 | | ▪ | RELEASED BY: | | DEL REY | | | ▪ | AUTHOR / ART: | | AKIRA HIRAMOTO | | | ▪ | FORMAT: | | ENGLISH / B&W | | | ▪ | PAGES: | | 540 | | | ▪ | RATING: | | T | | | ▪ | RELEASE DATE: | | 07/29/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEW DATE: | | 07/20/2008 | | | ▪ | REVIEWED BY: | | HOLLY ELLINGWOOD |
Fact meets fiction in this imaginative take on the life and times of the iconic and very real blues musician Robert Johnson. This new manga series is vastly different from Akira Hiramoto’s comedy series “Chinless Gen and Me”. In Me and the Devil Blues, he spins a dramatic and often realistic story, supernatural aspects aside, about the pivotal years of the American musician known as the “Grandfathers of Rock and Roll” and a founding musician fo the Delta blues Sound. The author works a lot of actual history into the manga while expanding on a short life that was shrouded in mystery. In real life, the tale that a man playing a song at the crossroads at midnight will meet the devil, is one that is believed to have originated with Robert Johnson. Some of his fellow musicians were the ones to recount a growing belief that the tortured young man had sold his soul to the devil in order to play the blues. This was a belief compounded by a mysterious, unexplained, disappearance by Johnson for several months along with his tragic life and untimely death. The author takes these facts and expands upon the superstitions. The first volume begins in 1929, showing the hard life of a Black man in the South. Robert has a temperamental wife, a shrewish sister, a hard past and a bleak future. He dreams only of playing the blues, and upon hearing the story about playing a tune at the crossroads at midnight, Robert chooses to put life, limb and his eternal soul to the test and on the auction block in order to achieve his dreams as a musician. It comes at a far greater price than he could have ever imagined. Tragedy besets the young man cursed with the blues. Becoming a drifter, his bad luck seems to turn ever worse when he hooks up with a homicidal man and is later picked up by a lynch mob. Throughout he is humbled by the music he is said to have traded his soul to play. The author manifests these supernatural moments with striking and, at times, disturbing imagery, an eerie atmosphere and a haunting story. The author’s deep appreciation for Johnson’s music, which influenced such iconic musicians as the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Jimmie Hendrix, Cream, and Led Zeppelin, is seen in the way he breaks up the chapters and groups them into sections named after Johnson’s real life songs. In fact, aspects of these sections reflect portions of the songs in question. To see how a person on the other side of the world strives to capture the hardship and flavor of the US and its music scene in the 1930’s is fascinating in and of itself. Add in the play on history and Johnson’s life is riveting.
His artwork is above and far beyond the typical manga. Even in its otherworldly aspects, the imagery, like the story telling, strives for realism. There is an ominous air to the images, and some visuals are disquieting. The first volume also includes an afterward by Makoto Ayukawa regarding both the musician’s mysterious life and crucial musical influence as well as Akira Hiramoto’s fictional account of the music legend’s life.
IN SUMMARY:
Akira Hiramoto gives a fascinating and supernatural take on the life of legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. Fact and fiction form a harrowing tale that explores the history and the mystery of the times and the man. |
