Customer Reviews

Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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This graphic novel is a biography of Johnny Cash. It doesn't go into all the major events in Cash's life, but instead dramatizes a few big moments in detail. The Folsom Prison concert in particular gets several pages. The artwork is great and the story is riveting, even if you already know a lot about Johnny Cash. This is a great book that I highly recommend.

If you are a Johnny Cash fan, a fan of good graphic novels or just a music lover, but this book ASAP. It does a great job covering a lot of the inner details of Cash's life, including a lot of those left out from the entertaining, but flawed "Walk the Line." Klest gives us a fuller, more textured image of Cash, more in-line with the portrait painted by his recordings. Cash as an artist defied broad brush analysis. He could be passionate, profane, reverent and crude, patriotic and doubtful and could meld these contradictions almost seemlessly (sometimes in the subject of one song!). For whatever reason, get this book!

Although this biography of Johnny Cash is divided into three sections of years in Cash's life, the graphic novel jumps in time. These jumps can be a bit confusing at times, but, by the end, I was able to put it all together. One of the really neat things Kleist did was to sometimes do a story within a story, where he would go into the plot of the songs for a couple of pages. I thought that was really unique and clever.

Certainly this graphic novel leaves a lot out, but I think Kleist did a great job capturing what Johnny Cash was like. Of course, I haven't read anything about Johnny Cash before (I've only seen the movie Walk the Line). Still, based on all of the awards it raked in, I would imagine that it is true to the soul of the man.

The illustrations, while not my favorite type of art, fit the subject matter perfectly. Cash is a man of grizzled, rough features; of pain and darkness; of complexity. He could not be pictured in a pretty style; this gritty artwork does the job. The only place that I didn't think it worked was in the brief section on his childhood. Kleist does not seem to be able to draw youthful people; everyone in the book looked at least 35, and a hard-living 35 at that.

Now I really want to go listen to some more Johnny Cash songs, as I have very few (and mostly just the super popular ones that he probably got really sick of). It's amazing that he was able to recover from his addiction and escape the omnipresent darkness.

This graphic novel is an unbelievable experience for anyone - for Cash buffs, it instills the feeling that you were near Mr. Cash at every important moment in his life; for the new fans, it is an educational experience unlike any other. Klein's graphic depictions of numerous Cash songs are particularly entertaining. A must for any library.

My mom asked me to order this for my Dad for Christmas. I figured it was a biography of Johnny Cash, but imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a graphic biography! I have not read the book myself, but in looking through it, the artwork looks terrific. I would like to borrow it from Dad once he's finished it. It looks really interesting!