Elon Musk

by Darryl Cunningham, Francisco San Rafael (Translator)

¡La primera biografía de Elon Musk en novela gráfica!

Desde la infancia de Musk en Sudáfrica hasta el desarrollo de PayPal, desde el nacimiento de Tesla y luego SpaceX hasta la compra de Twitter, esta extensa investigación revela aspectos poco conocidos, y a veces impactantes, de la vida privada y de la carrera impresionante pero polémica del hombre más rico y más inasible del mundo.

Darryl Cunningham presenta una investigación muy documentada sobre una de las personalidades más fascinantes y controvertidas.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Nonfiction, Biography, Business, Politics, History

208 pages, Paperback

Published September 24, 2025

About the author

British Artist Darryl Cunningham is the creator of the web-comics, 'Super-Sam and John-of-the-Night' and 'The Streets of San Diablo'. Darryl's work can also be found at his blog and flickr page. His book Psychiatric Tales has been published by Blank Slate in the UK and by Bloomsbury in the US.

Reviews

[Paul Dembina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another excellent non-fiction book from Darryl Cunningham. He starts with Musk's origins in South Africa, then his education in Canada, through his early days working on email payments through to his current notariety.

I hadn't realised the extent to which most of his companies relied on US taxpayers subsidies

[Cheryl Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish there were more books like this, collecting recent history into a visually engaging format that makes sense of a thousand articles and tweets. In this case, those documents (and the other books and biographies Cunningham pulls from) create a portrait of a man who is clearly intellectually gifted and creative, who also has no qualms about stomping over the wellbeing of his employees, animal research subjects, marginalized communities, and the entire American public in the name of actualizing his whims. Cunningham's account connects the dots between Musk's grandfather's promotion of "technocracy" (a short-lived movement that promoted "experts" as leaders over community-minded elected officials) and Musk's espousal of "longtermism" (a techy philosophy that prioritizes theoretical future humans over those alive today). All the old eugenics are new again, and this book lays out how dangerous and dumb this line of thinking is.

[Mateus Passos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente para quem quer xingar o Musk (ou discutir com seus fãs) com mais conhecimento de causa.

O sujeito é basicamente uma fraude completa, irresponsável e incompetente. Foi afastado da direção de praticamente todas as empresas que assumiu. Com frequência enganou seus clientes e mesmo acionistas. Sua maior habilidade é realmente beijar a mão de candidatos a ditadores (e criar promessas grandiosas e vazias).

Também traz bons argumentos para criticar as falácias de “estado mínimo” que usam empresários como Musk como exemplo. Ele basicamente estaria falido há muito tempo se não houvesse grandes injeções de dinheiro público na Tesla e SpaceX.

Mais um ótimo trabalho jornalístico do Darryl Cunningham, que depois de algumas obras voltadas ao jornalismo científico tem se dedicado à crítica ao autoritarismo e plutocracia (já é o 4° livro nessa nova fase). Pena que por enquanto só a biografia do Putin saiu no Brasil (e ironicamente por ~aquela editora complicadinha~).

[Alberto Martín de Hijas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una buena biografía. No entra en demasiados detalles pero cuenta lo esencial y no evita los temas espinosos pero no carga las tintas de forma excesiva.

[Iwan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luna, mijn 24-jarige dochter, schrok toen ze dit boek in onze woonkamer zag liggen. 'Je wordt toch geen fan van Elon Musk he?'

Na het lezen van dit boek kan ik haar geruststellen. Musk is nog veranderlijker, gekker en gevaarlijker dan ik al dacht. Een fan van de man zal ik dus nooit worden.

Het was fijn om het levensverhaal van Musk in circa 3-4 uur tot me te nemen. Dankzij dit olifantenpaadje hoefde ik me niet wekenlang onder te dompelen in de dikke biografie die Isaacson een paar jaar geleden over Musk publiceerde.

Hoewel het een paar pagina's duurde voordat ik gewend was aan Cunninghams simplistische stijl heb ik veel lol gehad aan de tekst. Het zit boordevol interessante feiten over de ontspoorde uitvinder. Dat is niet gek als je de bronnenlijst achterin het boek bekijkt: Cunningham werkte zich door 7 biografieën (ook die van Isaacson) en meer dan 70 artikelen!

Het boek van de Britse stripjournalist kende overigens een moeizame bevalling. Britse uitgevers durfden dit stripboek niet uit te geven met het oog op mogelijke juridische stappen van Musk.

Stripland nummer 1 - Frankrijk - durfde het wel aan en in de lente van 2024 verscheen een Franse versie. Ik las de Nederlandse vertaling die Concerto Books een jaar later uitbracht. Deze uitgeverij is een nevenactiviteit van de beroemde Amsterdamse muziekzaak Concerto.

Op de valreep wees Chat GPT mij erop dat een Amerikaanse uitgever het toch heeft aangedurfd om deze herfst met een Engelstalige versie te komen.

[Ed Erwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the contents were already known to me, as they would be to anyone who reads the news in the US. The early section on Musk's grandparents and his father had more to teach me.

The graphics are mere sketches, but fine. There was too much black text on a blue background, which is difficult to read.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kirkus said it best-this one is a cartoon portrait of a cartoonish figure: an extraordinarily wealthy man with boyish impulses—making fast cars, playing with rockets, & smoking pot on a podcast.

I was not up for a Walter Isaacson-sized doorstop bio of the world’s richest man (of course he might have spent it all today on a Martian In-and-Out franchise — I haven’t checked the news today). But I am always up for Darryl Cunningham’s take on history’s nefarious characters. In fact, I’m pretty sure most of my Final Jeopardy-level knowledge of Vladimir Putin comes from Cunningham’s earlier graphic biography.

That said, this one is still dense. There’s a lot of detail—corporate maneuvering, government contracts, power plays—and I hadn’t fully realized just how much of my tax dollars have propped this dude up over the years (you’re welcome, Elon!! 😳). Thankfully, the sh*tshow of Musk’s personal life also depicted here helps provide some amusement to smooth over that irritation.

Cunningham’s art remains characteristically simple: lots of head-and-shoulders renderings that sometimes feel like traced photos. But every so often he throws in a creative or colorful curve just enough to keep things lively. So, not light reading, but absorbing and ruthless to its subject-tactics very much in Cunningham’s wheelhouse.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I admittedly speed-read this one so I wouldn't have to think about this terrible manchild in depth for more than a few days. All things considered, the author did a good job staying relatively neutral and "centralist" (like Musk, hehe) until Musk went off the rails with far right propaganda - honestly the author was more respectful than Musk deserves all around. Some things about Musk make more sense to me: his upbringing and family trauma, his close calls with his businesses failing and relying on taxpayers, and all of what he owns and how that came to be. I felt like I would've liked a visual timeline somewhere since the years hop back and forth a lot across businesses and baby mamas. The art was not adding a ton, but I definitely couldn't have gotten through this much information without it.

[Isabelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

J'ai lu cette BD pour connaître un peu la personne, ce que j'ai appris m'a par contre beaucoup déçu.

[Ver · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good presentation of Musk's biography. I'm very happy I've read it and learned more about this wicked man. I didn't know much about his family or other dealings than the recent ones. I like the drawings very much, very good presentation of Musk. Thanks to this comic now I know that I shouldn't trust his companies as he lies all the way to gain money so better stay away.

[Uri Xaubet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una biografia en format còmic (sembla que s'està posant de moda) de la persona més rica del món i també del farsant més gros que et puguis imaginar. En un punt on aquest home és el centre de les mirades, és clau saber d'on ve per entendre que ho ha tingut tot ben mastegat i l'únic que ha sapigut fer és vendre fum i rodejar-se de gent competent, a diferencia d'ell.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

No coneixia en Darryl Cunningham. Ara ja entra dins dels meus preferits i buscaré més obres seves perquè definitivament cal llegir-lo.

[Al No · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A fool and his money are soon partying.” - Steven Wright

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This graphic work is not a biography, but a report on Elon Musk’s business career.

His first “deal”, selling his father’s emeralds, shows his dubious ethics (he and his brother seem to just take the the emeralds). His second venture shows his spunk: despite being underage, he attempted to open a video game arcade.

Later in life, he profited from bigger companies whether or not the companies were successful. His products/services were timely, but there are lots of failures. Tesla cars either don’t get produced on time (we’re talking years) and/or don’t live up to the hype. Most Space X multi-million dollar rockets explode.

Besides money loss there is damage and death due to rocket and auto failures but there are no serious consequences for Musk.

There is a lot on Twitter. Despite his talk of using it to share ideas, there are lots of examples of his banning some (like NPR) and promoting his own ideas and causes.

It has to be difficult to come up with graphic design ideas to illustrate content like this. Cunningham does a very good job. I cannot think of one dud.

----Some panels show emotions such as on p 21 when his mother leaves her husband with their 3 children-----the 6 panels on pp. 99 and on pp.112-113, show disappointment with Tesla innovations: wing style doors, cooing and self driving features.

----Some depict ideas. pp.152-153 show the extreme posts that will drive advertisers from what is now known as X and pp. 151-153 the sale of Twitter to Musk and what followed.

-----Some are creative ways to show mundane life, like p. 41 the boredom of Peter Theil working in corporate law and p.88 where a Design Manager’s moves from GM to Tesla.

-----Some are just cute like p. 50 the switch from Linux to Windows and p. 97 where Musk approaches Google for a potential sale.

-----Some convey information such as p.86.. the map of states that (in support of Tesla) offer Zero Emission credits (BTW, all seem to be blue states) and p. 125 Musk’s SEC fines to be paid to share holders.

The book ends with an evaluation of Musk’s career with focus on its negative effect on public policy. The ending content matches the cover image of Musk giving the “Heil Hitler" Salute.

(New to me: the President of the, soon to be bailed out country of Argentina, gave Musk the chain saw he used to show his attitude to laying people off.)

The color palate is limited allowing for a good look for each page. All the background colors for text make reading the all capital letters text easy on the eye, with the exception of blue. The paper and (paperback) cover are of good quality.

There is a list of resources and an Index.

Cunningham does a good job of sifting out the important information, but there is only so much you can fit in the graphic format; so, if you want the complete, but condensed Musk, this is for you.

For more on Musk’s personal life and detail on his business enterprises I recommend: Elon Musk : Tesla, Paypal, Space X: L'entrepreneur Qui Va Changer Le Monde

For an example of Musk’s management style (you will see the DOGE parallels here) read Extremely Hardcore: Inside Elon Musk's Twitter

[Sarah Jensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Review: Elon Musk: American Oligarch by Darryl Cunningham

Darryl Cunningham’s Elon Musk: American Oligarch is a visually striking and intellectually incisive graphic biography that interrogates the mythos surrounding one of the most polarizing figures of our time. As someone who is fascinated by power dynamics and media representation, I found Cunningham’s unflinching deconstruction of Musk’s ascent both exhilarating and deeply unsettling. The graphic format—with its clean lines and vivid colors—initially lulls readers into an aesthetic engagement, only to deliver a visceral punch as it exposes the systemic inequities and government subsidies that undergird Musk’s “self-made” narrative.

What resonated most powerfully was Cunningham’s nuanced portrayal of Musk’s gendered and racialized privilege. The panels depicting his grandfather’s involvement in the Technocracy Movement—juxtaposed with Musk’s contemporary alliances with far-right politics—evoked a simmering ire about how generational wealth and whiteness lubricate the wheels of oligarchy. As a reader, I appreciated how Cunningham avoids reducing Musk to a cartoon villain; instead, he presents him as a product of systems that reward audacity over ethics, particularly when it’s wielded by men in positions of structural advantage. The sections critiquing Musk’s labor practices (e.g., Tesla’s union-busting) and his performative “free speech absolutism” felt like a necessary corrective to mainstream lionization.

However, the book’s strengths are occasionally undermined by its scope. While Cunningham excels at tracing Musk’s financial and political entanglements, I longed for a deeper analysis of how his leadership style—often glorified as “disruptive”—perpetuates toxic workplace cultures, especially for women and marginalized employees. The graphic format, though innovative, sometimes simplifies complex socio-economic critiques into digestible visuals, risking the very mythmaking it seeks to dismantle. A stronger engagement with feminist critiques of tech bro culture (e.g., Emily Chang’s Brotopia) would have enriched the narrative.

Strengths:

-Visual Storytelling: Masterful use of the graphic medium to demystify oligarchic power.
-Intersectional Lens: Exposes how Musk’s success is scaffolded by race, class, and gender privilege.
-Timely Critique: Connects Musk’s rise to broader trends of tech-fueled authoritarianism.

Critiques:

-Depth vs. Breadth: Sacrifices nuanced analysis for panoramic coverage.
-Silenced Voices: Could amplify testimonies from women impacted by Musk’s ventures.

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.25/5) – A provocative, if imperfect, visual manifesto that cracks open the meritocratic facade of tech oligarchy.

Thank you to Seven Stories Press and Edelweiss for providing a free advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Final Thought: Cunningham’s greatest achievement is rendering visible what corporate PR obscures—that Musk’s “genius” is less about innovation than his mastery of extracting public resources and private devotion. By framing him as an American Oligarch, the book invites us to question why we conflate wealth with wisdom, and disruption with progress.

[Miroku Nemeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Darryl Cunningham’s Elon Musk is a brilliant, unflinching portrait of power, ideology, and danger in the modern world. Through sharp visual storytelling and meticulous research, Cunningham reveals how Musk’s journey from “bullied nerd to tech tycoon” has turned into something far darker—a story of privilege, manipulation, and political extremism.

Cunningham shows that Musk’s fortune “only exists because of government subsidies and tax breaks,” reminding us that “there would be no Musk fortune without U.S. taxpayer backing.” Yet Musk has used this wealth “to distort and degrade public discourse,” turning a once vital global platform into a megaphone for hate and disinformation.

In one panel, Cunningham quotes European leaders responding to Musk’s attacks: French President Emmanuel Macron asks, “Who would have imagined that the owner of one of the largest social networks would be supporting a new international reactionary movement?” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez warns that Musk “stirs up hatred, and openly calls for the support of the heirs of Nazism.” Cunningham shows Musk endorsing Germany’s AfD—“a right-wing populist party that opposes immigration, especially Muslim immigration”—and even declaring, “People really need to get behind AfD, otherwise things are going to get very much worse in Germany.”

As a teacher who has spent nearly thirty years in immigrant communities—and as a Muslim for thirty-two years—I have seen firsthand the real-world harm of this kind of rhetoric. Cunningham’s panels about Musk attacking European leaders, mocking immigrants, and fueling Islamophobia capture precisely the forces that make life harder for the marginalized. His work makes visible how online hate translates into lived fear and inequality.

Cunningham concludes that Musk “is a serious danger to democracy everywhere,” exposing the “tech-authoritarianism” he shares with his grandfather’s belief in rule “by a technocrat elite, and freedom from democracy.” The book’s power lies not in sensationalism but in clarity. It connects the dots—from apartheid South Africa to Silicon Valley, from subsidies to social collapse—and does so with the moral precision of investigative art.

Elon Musk is an urgent warning and a masterclass in political graphic nonfiction. Everyone should read it.


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[Laetitia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Merci à #NetGalleyFrance aux Éditions Delcourt | Encrages pour la découverte de #ElonMusk par Darryl Cunningham (scénario, dessin et couleur).

Je connaissais très peu de choses sur Elon Musk, mises à part quelques frasques de multi-milliardaire, son implication dans Tesla et le rachat récent de Twitter, devenu X. J'ai donc beaucoup appris sur cette richissime célébrité. Son enfance Sud-Africaine, son adolescence Canadienne et sa réussite progressive dans le monde des affaires et les domaines comme l'énergie, l'informatique ou le spatial. Les explications relatives à ces domaines sont claires et accessibles. Les quelques pages consacrées à sa vie de famille sont largement suffisantes pour cerner le personnage, sans tomber des les clichés "people".

Malheureusement, j'ai trouvé le ton des textes un peu trop enfantin. Je m'attendais à un cadrage plus sérieux, aussi sérieux que le contenu, la documentation et les références de fin d'album. Malgré les efforts de Darryl Cunningham pour être le plus objectif possible, certains passages sont clairement "à charge" contre le personnage ; et il faut dire que ses actions, éclats et communications "buzz" s'y prêtent... L'auteur rend à César (ou plutôt Martin Eberhard, Marc Tarpenning, J.B. Straudel, Franz Von Holzhausen, Tom Mueller, etc...) ce qui est à César : Elon Musk n'a pas constitué sa fortune seul, contrairement à l'image qu'il véhicule. Son environnement culturel et familial ont largement favorisé son ascension sociale fulgurante et sa réussite repose plus sur son caractère et ses capacités de visionnaire que sur ces compétences techniques (un peu sur le modèle de Steve Jobs, dans une certaine mesure et une échelle différente).

Les illustrations, plutôt géométriques et modernes, donnent un peu de dynamisme à l'album (fort heureusement car les textes en manquent un peu...). La mise en page est relativement sommaire : 6 vignettes par page dans la plupart des cas ; quelques illustrations pleines pages ponctuent l'album.

#ElonMusk #NetGalleyFrance

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read abd learned much from British political cartoonist Darryl Cunningham's comics biographies such as his work on Putin and Ayn Rand. And now this, of Musk. Reprehensible people. And don't we already know enough about them to have troubled our sleep? And there are other, more comprehensive biographies of these people, of course. But I am not likely going to read them, frankly. Preaching to the choir? Too disgusting?

But listen: Maybe you can learn a little bit about yet another greedy pig and the way money and power bubble, bubble toil and trouble into this apocaluptic stew. Cunningham gives us the short, wiki version of Musk with picshurs? is that fair? Nah. Here you get an accomplished political comicker telling truth to power, connecting the dots. You do learn some things, some of which you didn't want to know, and some of it you might find useful to know.

Alan Moore, a political comics icon, blurbs the book, noting Musk's role in the decline of the American democratic experiment. That fact aloe--that Moore, one of the GOATs of comics--was recommending it--got me to pick it up. I'll admit I skimmed some of the pages about all the women who he's made babies with, many of whom in his harem should have known better, ugh.

[Ángel Javier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Todos sabíamos que Elon Musk era un pedazo de h*** de p***, ¿no? Bueno, pues confirmémoslo con ayuda de este álbum en el que se nos explican cosicas, como los orígenes de su mal ocultado racismo, sexismo y clasismo, lo mierdosa que es en realidad ese gran timo de empresa llamada Tesla, la locura megalomaníaca que supone SpaceX (que nace, al parecer, de leer demasiados relatos baratos de ciencia ficción durante su desgraciada infancia; la moraleja debe de ser algo así como: si tienes que leer sci-fi, lee a Philip K. Dick, no a Heinlein, o te convertirás en un tarado), su sueño cumplido de que Twitter se convirtiera en el mayor criadero de trols ultraderechistas de la historia, etc., etc. Los dibujos, lo confieso, no me molan demasiado (no son mi rollo, podríamos decir), pero hay que conocer al enemigo. Así que, léanlo, y luego me cuentan.

[Filip · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure how accurate the presentation of events in this comic is, especially that in the second half it basically stops pretending to be in any way objective and clearly states its dislike of Elon Musk. That said, if even 20% of it is true, it just confirms my not very positive impression of this man and makes my opinion of his overinflated ego so much worse. That said, despite being very critical about Musk I think the book actually takes a nuanced middle-ground between people who claim he's entirely a 'self-made man' and those who say 'he got everything handed to him on a platter by daddy'. I didn't particularly care about the artstyle and found the pictures at best unnecessary, at worst distracting.

[Iñaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oso ona, eta oso formatu ona.
Bere historiaren zati bat kontatzen du, baita familia ere,
ezezaguna zuen .
Eta besteak nik ez nien eman duten garrantzia.
Asmatze bat nobela grafikoaren formatua.


Muy bueno, y muy buen formato.
Cuenta parte de su historia y su familia que ignoraba. Y cosas a las que no les di la importancia que tienen.
Un acierto el formato de novela gráfica.

Very good, and very good format.
He tells part of his story and his family I ignored. And things I didn't give them the importance they have.
The graphic novel format is great.

[Fred Baerkircher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm rating this high because it's good information that more people should know about Musk. As a graphic novel, though, this one is sort of terrible. The artwork is generic, but a lot of good graphic novels suffer from that. The bigger issue is that artwork adds zero value or understanding to the text. Like, the text will say something like, "someone gave Musk a lot of money," and the accompanying panel has two clipart-looking figures with one saying, "here's a lot of money." It feels like it was done as a graphic novel just to increase page-count.

[Romy Schlegel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quel personnage à la fois fascinant et grotesque! On en apprend beaucoup sur les grandeurs et les misères de ses différentes entreprises, avec juste le bon soupçon de facts personnels. Dommage que le tout à été achevé en 2023, il y aurait matière à un nouveau chapitre complet avec ce qui se passe depuis 18 mois, et du même coup creuser le pourquoi du comment de son virage idéologique aurait mérité une encore plus grande place selon moi.

[Julia Pika · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish we read books like this in school! It's a great and accessible format about modern news while providing context for certain events that occur.

I appreciate the objective facts presented here and the reasonable conclusions that can be made from Musk's deplorable behavior all these years. Definitely not a boot-licking book here! I am most likely going to order this for our YA Bio collection--the teens liked the Putin one so they'll like this one.

[Claudi Penalba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Com a biografia de Musk està molt bé, però està molt trillada ja la visió maniquea de la democràcia (el bien) i l'autoritarisme (el mal). Per què no fer un anàlisi complex de les relacions internacionals (que són complexes) a l'igual que el fa de la figura de Musk?

Els dibuixos van un poc en consonància amb aquesta simplicitat.

[Karendale2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written based on a lot of sources. I learned a lot about Elon Musk’s development of his right wing outlook beginning with his grandfather Joshua Norman Haldeman. Very good biography on past history of Musk’s up bringing.

[Chris Cowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a splendid overview / biography of Musk and his environment. The substance of the information supplied feels very solid with at no point feeling tedious or out of place. Cunnungham's graphic storytelling is as always excellent.

[Sebastián Rengel · Rating 4 out of 5]

how many mistakes must a rich man make until they stop giving him more money?

this book really paints the picture on how someone absolutely harmful for society and the planet can keep getting away with everything, just because he was born into a rich family. It's very depressing.

[Roeliox · Rating 4 out of 5]

NL-versie

[Patryk Markowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jeśli autor decyduje się na napisanie biografii to chyba lepiej zachować więcej obiektywizmu, nawet jeśli się z nim zgadzam to nie taki jest cel