Search results for ""Author Julian Voloj""

A graphic novel biography following the life of Bobby Fischer, from chess wunderkind and national hero to his eventual spiral into madness and infamyThe life of Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) had many unexpected moves—from his solitary childhood to his stratospheric accomplishments in the world of competitive chess, and eventually, his decent into mental illness and disgrace. Black and White begins in Brooklyn, where Fischer was born and raised by a single mother. By the time he was a teen, he had established himself as a loner and dropped out of school. But none of that mattered; he had found his true calling—chess.In 1972, at age 13, Fischer played what many consider “the game of the century” against the Soviet Union’s chess champion Boris Spassky at the height of the Cold War. A year later, Fischer became the youngest-ever US Chess Champion, and at 15, the game’s youngest grandmaster. Never before had chess received such international attention. Fischer, whose sole focus in life up until then was chess, reached the Olympus of chess at 29, and then . . . he disappeared. Suffering from mental illness, the chess genius became increasingly paranoid, lost in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories—despite the fact that he himself was Jewish—and died as a fugitive in Iceland. With Black and White, author Julian Voloj and illustrator William Wagner have crafted a beautiful and fascinating work that reveals Fischer’s history while also contextualizing his lasting impact on pop culture. Black and White is the first-ever graphic novel to tell Fischer’s story and examine the legacy he left behind.

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The dazzling, provocative work of Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) would come to define the vibrant New York art scene of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Punk, jazz, graffiti, hip-hop: his work drew heavily on the cultural trappings of lower Manhattan, to which he fled—from Brooklyn—at the age of 15. This stunning graphic novel captures the dramatic life and exhilarating times of this archetypal New York artist, covering everything from the SAMO graffiti project to his first solo show, from his relationship with Andy Warhol to the substance abuse that would cost him his life. Today, Basquiat’s influence can be seen not only in fine art but in fashion, design, and music. Now, for the first time, his remarkable story is told in graphic novel form. This playful, authoritative biography shows Basquiat’s work to be more important, his themes more urgent, than ever before.

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