Customer Reviews

Cravan: Mystery Man of the Twentieth Century

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The brilliant Rick Geary, author of the fantastic Victorian Crime series, teams up with founder of Dark Horse comics Mike Richardson to produce a slim volume on "one of the most interesting men you've never heard of". So I was compelled.

Unfortunately it turns out "Cravan" is not such an interesting subject after all. He was the nephew of Oscar Wilde, worked as a fireman aboard a steam ship, founded and wrote a controversial art magazine called "Maintenant", became boxing champion of France (through default though this isn't explained further) and boxed Jack Johnson, and met Leon Trotsky which led to his being followed by American agents thinking he was a revolutionary. Then one day he disappeared.

Besides meeting some famous people there isn't much else to say about "Cravan". There is some speculation that he faked his own death and that he wrote a pulpy adventure novel called "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre", but besides that Arthur Cravan wasn't that interesting a soul. Jack London led a more interesting life and wrote better books. The book is engaging but doesn't come near to living up to the tagline of "one of the most interesting men you've never heard of".

Thought I knew a fair amount about the long-time mystery man this fine graphic novel is about. Geary does a fine and highly entertaining job of giving far, far more of the man.