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Comic Books and Graphic Novels
KISS THE SKY: JIMI HENDRIX 1942-1970
Lyrical realism, Kiss the Sky is an intimate portrait of the little-known early years of Jimi Hendrix, the "Voodoo Child". Discover "Jimi before Hendrix".
Poverty, violence, discrimination. Born in the US in 1942, Jimi Hendrix’s early years were not filled with fame. Before becoming the most famous guitarist of all time, Hendrix was a child of a Dickensian childhood spent in the poorest neighborhoods of Seattle, who went on to be an obscure musician with a career filled with hardship and humiliation. This portrait tells this dark side of his early life. This story also explores all the stages of a little-known musical journey that brought him into contact with such legendary artists as Little Richard, Ike and Tina Turner, BB King, Curtis Mayfield, Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. "To tell the story of Jimi Hendrix's life is also to tell the story of American popular music," says Jean-Michel Dupont, author, former rock press journalist and connoisseur of the music world. Mezzo's India ink drawings lend a surreal feel to this story. "Black and white was the obvious choice for Hendrix's chiaroscuro youth. Mezzo follows in the footsteps of the great masters of India ink, José Muños and Frank Miller," writes Le Monde. The Mezzo-Dupont duo has already enthralled the press with their first graphic novel collaboration, Love in Vain, dedicated to blues legend Robert Leroy Johnson. Their duo’s success continues with Kiss the Sky. It won the 2023 Elvis d'Or Award for Best Rock Comic and Rolling Stone magazine gave it a score of 4.5/5. Foreign publishers have also been seduced by this atypical biography which aims to introduce Jimi before Hendrix. The unique aspect of this work is that it tells the story of a little-known time in this musician's life, from when and how his parents met up to his arrival in London where his career took off. "It allows readers to understand all the experiences and influences that led him to turn to music in order to emancipate himself from the violence of his childhood," says Julia Skorcz, who sold the translation rights to Serbia and the Netherlands. This LP-shaped graphic novel appeals to readers around world, whether in bookstores or on the Glénat stands at the many international trade fairs.
Katja Petrovic, Julia Skorcz
November 2023
Lyrical realism, Kiss the Sky is an intimate portrait of the little-known early years of Jimi Hendrix, the "Voodoo Child". Discover "Jimi before Hendrix".
Poverty, violence, discrimination. Born in the US in 1942, Jimi Hendrix’s early years were not filled with fame. Before becoming the most famous guitarist of all time, Hendrix was a child of a Dickensian childhood spent in the poorest neighborhoods of Seattle, who went on to be an obscure musician with a career filled with hardship and humiliation. This portrait tells this dark side of his early life.
This story also explores all the stages of a little-known musical journey that brought him into contact with such legendary artists as Little Richard, Ike and Tina Turner, BB King, Curtis Mayfield, Sam Cooke, Wilson Pickett, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. "To tell the story of Jimi Hendrix's life is also to tell the story of American popular music," says Jean-Michel Dupont, author, former rock press journalist and connoisseur of the music world.
Mezzo's India ink drawings lend a surreal feel to this story. "Black and white was the obvious choice for Hendrix's chiaroscuro youth. Mezzo follows in the footsteps of the great masters of India ink, José Muños and Frank Miller," writes Le Monde. The Mezzo-Dupont duo has already enthralled the press with their first graphic novel collaboration, Love in Vain, dedicated to blues legend Robert Leroy Johnson. Their duo’s success continues with Kiss the Sky. It won the 2023 Elvis d'Or Award for Best Rock Comic and Rolling Stone magazine gave it a score of 4.5/5.
Foreign publishers have also been seduced by this atypical biography which aims to introduce Jimi before Hendrix. The unique aspect of this work is that it tells the story of a little-known time in this musician's life, from when and how his parents met up to his arrival in London where his career took off. "It allows readers to understand all the experiences and influences that led him to turn to music in order to emancipate himself from the violence of his childhood," says Julia Skorcz, who sold the translation rights to Serbia and the Netherlands. This LP-shaped graphic novel appeals to readers around world, whether in bookstores or on the Glénat stands at the many international trade fairs.
Katja Petrovic, Julia Skorcz
November 2023