Billie Holiday

by José Antonio Muñoz, Carlos Sampayo

In molti hanno provato a raccontare la vita di Billie Holiday – una vita travagliata, densa, sfuggente –, eppure, pochi ritratti hanno la forza e il fascino di questo storico graphic novel, firmato dai maestri del fumetto argentino José Muñoz e Carlos Sampayo.

New York, una sera di fine anni Ottanta. Proprio mentre sta per lasciare la redazione e tornare a casa da una donna che lo aspetta, un giornalista viene incastrato dal suo capo, che gli commissiona un profilo di «Lady Day», ormai un’artista affermata e conosciuta in tutto il mondo, da consegnare entro poche ore. Per scriverlo prende a documentarsi, con iniziale riluttanza verso un personaggio di cui conosce poco o niente e che per lui è solo un ostacolo che lo intralcia nel suo obiettivo di una notte di passione. Subito però viene rapito dalla storia di Billie, che diventerà la sua sola compagnia per tutte le ore che lo separano dall’alba. È con il suo stesso stupore che il lettore si affaccia sulla vita tormentata della Holiday e di quella sua voce immortale in cui si sono rispecchiate intere generazioni.

La discriminazione razziale, la carriera minata dai problemi con droghe e alcol, la fraterna amicizia con Lester Young: in poche pagine si snodano tutti gli elementi che hanno fatto dell’autrice di «Strange Fruit» una leggenda, tragica e indimenticabile, del jazz.

Genres: Comics, Biography, Graphic Novels, Music, Nonfiction, Bande Dessinée, History

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

José Antonio Muñoz es un historietista argentino famoso en todo el mundo, entre otras cosas, por su influyente manejo del blanco y negro. Estudió en la Escuela Panamericana de Arte de Buenos Aires, donde tuvo como maestros a Alberto Breccia y Hugo Pratt. En los setenta se estableció en Europa. Ya en España y junto a Carlos Sampayo, darían vida a Alack Sinner, premiado en 1978 como Mejor Obra Extranjera en el Festival de Angoulême. Su obra, apreciada por toda una generación de dibujantes, se ha publicado con éxito en Europa y América. En 1983, fue distinguido con el Premio Yellow Kid en el Festival de Lucca, Italia; en 2002, con la Medalla Max und Moritz en el Salón del Cómic de Erlangen, Alemania, y en 2007, con el Gran Premio de Angoulême. José Muñoz reside en París, Milán y Buenos Aires.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Billie Holiday, by Argentinian Carlos Sampayo and artist José Muñoz is a graphic memoir in the NBM Graphic biography series that also includes works about Marie Antoinette, Glenn Gould and Elvis. The high quality of the production distinguishes this from other, similar projects. It’s beautifully rendered in black and white block prints, with an (uneven) angry and adulatory introduction by Francis Marmande, a writer and journalist for Le Monde. It also includes a section of full page worldless jazz and blues artistic renderings by Muñoz.

The accomplishment of this short work is not a complete biography but a sort of jazz/poetic rendering of the dark “essence” of Holiday’s sad life, as the co-authors see it, with a focus on snapshots of sex, drugs, and terrible relationships with men instead of the music which emanates from these dark places. It never solves the question of her laughter, her joy, or the genius of her music. She’s black and a woman and lived in the twentieth century, so she was mistreated by white people and men in spite of her celebrity. However, she makes plenty of mistakes herself, and no excuses are made for these.

I think the effect is sort of a dark, poetic or jazzy rendition of her life. So that effect is interesting, though there’s als0 caricature as a by-product of that effect. If you know nothing of Billie Holiday, this is maybe not the way in, it’s too elliptical and grim to fully grasp her, so maybe it would be more accurate to call this a blues portrait of a jazz singer, a short, intense view of her life. As a kind of poem of her for those that knew of her, it’s interesting. Her relationship with the saxophonist Lester Young is one of the best thing evocated (not fully explicated, of course), in this book. I want to know more about her and Lester. But the art of Muñoz is the best thing here, I think, and even that isn’t completely satisfying.

Holiday’s rendition of “Summertime,” since it is a hot June here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYUqb...

“I Cried for You”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxdkU...

[Paula Mota · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5*

Am I blue?
Am I blue?
Ain't these tears in my eyes telling you?
- Billie Holiday

Trágica a vida e a morte precoce da grande dama do jazz. Nem o dinheiro nem o sucesso a ajudaram a superar a dor da violência física, sexual e racial a que foi sujeita. Ainda que não sejam as mais elegantes, as ilustrações a preto e branco, muitas vezes com o preto a sobrepor-se, coadunam-se com a lugubridade da história, mas o enquadramento narrativo não foi o mais adequado.
Muitos dos leitores que não gostaram desta novela gráfica acusam-na de ser deprimente, mas não vejo como se aligeira um drama real.

[Amy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This story was really raw and graphic. If you can get past the introduction chapter (which is like trudging through molasses made of strange tense changes, random lyrical metaphors, the author informally referring to himself and the reader as “us”, and tangents of random facts thrown in with no explanation), then you find a really graphic depiction all the ways that Billie Holiday was raped, tortured, and victimized by the people in her life, told in a graphic novel format.

So, on the one hand this made me incredibly angry at everyone who ever hurt her. She came across a lot of horribly sexist, racist, sadistic people, many of whom were cops. It’s nice that this biography didn’t try to romanticize or make light of those events, especially considering that her autobiography and other accounts had to be watered down for legal reasons. Having her story honestly told made me feel so much more respect and heartbreak for her.

On the other hand, this entire story is told with a framing device of a journalist researching Holiday on the 30th anniversary of her death. That journalist is looking up all of these horrible events and making very blasé commentary on them. And at one point the journalist calls someone on the phone and the comic panels start switching back and forth between “past” and “present” but it’s really difficult to tell what’s going on. Then there was a very literary but vague point being made that no one respected or cared about Billie Holiday while she was alive and all her notoriety came posthumously.

There were no good qualities about Billie Holiday shared. Nothing was said about how she persevered or overcame all of this negativity in her life to become a revered and amazing musician. There were more panels and speech bubbles from corrupt cops and racist taxi drivers and racist Hollywood directors and disgusting rapists than speech bubbles from Holiday herself. It felt like all of the attention and power was given to the vile people around her.



I feel like if I really wanted to learn about Holiday and support her in a way that gives her agency, I should read her autobiography. This book felt very exploitative and belittling, even though I truly believe it was going for the opposite of that. It was just not good.


I was given an ebook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Raisu · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a waste of a fascinating subject matter. Scattered and unfocused, the comic spends too much time on the framing narrative and not enough on the Lady Day herself. She remains a cipher: the sufferer, the voice, but not a person.

[Eternauta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Τιμητικός αποχαιρετισμός στη μεγάλη κυρία των blues.
Η δουλειά του αργεντίνικου δίδυμου με το χαρακτηριστικό "άγαρμπο" στιλ του Muñoz και τις noir ατάκες του Sampayo έχει ταυτιστεί με τις ιστορίες του ντετέκτιβ Alack Sinner. Με έναν τρόπο η jazz ακουγόταν πάντα κάπου στο background των περιπετειών του. Τώρα οι όροι αντιστρέφονται, και ο Sinner εμφανίζεται περαστικός σε μια αφήγηση με snapshots από την άγρια ζωή της μοναδικής Lady Day. Το album δεν επιχειρεί μια βιογραφία αλλά μας σπρώχνει να γευτούμε λίγη από την ωμή βία που έσκαψε την ψυχή και το σώμα της Holiday. Επειδή η ίδια στην αυτοβιογραφία της κάνει μια κατάθεση που δε σηκώνει ούτε σχόλια ούτε "κριτικές" ό,τι άλλο και αν γραφτεί θα φαίνεται λίγο. Οι δημιουργοί του album το γνωρίζουν κι έτσι επέλεξαν να αφηγηθούν την ιστορία τους σαν τα κλικ μιας φωτογραφικής μηχανής που αποθανατιζεί χαρακτηριστικές στιγμές. Αν και συχνά ρέπει προς το κλισέ, η αφήγηση έχει τα πολύ δυνατά σημεία της όπως την απεικονίση των τελευταίων στιγμών της θεάς των blues που έφυγε κυριολεκτικά σιδηροδέσμια. Είναι δύσκολο να αποτυπώσει κανείς τον σαδιστικό ρατσισμό που στοίχειωσε αυτό το σπάνιο και ανυπόταχτο πνεύμα, και πιστεύω ότι αυτή η ιστορία το καταφέρνει.
Η εισαγωγή της καλαίσθητης ελληνικης έκδοσης θέτει το ακριβές πλαίσιο για να καταλάβουμε τη ζωή και τον θάνατο της Holiday. Η jazz και τα blues δεν είναι ετικέτες για να τακτοποιήσει ο συλλέκτης την δισκοθήκη του. Είναι η μουσική έκφραση των πρώην σκλάβων και νυν φτωχοποιημένων Αφροαμερικανών που ζουν στις παρενθέσεις της λευκής Αμερικής, σαν τα "παράξενα φρούτα" που κρέμονται από τα δέντρα του Νότου.

[Sandra Dias · Rating 2 out of 5]

Este livro é uma biografia muito abreviada e sintética de Billie Holliday, a Deusa do Jazz.

O traço é grosso, negro, espesso de tal maneira que combina com o tom pesado do que é retratado sobre a vida desta mulher que por ser negra e por ter nascido numa época menos respeitadora das pessoas de cor, sofreu imenso.

E nesse sofrimento viveu e morreu.
Uma morte anunciada pela própria, na qual acertou ao dizer que morreria acompanhada pela polícia.
Nem na morte a deixaram em paz.

[Chessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whoo boy, this was dark. Not that easy to follow the panels or story? It flashed back and forth in time, and though the black and white art was really cool it was not always the easiest to tell what was happening. A short biography of Billie Holiday, mostly dwelling on drugs, drinking, rape, humiliation. Hard to read in multiple ways.

[Kurt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a comprehensive biography, just a graphic sketch that dwells predominantly on the negative (drugs, cruel men, racist cops, etc.), her suffering which informed her art. Her relationship with Lester Young is portrayed as well. Excellent art by Munoz, and an afterword by Stanley Crouch.

[Steph · Rating 1 out of 5]

well, that was depressing.

i wanted to read this so i could learn about the life of billie holiday, whose voice i have always loved. but all i learned was that she was hurt, beaten, taken advantage of, and disregarded in a myriad of ugly ways.

even the introduction to the graphic novel is nothing more than an account of and rumination on her suffering. there may be some value in recounting all this pain, but it should not be all there is. 

billie holiday is more than just the tragedy of her suffering and early death.

i do like the idea that she lives on now as "a voice without a body," but that was the only positive thing i got out of this bleak book. i'm going to read her Lady Sings the Blues so i can gain some real perspective on the life of lady day.

Thank you to NetGalley and NBM Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest (and belated) review.

[Rui Alves de Sousa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Não é um biopic e peca por se centrar demasiado numa estética confusa. A narrativa até poderia ser mais interessante, ao cruzar duas histórias consistentes que não se cruzam com a de Holliday, mas que por ela são influenciados. Uma homenagem curiosa, mas não é mais do que isso.

[marko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Potresni prikaz života jedne legende.

[kubby]

i had mixed feelings about this one. i quite liked the artwork, but what was chosen to be portrayed made me wonder: numerous scenes of her being put down or taken advantage of. it's no wonder lady sang the blues.

[Mery ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75/5

“Let’s forget for a moment, please, since it’s unforgettable in of itself, in fact, impossible to, indelible, but try to forget her mother giving birth at the age of thirteen, her great-grandmother housed in a shack in the back of the plantation, whom the master, a handsome Irishman, would come bang at set times, and by whom, she would have seventeen children all dead except for one, Billie’s grandfather.”

This book is a mirror of the life of this great, troubled, woman-led, filled with the hope for a life with happiness where someone would finally truly love her and stay and the thought of it filled her with joy, as well as a woman filled with a sense of dread of getting to and waking up to another day of darkness.

The beginning of this book mirrors the duality of the woman in the writing. The graphic duplication however is a little more focused on the dread of her life, the immeasurable lows, and not many of the incredible highs. All in all at the end is worth the read, and it is a purchase well spent.

[Pauli Booklover · Rating 2 out of 5]

La calificación es porque no me gustó el lenguaje utilizado, no sé, creo que lo encontré con poco tacto. La vida de Billie Holiday fue muy sufrida, y si bien me imagino que eso era parte de lo que querían expresar, hay otras maneras de hacerlo, más efectivas incluso. La edición, eso sí, un 10.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Her life was as tragic as it can get and was really looking forward to seeing how this would translate to the comic book format. Unfortunately, it felt like the writer was on H during the process (very scattered and lacked any kind of direction). The artwork felt like they used more ink in absence of detail ( I can appreciate minimal art, but this felt like they used the paint bucket on MS paint). I really wanted to love this, but sadly did not.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first thing you should know about Billie Holiday, is , that although she was famous, she was black, and a woman, and those were two things that were hard in the 20th century.

And this graphic novel hits on all the depressing bits of her life. From her love life, to her drugs, to her tragic death. There are no bright spots, or very few.

This is a depressing look at a depressing life.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review

[Stacie C · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really interested in seeing an artistic/graphic depiction of Billie Holiday’s life. I’m not sure if that’s what I go with this book. Yes, the visuals were very graphic and I liked the juxtaposition with the narrative moving between Billie Holiday and the reporter reporting on the 30th anniversary of her death, but outside of that the story seemed to me to be lacking. There wasn’t enough being said about the type of person Billie Holiday was and more spent on the image of Billie Holiday as a drug addict, whore. The images were interesting but they weren’t enough to carry this story on its own. If I had known nothing of Billie Holiday, this book would not have informed me of her life story. My view of her would be tainted with drug abuse, prostitution and an untimely death. There is much more to Billie Holiday’s story than that.

Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[M. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really messy. Too bad

[Fábio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Para começar, não se trata de uma biografia daquela que possui, na minha opinião, não a voz mais potente ou mais técnica, mas a que melhor traduz o jazz. Trata-se de uma espécie de elegia a Lady Day, isso sim. A história, escrita por Carlos Sampayo, se passa em 1989, como um flashback ensejado por um jornalista que necessita escrever uma nota sobre os 30 anos da morte da cantora. Por essa razão, o foco da narrativa se situa sobre o imenso sofrimento e incontáveis violências pelas quais Billie Holiday passou. Somente entendendo essa dimensão de sua vida é que somos capazes de nos extasiar com a beleza e o horror, a alegria e a tristeza, a paixão e a solidão… que ela era capaz de insuflar em suas canções.

O traço preto & branco, bastante chapado, de José Muñoz exige atenção do leitor a cada detalhe de cada quadro. Sem isso, não é possível reconhecer outros músicos famosos (como Benny Goodman, Lester Young, Louis Armstrong, Gerry Mulligan, Coleman Hawkins…) ou outras pistas visuais (como os álbuns da cantora). Além disso, algumas canções são citadas no texto, e espera-se que o leitor as conheça para compreender a história.

Em suma: essa graphic novel não é para iniciantes. Iniciantes em graphic novels, iniciantes em jazz, em Billie Holiday. Iniciantes na vida.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Billie Holiday' by Carlos Sampayo and José Muñoz is a graphic novel about the famous jazz singer. She didn't have a picturesque life, and this book doesn't flinch from that.

The book begins with an essay by Francis Marmande, a writer and journalist for Le Monde. The graphic novel has a framing story of a journalist doing a story on the 30th anniversary of Billie's death. What follows is not a complete story of her life, and it's certainly not a happy one. Billie had her own problems with drugs and men, and those are presented in an unflinching way. She was also discriminated against and faced racism in spite of her tremendous fame.

The book is drawn in stark black and white. The figures come across as caricatures with garishly drawn features. The incidents here are ugly and don't serve to put Billie Holiday in the best light. She had a hard life, and this book doesn't make any excuses for that. I appreciated the approach this graphic novel took.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Papercutz, NBM Publishing, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

[Keen Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

Apparently this was originally published in Spanish away back in 1991, but this didn’t make it to English translation until 2017. This is a really peculiar book and I am not really sure what the point of it was. The textual introduction is interesting and informative, but when we get to the graphic section it seems to be quite a weak and disappointing story, and more reliant on the name of Billie Holiday instead of actually constructing a decent narrative?...A clunky and confusing misadventure.

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adoro le biografie a fumetti e questa è davvero ben fatta, per quanto essenziale.
Da una parte è davvero triste come fossero trattate le persone di colore negli anni '40-'50, dall'altra è bello pensare come in (relativamente) poco tempo le cose sono cambiate, almeno per le celebrità.
Mi viene da fare un paragone con Whiney Huston, per esempio: entrambe voci meravigliose morte per droga, ma il rispetto che laHuston ha avuto in vita è stato negato alla Holiday.


Consiglio di leggerla avendo in sottofondo qualche canzone di Billie.

[João Teixeira · Rating 2 out of 5]

Não gostei do argumento... Achei confuso, por ter 2 planos narrativos diferentes: o da história de vida de Billie Holiday e o do tempo 'presente' (dividido entre 2 personagens).
Quanto à arte, gostei das volumetrias feitas somente com as sombras, não sendo aplicada outra cor que não o negro. Formas estilozadas e muito bem conseguidas. Daí dar 2 estrelas e não apenas 1...

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una recomendación que me hicieron desde la biblioteca, aunque me dijeron que era un poco duro como resulto ser, es que conocí a una persona que me era totalmente desconocida, y me gusto conocer detalles de ella, aparecen personajes importantes del siglo XX.

[Jeimy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a graphic novel does not shy away from the abuse Holiday faced during her brief life. The premise consists of a reporter doing a story about her life for the 50th anniversary of her death. What we get are snippets on how men used and abused the singer. While I enjoyed reading it, I would have appreciated a more nuanced view of the singer's life.

[Heather Culley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought it was a frank, beautiful, stark bummer.

[Kim Reynolds-Jolles · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't love it, there is a short biography in the beginning with a few photos, telling the sad story of her life, but it was confusing once you start the graphic novel. I like some of the artwork, but will find an actual book about the amazing Lady Day. But I did want to add to the March challenge, and I did it! 49 books since the beginning of the year!!!!

[Micheline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Going into this you should be very aware that Billie Holiday lead a hard and tragic life. It's not something that could or should be left out of any telling of her life. The problem I had with this telling is that it focuses solely only on the horrific abuses that she endured. I feel like we could hear more about her music and relationships without loosing the rawness of her reality.
I also had a hard time with the art style. The heavy, blocky art made it hard for me to differentiate changes in locations and characters. I had to reread pages several times to try and peg down what was going on and who was talking.
The story left me wishing I knew more about Billie Holiday rather than making me feel like I had learned anything new about an icon of history.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

A biography of the tragic life of 1950's singer Billie Holiday. It starts from her days as a child prostitute and drug addict and follows her up to her sad ending as a washed out junkie. It does not hold back, dealing more with her private life and her masochistic tendencies to pick men that abuse, demean, and steal from her. This along with having to live in a society that treated her as a second class citizen despite her fame, makes this book a compelling read.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a straight ahead biography, which is a shame, but a stylish mini-bio by two of the world's best comic book creators. Billie Holiday's life is still waiting for a fully developed visual treatment. (It's interesting to note how different this book and the Diana Ross movie are from each other).