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Stagger Lee
On Christmas Eve 1895, shots rang out in a St. Louis barroom. A hundred years and a thousand songs later, this ordinary little murder had become a legend. This is the true story of what happened after Stagger Lee shot Billy.
205 pages, Paperback
First published May 3, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
July 25, 2013
Man, this was a disappointment.
The authors took the great legend of Stagger Lee and buried it under a dull pile of lawyers, politics and unrelated subplots. This was honestly a chore to read, and I was so, so tempted to just yank my bookmark and plop this mess in the library donation bin.
Who really cares WHY Stagger Lee shot Billy? It only matters that HE DID.
The choice of sepia tones to illustrate the story was a mistake. I guess it was supposed to add an air of historical importance to the events, but basically, it just made everything look muddy. A vibrant character like Lee cries out for eye-popping colors.
If you're interested in the tale of Stagger Lee, stick with the brief, but larger-than-life story in Black Folktales by Julius Lester. THIS is the Staggolee worth getting to know.
The authors took the great legend of Stagger Lee and buried it under a dull pile of lawyers, politics and unrelated subplots. This was honestly a chore to read, and I was so, so tempted to just yank my bookmark and plop this mess in the library donation bin.
Who really cares WHY Stagger Lee shot Billy? It only matters that HE DID.
The choice of sepia tones to illustrate the story was a mistake. I guess it was supposed to add an air of historical importance to the events, but basically, it just made everything look muddy. A vibrant character like Lee cries out for eye-popping colors.
If you're interested in the tale of Stagger Lee, stick with the brief, but larger-than-life story in Black Folktales by Julius Lester. THIS is the Staggolee worth getting to know.
June 10, 2017
This was interesting. I'm a big western fan, particular the "Weird Western" genre which I've written some books in, and I thought this would have enough legend in it to qualify as "Weird". That part is debatable, but this is still an interesting read. It focuses on trying to determine how much of the story of "Stagger Lee" is real and how much is legend. He was in fact a real person, and there seems to be a lot of truth in the legend. But really, it's hard to tell. I gather he did shoot and kill someone and went to prison for it. Other than that, I think the story is mostly conjecture. The art is nice, the book is well written and the anecdotes about the songs were a nice touch. Overall not a bad read, and something different.
June 2, 2016
A fascinating blend of history and fiction. This book aims to get to the bottom of the traditional song "Stagger Lee," and it accomplishes the feat with aplomb. I had heard many versions of the song before, but never really imagined that it had roots in actual events. The mystery isn't quite solved, but the journey is a remarkable one.
The coloring has a monochromatic sepia tone, which helps establish the mood, but sometimes also makes it hard to distinguish between characters. At any rate, I highly recommend for music fans and/or history buffs.
The coloring has a monochromatic sepia tone, which helps establish the mood, but sometimes also makes it hard to distinguish between characters. At any rate, I highly recommend for music fans and/or history buffs.
October 14, 2012
Damn, this was a lucky find. I was checking out another book at the library, and saw this sitting on a re-shelving cart - I snagged it at the last moment, not going off of anything but the cover & the title. It turned out the be engrossing & entertaining, as well as educational - the three Es! Plus, the author lives in Oakland. Wowzers. Five stars for totally knocking my socks off.
June 25, 2015
Interesting but dry history and fictional history of the story of Stagger Lee, a man who has been sung about for decades by various folk, blues, jazz, and rock artists.
March 23, 2018
This book is the fictional recreation of the real story of Lee Shelton, the man who inspired the legendary folk/murder song "Stagger Lee," alternately known as "Stacker Lee," "Stag O' Lee," and about a dozen other variations. Lee, a black man, shot and murdered Billy Lyons, another black man, and has been adopted as one of the first gangsta "characters" in history.
Although by no means as copious as From Hell's appendix, McCulloch does provide some notes in the back to explain the real history of certain characters, including the variations from the real history that he chose to make for story reasons.
McCulloch weaves the storyline with several short dissertations about the history of the "Stagger Lee" songs, citing different versions, reprinting lyrics, and then connecting those song versions to the history.
Hendrix's art is terrific, full of wonderful exaggeration when McCulloch starts to compare the legend to the history (Lee, the bad man, is depicted as a hulking horror in song, but was a tiny, little dude in reality), and his characters are all properly expressive and easy to read.
Overall, just a terrific book with lots of information about history, music and race relations.
Highly recommended.
Although by no means as copious as From Hell's appendix, McCulloch does provide some notes in the back to explain the real history of certain characters, including the variations from the real history that he chose to make for story reasons.
McCulloch weaves the storyline with several short dissertations about the history of the "Stagger Lee" songs, citing different versions, reprinting lyrics, and then connecting those song versions to the history.
Hendrix's art is terrific, full of wonderful exaggeration when McCulloch starts to compare the legend to the history (Lee, the bad man, is depicted as a hulking horror in song, but was a tiny, little dude in reality), and his characters are all properly expressive and easy to read.
Overall, just a terrific book with lots of information about history, music and race relations.
Highly recommended.
March 26, 2018
Clears up some of the mystery....
September 17, 2020
Very solid, very entertaining, and very thorough. I’d never heard of Stagger Lee before, so reading this was a blast.
November 1, 2023
Ef þú þekkir Stagger Lee lög þá er þetta fín bók en ekki frábær.
May 14, 2023
Stagger Lee is arguably the most American of all songs. It comes out of a single unfortunate event where a man named Lee Stetson shoots Billy Lyons while gambling. There are dozens of published versions of the song, perhaps hundreds. The story was apocryphal until a scholar did the research and was able to trace the song back to a murder in St. Louis in the 1890s.
Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hendrix work to unravel the story of the song and the lives of the people who were involved. They admit to taking some liberties with events and characters, but clearly address those changes at the end of the book- not under an appendix, but under an illustrated section. The book intertwines the conflict between Stagger Lee and Billy Lyons, and all the events around it, including the lawyers who defended him and the political corruption in St. Louis. Two other murders that are also turned into songs are also addressed in the book.
My only criticism of the book is Hendrix's art, which is skillful, but lacks defined color and thus makes it difficult to discern whether some characters are Black or white. This matters because race is absolutely a factor. It is almost definite that skin tone probably mattered as well, between Black politicians and the laboring classes. Even that is defensible: 1) it makes you pay attention to how the character is introduced and who their associates are, and 2) it makes you consider the decisions of characters and how color in Jim Crow America shaped their life decisions.
Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hendrix work to unravel the story of the song and the lives of the people who were involved. They admit to taking some liberties with events and characters, but clearly address those changes at the end of the book- not under an appendix, but under an illustrated section. The book intertwines the conflict between Stagger Lee and Billy Lyons, and all the events around it, including the lawyers who defended him and the political corruption in St. Louis. Two other murders that are also turned into songs are also addressed in the book.
My only criticism of the book is Hendrix's art, which is skillful, but lacks defined color and thus makes it difficult to discern whether some characters are Black or white. This matters because race is absolutely a factor. It is almost definite that skin tone probably mattered as well, between Black politicians and the laboring classes. Even that is defensible: 1) it makes you pay attention to how the character is introduced and who their associates are, and 2) it makes you consider the decisions of characters and how color in Jim Crow America shaped their life decisions.
December 25, 2009
Here's a good Christmas story: On Christmas Eve, 1895 in St. Louis, Missouri, "Stag" Lee Shelton shot and killed Billy Lyons during an argument at a bar. A four-dollar Stetson hat may or may not have been involved.
This incredibly good graphic novel starts with the killing and then follows the Stagger Lee or Stack O Lee or Stagolee legend as it grows, splinters, and transforms into various songs. I was most familiar with the versions by Mississippi John Hurt and Nick Cave, though a quick search of my iTunes library also turns up a prison song recorded by Alan Lomax and "Wrong 'Em Boyo" by The Clash.
After a straightforward account of the murder with comes a fictionalized version of events that realistically could have followed. Some characters are made up, others are based on real people. The plot is broken up by flashbacks, various versions of Stagolee lyrics, and other asides that touch on topics like racial archetypes and how legends grow.
Some of the interesting things I learned from this book:
* Frankie shot Johnny a few blocks away and a few years later
* Stagolee didn't die on the gallows, he died in prison of TB about 15 years later
* Billy Lyons was much larger than Stagolee, who was 5'7" and weight about 120 lbs
* The argument that led to killing was most likely over rival local political gangs
Highly recommended. Takes advantage of the best features of the graphic novel.
This incredibly good graphic novel starts with the killing and then follows the Stagger Lee or Stack O Lee or Stagolee legend as it grows, splinters, and transforms into various songs. I was most familiar with the versions by Mississippi John Hurt and Nick Cave, though a quick search of my iTunes library also turns up a prison song recorded by Alan Lomax and "Wrong 'Em Boyo" by The Clash.
After a straightforward account of the murder with comes a fictionalized version of events that realistically could have followed. Some characters are made up, others are based on real people. The plot is broken up by flashbacks, various versions of Stagolee lyrics, and other asides that touch on topics like racial archetypes and how legends grow.
Some of the interesting things I learned from this book:
* Frankie shot Johnny a few blocks away and a few years later
* Stagolee didn't die on the gallows, he died in prison of TB about 15 years later
* Billy Lyons was much larger than Stagolee, who was 5'7" and weight about 120 lbs
* The argument that led to killing was most likely over rival local political gangs
Highly recommended. Takes advantage of the best features of the graphic novel.
November 12, 2012
I was not even interested in Stagger Lee before I picked up this comic, but it is so well written I read it all without realising it. It is so easy to read, a well-paced story with interesting and sympathetic characters, it was impossible to put down.
The book itself is a commendable piece of work. The shitload of research that must have went into making this is immense. It tries to shed light, not only the man himself, the truth about whom has sunk into obscurity as his legend rose to fame, but also his world. The story of Stagger Lee is set in a believable 1890s St. Louis, with its political division, local corruption and racial tensions following the end of Reconstruction.
Throughout the story it also intersperses various versions of the song detailing his crime. It shows differences between artists, genres, across time, across race. All in all, it's a fascinating piece of folk history, and a well-told story at that. Well worth picking up - you won't put it down til you're done.
The book itself is a commendable piece of work. The shitload of research that must have went into making this is immense. It tries to shed light, not only the man himself, the truth about whom has sunk into obscurity as his legend rose to fame, but also his world. The story of Stagger Lee is set in a believable 1890s St. Louis, with its political division, local corruption and racial tensions following the end of Reconstruction.
Throughout the story it also intersperses various versions of the song detailing his crime. It shows differences between artists, genres, across time, across race. All in all, it's a fascinating piece of folk history, and a well-told story at that. Well worth picking up - you won't put it down til you're done.
November 24, 2012
Wow, this wasn't at all what I expected from this. I love the Stagger Lee song as much as anybody else (with the Nick Cave version being the absolute pinnacle) but didn't quite realize the complexity of its journey through the ages. This graphic novel is a reasonably serious academic survey through its history and its sociology (details about slight lyrical differences between black and white artists versions). And it is an attempt to untangle the "when legend becomes truth, print the legend" maze created in its history and determine who the real Stagger Lee, Billy, and the rest of them really are.
At times, I did get fairly confused by some of the plots and couldn't keep track of the different characters and who they were. I eventually gave up on those because each next chapter then would get back to the main elements again and it didn't seem that important overall.
But I enjoyed this and getting deeper into the legend and unravelling the threads. Now whenever I hear a version of the song, I have a much better understanding of where it came from and what it means.
At times, I did get fairly confused by some of the plots and couldn't keep track of the different characters and who they were. I eventually gave up on those because each next chapter then would get back to the main elements again and it didn't seem that important overall.
But I enjoyed this and getting deeper into the legend and unravelling the threads. Now whenever I hear a version of the song, I have a much better understanding of where it came from and what it means.
March 14, 2015
In the utterly unique Stagger Lee, McCulloch and Hendrix investigate the origins of a folksong and use a conflation of historical record and lyrical evolution to recreate (and, partly, re-imagine) the inciting incident on Christmas 1895 when Stag Lee Shelton shot Billy Lyons. It's a brilliant concept, and perhaps the most interesting re-frame of historical material I've seen in years. Sadly, this does not keep it from being more than a little dull.
Stagger Lee is full of musicians, whores, and politicians whose actions make as little sense as - actually, come to think of it, less than - a morphine-addled lawyer's. The characters are uniformly flat, even Stagger Lee himself, who's left, perhaps intentionally, as a cypher at the center of his own story. A good deal of the book is spent wading through subplots that have nothing to do with the main story, and which lack an emotional hook to distract the reader from their irrelevance.
So full points for concept, but the execution was sadly lacking.
Stagger Lee is full of musicians, whores, and politicians whose actions make as little sense as - actually, come to think of it, less than - a morphine-addled lawyer's. The characters are uniformly flat, even Stagger Lee himself, who's left, perhaps intentionally, as a cypher at the center of his own story. A good deal of the book is spent wading through subplots that have nothing to do with the main story, and which lack an emotional hook to distract the reader from their irrelevance.
So full points for concept, but the execution was sadly lacking.
March 21, 2010
I reckon (and this is a graphic novel that beckons to be reckon'd with) that we all end up choosing the version of history that we want. Well, perhaps in some of the larger cases, that version is chosen for us by people who we might consider less than choice. But the dead, they lack a voice even if they are captured in song.
I was not as familiar with the many renditions of "Stagger Lee" as are enumerated in the appendix, but did listen several more times to the Nick Cave spleen-spitter a few times after reading McCulloch's work here. I did enjoy the odd theater of the courthouse as much as if not more than the low drunken drama of the saloon. In the end, I guess I side with the lawyer's apprentice Justin, and when I can will try to choose a truth that may hide some lies, but help me to see the best of women and men.
Meanwhile, I'll tip my hat to McCulloch and try and keep it out of the shit and history and the way of hatred in this world.
I was not as familiar with the many renditions of "Stagger Lee" as are enumerated in the appendix, but did listen several more times to the Nick Cave spleen-spitter a few times after reading McCulloch's work here. I did enjoy the odd theater of the courthouse as much as if not more than the low drunken drama of the saloon. In the end, I guess I side with the lawyer's apprentice Justin, and when I can will try to choose a truth that may hide some lies, but help me to see the best of women and men.
Meanwhile, I'll tip my hat to McCulloch and try and keep it out of the shit and history and the way of hatred in this world.
Read
February 4, 2016A fictional account of the history behind folk legend Stagger Lee and the song that was inspired by his murder of Billy Lyons. “Stag†Lee Shelton shoots and kills Billy Lyons during an argument in a St. Louis saloon in the 1890s. Billy Lyons’ family has political clout in the community and they want to see Stag hang. But Stag has connections of his own and lawyer Nathan Dryden is hired to keep Stag from hanging. Other characters of interest include Mama Babe who runs a local whorehouse; Justin Troup, who takes over Stag’s case after Dryden dies of a morphine overdose; Justin’s fiancee Evelyn, one of Mama Babe’s former whores; and Hercules Moffat, the whorehouse pianist and Evelyn’s affair. The author includes historical notes, citations and explanations of deviations from the historical account.
June 6, 2016
It's hard to say that I didn't like this book, but It's harder to say that I did like it. Personally, I think it's one of those books that, if you were a history buff about Lee Shelton, you'd like this book. I'd never heard of this story before I read this book, so I think that's what killed it for me. For not knowing anything of this backstory, the book did have enough to stand on to make someone who IS a history buff of this like it. The graphics were quite good, and I did like the comedic bits that the chapters had when they went to explain how the whole incident happened. I also like how how they kept referencing all the different kinds of songs that have been written about Lee Shelton. If there was really anything I didn't like, it was simply the fact that I am just not a history buff of Stagger Lee, so it didn't really keep me intrigued.
July 27, 2007
Being a St. Louis native / resident, any story that covers history in St. Louis gets my attention. When that story becomes a legendary folk tune, it's got my attention even more.
Derek McCullough and Shepherd Hendrix have created an illustrated novel that not only is captivating for its illustration, but for its ability to cover the myriad changes to the Stagger Lee story that have occured through the years, as many urban legend stories do.
If that wasn't enough, there's a great CD with the book that has about 30 different versions of the Stagger Lee song, which has been covered by far more than 30 different artists.
Great read.
Derek McCullough and Shepherd Hendrix have created an illustrated novel that not only is captivating for its illustration, but for its ability to cover the myriad changes to the Stagger Lee story that have occured through the years, as many urban legend stories do.
If that wasn't enough, there's a great CD with the book that has about 30 different versions of the Stagger Lee song, which has been covered by far more than 30 different artists.
Great read.
April 26, 2016
My favorite parts were the discussions at the beginning of each chapter about how the details of the Stagger Lee-Billy Lyons ordeal played out, but I found it hard to follow the various fictionalized plots that jumped around giving the story context. Still, got some good info, and the story of Stagger Lee is fascinating. Maybe I'll get a chance to do a little scavenger hunting this weekend to find a few of these locales in the story.
********
Panels Read Harder: Comic about a real life historical event.
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Panels Read Harder: Comic about a real life historical event.
April 21, 2011
I wasn't sure i was going to enjoy this, but I was pleasantly surprised! Aside from the simple speculation, the authors actually draw from essays that explore the history of the song as well as the (possible) actual event. The result is a thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking piece of historical fiction.
3.5-4 stars. Can be read quickly or savored thoughtfully. A must read for any fan of the classic song(s).
3.5-4 stars. Can be read quickly or savored thoughtfully. A must read for any fan of the classic song(s).
June 22, 2012
I picked this up shortly after seeing a reading of the first half of the musical which is currently in development. A few things really drew me into the story. The first was the basis - a song based on a real murder that eventually took on a life of its own. The other thing that really hooked me was the historical aspect. While some of the characters are fictional, others are real, and it was the politics they were involved in that kept me intrigued.
March 28, 2008
This is a very enjoyable graphic novel that brings the history/legend/folk tale of one Stagger Lee to life. I loved how it incorporated the lyrics to various sung versions of the tale into the thrilling story.
February 25, 2010
This places the killing of Billy Lyons by Lee Stanton in historical context, while also adding new dimensions with a fictional narrative. This is a good example of how comics can demonstrate a layer of storytelling that is not available with novels.
September 12, 2011
interesting story behind the legend of stagger lee--a legend intensely larger than the actual person. oddly, lee was around to hear songs about himself as a legend. great story line, awesome production, left me wanting to read more about stagger lee's legend.
September 21, 2013
A great and apparently deathless Missouri story that's bound to keep living on in popular song. Fans of graphic lit, popular song, mythology, political chicanery, state history, and American archetypes will ALL enjoy this one.
February 16, 2015
This was something that I normally wouldn't have read, but might have thought it was interesting due to the graphic novel format. I am glad that I got to read this for a class. Give it a read if you get the change although sadly, it's out of print now ,so finding it might be tough.
March 24, 2009
Great legend, great book and also cool because I used to work with the artist.
December 27, 2009
excellent graphic novel mix of music history, era politics, random fictionalizing, and realistic yarning.
August 4, 2011
An unusual tale of the well-known historical tune.
November 12, 2011
My first experience with a graphic novel has left me with a taste for more.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews