard Kleist’s new work about the legendary Johnny Cash. Kleist went on to pick up several awards for Cash, including the Peng! award at the Munich Comics Festival and the prestigious Max und Moritz at the Erlangen Comics Salon and we were delighted to hear of an English language edition Dark Horse were planning. Then, nothing…
Step forward British publisher Self Made Hero, the same folks who have garnered acclaim for their Manga Shakespeare range, their excellent literary classics (like their Dorian Gray and Jekyll and Hyde) and their new Sherlock Holmes titles, which both Richard and I have raved about on here. SMH have lined up an English language edition of Cash for this autumn. And I’ve got to say I am incredibly eager to read it, we’ve been waiting on it for a long time now and I’m delighted SMH have taken it on, especially given the quality of their other titles. And on a wider front I’d have to imagine this is the sort of book which will interest a lot of non-comics reading folks – Cash was a cultural icon, after all. And if that gets more people interested in picking up a graphic novel that’s an extra bonus. I’m sure we’re going to hear a lot more on this closer to the autumn.(thanks to Doug at SMH for the cover, art (c) Reinhard Kleist)
July 1st, 2009 at 12:29 am
I bought the French edition of this a year or so ago, it’s bloody brilliant. Mixes the truth, the myth, and Cash’s own poetic imagery to perfection.
As good as WALK THE LINE was bad, in fact.
So Hell Yeah, and Self Made Hero are turning into quite the decent little publisher!
July 2nd, 2009 at 11:20 am
Good to know, Mark, cheers, just makes me want to read it all the more
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:26 pm
I read the German original some time ago, and while it did give me goosebumps a few times, it was because of the subject matter rather than the treatment. Stuff like Cash playing Glen Shirley’s song at the Folsom Prison concert or being rediscovered by Rick Rubin – those are good stories. But Kleist is too faithful to the material, trying to ram too much exposition into the book.
The little comics versions of Cash songs, drawn in various styles, littered throughout the book, don’t contribute anything either.
Finally Kleist’s brushstrokes just aren’t assured enough, and there’s a real outdated early 90s feel to the style.