#cbr11bingo #Travel
I knew who Bruce Lee was. I had even seen one of his movies. But I knew only the “Hollywood version” of his life. And Jim Di Bartolo does continue with that slightly more romantic view of Lee in The Boy who Became a Dragon: A Biography of Bruce Lee. This graphic novel is due in February 2020.
First, even the author says he has taken some poetic license with Lee’s life, as some pieces have been fabricated over the years, information exaggerated or is just not there. Therefore, if you are looking for a pure biography of Lee, you will not get it. However, you do get a great story about a person growing up in Hong Kong in the 1950s. You get a story about a Chinese boy who was born in the United States, giving him dual citizenship; the youngest son of a large family; a boy who had much anger and sense of who he thought he was; a young man who had to deal with the gangs and violence of the streets; someone who saw the horrors the Japanese did against his family and the people of Hong Kong. And someone who not only had to deal with the fact that he was Chinese in a country that had been a British colony, but a part-German-Chinese child as well. The prejudices he faced among his own people as well as whites, shaped him in ways we will probably never know.
Di Bartolo makes a book that is based on the spirit of Bruce Lee’s childhood. The images are both gorgeous and grotesque when the situation requires it. The colors are fitting to the details, the blacks and purple of bruises, the red of blood or the symbolic dragon Lee was born under; and the 1950s styles come to life. Some images are as if they are movie posters and more realistic looking. The rest has a softer, almost comical look at times, but never is disrespectful to the subject. If you know any movie history, some names of his adult life will be familiar (such as James Coburn whose image was spot on, sadly Steve McQueen’s was a little off for my tastes).
Facts you may or may not know about Lee play out as if they are a movie. And Di Bartolo creates a lovely homage to someone he obviously is a fan of.
I knew who Bruce Lee was. I had even seen one of his movies. But I knew only the “Hollywood version” of his life. And Jim Di Bartolo does continue with that slightly more romantic view of Lee in The Boy who Became a Dragon: A Biography of Bruce Lee. This graphic novel is due in February 2020.
First, even the author says he has taken some poetic license with Lee’s life, as some pieces have been fabricated over the years, information exaggerated or is just not there. Therefore, if you are looking for a pure biography of Lee, you will not get it. However, you do get a great story about a person growing up in Hong Kong in the 1950s. You get a story about a Chinese boy who was born in the United States, giving him dual citizenship; the youngest son of a large family; a boy who had much anger and sense of who he thought he was; a young man who had to deal with the gangs and violence of the streets; someone who saw the horrors the Japanese did against his family and the people of Hong Kong. And someone who not only had to deal with the fact that he was Chinese in a country that had been a British colony, but a part-German-Chinese child as well. The prejudices he faced among his own people as well as whites, shaped him in ways we will probably never know.
Di Bartolo makes a book that is based on the spirit of Bruce Lee’s childhood. The images are both gorgeous and grotesque when the situation requires it. The colors are fitting to the details, the blacks and purple of bruises, the red of blood or the symbolic dragon Lee was born under; and the 1950s styles come to life. Some images are as if they are movie posters and more realistic looking. The rest has a softer, almost comical look at times, but never is disrespectful to the subject. If you know any movie history, some names of his adult life will be familiar (such as James Coburn whose image was spot on, sadly Steve McQueen’s was a little off for my tastes).
Facts you may or may not know about Lee play out as if they are a movie. And Di Bartolo creates a lovely homage to someone he obviously is a fan of.
I knew who Bruce Lee was. I had even seen one of his movies. But I knew only the “Hollywood version” of his life. And Jim Di Bartolo does continue with that slightly more romantic view of Lee in The Boy who Became a Dragon: A Biography of Bruce Lee. This graphic novel is due in February 2020.
First, even the author says he has taken some poetic license with Lee’s life, as some pieces have been fabricated over the years, information exaggerated or is just not there. Therefore, if you are looking for a pure biography of Lee, you will not get it. However, you do get a great story about a person growing up in Hong Kong in the 1950s. You get a story about a Chinese boy who was born in the United States, giving him dual citizenship; the youngest son of a large family; a boy who had much anger and sense of who he thought he was; a young man who had to deal with the gangs and violence of the streets; someone who saw the horrors the Japanese did against his family and the people of Hong Kong. And someone who not only had to deal with the fact that he was Chinese in a country that had been a British colony, but a part-German-Chinese child as well. The prejudices he faced among his own people as well as whites, shaped him in ways we will probably never know.
Di Bartolo makes a book that is based on the spirit of Bruce Lee’s childhood. The images are both gorgeous and grotesque when the situation requires it. The colors are fitting to the details, the blacks and purple of bruises, the red of blood or the symbolic dragon Lee was born under; and the 1950s styles come to life. Some images are as if they are movie posters and more realistic looking. The rest has a softer, almost comical look at times, but never is disrespectful to the subject. If you know any movie history, some names of his adult life will be familiar (such as James Coburn whose image was spot on, sadly Steve McQueen’s was a little off for my tastes).
Facts you may or may not know about Lee play out as if they are a movie. And Di Bartolo creates a lovely homage to someone he obviously is a fan of. Lee was a romantic figure and it is captured here perfectly.
