Bøger udgivet af SelfMadeHero

Explores the passions and contradictions—both human and political—that turned the prolific and brilliant painter Diego Rivera into an increasingly universal cultural figure Diego Rivera was a revolutionary painter in more ways than one. Attending art school at 11, by his twenties he was counted among the most influential figures of the Parisian art scene of the early 20th century, including Picasso, Modigliani, Braque, and Gris. Rivera’s murals, both in his native Mexico and the United States, reflect the contradictory turbulence of his character and times. He met Lenin in Paris, Stalin in Moscow, and offered refuge to Trotsky during his Mexican exile. Meanwhile, his work was commissioned by giants of capitalism: Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller. Rivera’s indefatigable industry was matched by his zest for life, accumulating hundreds of lovers and four wives—including Frida Kahlo, whose formidable partnership is also one of the great love stories of art history. This beautifully realized graphic novel tells the story of the extraordinary life and times of an artist for whom myth and reality fused.

An enigmatic parable of the modern city, where strangers can become friends and vice versa A young man flees a disaster at home and comes to live in the city with his sister. He makes ends meet by taking a job as a deliveryman—only to encounter a flood of old friends and past acquaintances on his daily route . . . At first elated by the company of these waifs and strays, eventually their own desperation for work begins to trouble his conscience—but what happens when you can’t deliver help to everyone? Chris W. Kim’s distinctively detailed graphic style embodies an elusively disquieting parable of modern isolation and the ties that bind—or fail to bind—society together.

From "choreomania" to coronavirus: an utterly original graphic novel about a newly urgent subject.

An intoxicating portrait of boxer Emile Griffith, an Afro-Caribbean-American bisexual athlete and one of the world's greatest fighters

The definitive account of the birth of Australia

Five stories that explore the dark and twisted underbelly of love

A fascinating portrait of a pivotal period in the life of Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel

Rebetiko refers to the fusion of West and East, Greece and Asia Minor, in music. However, to General Metaxas, it is only a reminder of the Turkish influence on his country. The ruthless Greek dictator is determined to crack down on rebetis and their way of life, creating strict censorship. A small group of friends--Rebetiko musicians--wind their way through the Athenian backstreets, ouzeris, and market squares, dodging the police while settling disputes over hashish and women. With music at its heart, the narrative portrays a day in the life of the Rebetiko musicians in Athens in 1936. Praise for Rebetiko: "A convincing portrayal of the pressures and pleasures faced by artistic and political outsiders." --Booklist

The history of wine is the history of civilisation. It is the religious drink par excellence. In Greek mythology, references to wine abound. In the Bible, after the Flood, Noah plants a vineyard. In the Middle Ages, it was in the monasteries and churches that the syrupy drink of antiquity, unpalatable if not diluted, was transformed into the wine we know today.Wine expert Benoist Simmat and artist Daniel Casanave trace the story of wine from its origins in the Mediterranean to the globalised industry of the 21st century. Taking in the innovations that have punctuated wine¿s long history, from oak barrel aging to the invention of the bottle, Wine: A Graphic History will leave readers with a fresh view of our own drinking culture.

Some heavy reading on the ecological and climate emergency leads Cédric, a forty-something painter living in Paris, to question his life choices. In a state of vulnerability, racked with eco-anxiety, he is contacted by the spirit of Henry David Thoreau: writer, environmentalist and the author of Walden.Two centuries separate Cédric from the author who, depressed by the narrow materialism of industrialised America, retreated to a single-room cabin in the woods by Walden Pond. But as their Socratic dialogue continues, Cédric notices striking parallels between the suffocating commercialism of mid-19th-century America and the unsustainable, alienating, tech-driven consumerism of today. Both societies are shaped by a single priority ¿ economic growth ¿ that not only squanders the earth¿s resources but separates human beings from nature. Inspired by Thoreaüs return to nature, Cédric begins dreaming of his own retreat from urban life: his own self-sufficient cabin in the woods.In Thoreau and Me, Cédric Taling explores the causes and consequences of today¿s climate emergency. Blending humour, philosophy and fiction, Taling asks how, at a time of unprecedented ecological and climate breakdown, we can learn to live with and respond to eco-anxiety.

A journey beyond the walls of sleep that will delight Lovecraft and sci-fi fans Obsessed with revisiting the sunset city of his dreams, Randolph Carter leaves the humdrum confines of reality behind, traveling into a vivid dreamworld where anything is possible. But while Carter draws closer to his goal—the mysterious Kadath, home to the gods themselves—another force, dark and brooding, is watching with plans of its own. An epic fantasy mixing adventure, peril, and wonder in equal parts, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, newly reissued, explores themes of memory and forbidden knowledge through the prism of H.P. Lovecraft’s boundless imagination.

A masterful adaptation of one of the most important works of American supernatural “weird” fictionThe King in Yellow: a play that brings madness to all who read it. Irresistible and insidious, it lures the reader with its innocence and dooms them with its corruption. In a series of interlinked stories, Robert W. Chambers’s classic work of weird fiction shows the creeping spread of the play’s macabre touch. I.N.J. Culbard’s deft and unsettling adaptation, newly reissued, breathes life into Chambers’s influential masterpiece, expertly revealing the malice and mayhem that await those unlucky enough to turn the wrong page.

A chilling tale for H.P. Lovecraft fans Miskatonic University, Arkham, 1908. Professor Nathaniel Peaslee collapses in front of a class of students, only coming to his senses five years later. Horrified to discover that his body has been far from inactive during the intervening period—and plagued by unsettling and outlandish nightmares—Peaslee attempts to piece together the truth behind the missing years of his life. A chilling journey through time, space, and the recesses of the mind, this newly reissued adaptation gives terrifying form to one of H.P. Lovecraft’s final tales.

Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck is one of Belgium¿s most significant artists, famous for his early contributions to the Northern Renaissance movement of the 15th century. His polyptych classic, the Ghent Altarpiece (or The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb), is considered a masterpiece of European art and one of the most influential paintings ever made. In The Mystic Lamb, the famous Flemish illustrator Jan Van der Veken and history professor Harry De Paepe, produce a series of works in honour of Van Eyck¿s coveted treasure. The book discusses Jan Van Eyck and explores why his paintings were so exceptional, as well as the robbery of two parts of the work in 1934, which was never resolved. This is an easy-to-read collection of interesting anecdotes alongside illustrations telling you everything you ever wanted to know about Jan Van Eyck and The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb.

The fateful meeting of Freud and Horace Frink, and the ensuing scandal that nearly destroyed psychoanalysis

A contemplative and compelling tale about growing old and what it means to be happy Gerda stands at the window of her nursing home, looking up at the stars. A question has been haunting her for years, but until now she’s managed to avoid it: Has her life been a happy one? As she negotiates the degradations of old age and the indignity of being cared for by strangers, the past begins to seep into the present. Gerda remembers her life as a bespectacled schoolgirl, bullied for being smart. She remembers the time she spent as an aspiring astrophysicist. And she remembers, most powerfully, that one summer—the summer of her life—when she was forced to make the most difficult decision of all: between her career and her relationship. The Summer of Her Lifeis a poetic, touching, and profound graphic novel that grapples with life’s big questions. How do you know whether you’ve made the right choices? And what does it mean, in the end, to be happy?

Reflect on the wisdom of the world’s great thinkers while coloring in the beautiful hand-drawn illustrations of Huffington Post blogger and Zen Buddhist practitioner Mike Medaglia. The 52 illustrated meditations within this book will leave readers inspired by the words of thinkers from Mahatma Gandhi to Virginia Woolf, soothed by the meditative act of coloring, and empowered by a more mindful, calm, and creative approach to life. One Year Wiser: The Coloring Book is a book to fire the imagination, improve focus, and help readers stay creative, positive, and relaxed.

An exhilarating graphic novel about the thrill and the terror of mountaineering At 16, bivouacked on a mountainside beneath a sky filled with stars, Jean-Marc Rochette has already begun measuring himself against some of Europe’s highest peaks. The Aiguille Dibona, the Coup de Sabre, La Meije: The summits of the Massif des écrins in the French Alps, to which he escapes as a teenager, spark both exhilaration and fear. At times, they are a playground for adventure. At others, they are a battlefield. The young climber is acutely aware that death lurks in the frozen corridors of this Alpine range. In Altitude, Rochette tells the story of his formative years, as a climber and as an artist. Part coming-of-age story, part love letter to the Alps, this autobiographical graphic novel captures the thrill and the terror invoked by high mountains, and considers one man’s obsession with reaching the top of them.

One morning in June 1941, a quiet village in Central Lithuania is shaken out of its slumber by the sudden arrival of the Soviet Army. Eight-year-old Algiukas awakes to the sound of Russian soldiers pounding on the door. His family are given ten minutes to pack up their things. They are not told where they're going or for how long. An airless freight train carries them from the fertile lands of rural Lithuania to the snowy plains of the Siberian taiga. There, in the distant, dismal North, they begin a life marked by endless hunger and unrelenting cold. And yet the darkness of exile is lightened, for Algiukas, by flights of imagination. This curious, brave and adaptable child transforms hardship into adventure.Drawing on her father's exile in Siberia, writer Jurga Vile brings to light a neglected, even suppressed, episode from the history of the Soviet Union. Beautifully drawn by Lina Itagaki, Siberian Haiku uses the child's perspective to tell an unforgettable story of courage and human endurance.

Hans HolbeinΓÇÖs 16th-century masterpiece, The Dance of Death, reminds its readers that no one, no matter their rank or position, can escape the great leveller, Death. In a foreboding series of woodcuts, Death, depicted as a skeleton, intrudes on the lives of people from every level of society, from the sailor to the judge, the ploughman to the king. By highlighting our common fate, Holbein exposes the folly of greed and ambition, and in doing so brings a corrupt and callous elite crashing back down to earth.In this darkly satirical update, Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson sharpens and reshapes HolbeinΓÇÖs vision for the 21st century. Death seizes the City banker by his braces and offers a light to the oligarch; it joins the surgeon in theatre and the Hollywood star on the red carpet. Filled with wit and doom-laden drama, Martin RowsonΓÇÖs The Dance of Death is a masterful reimagining of a book which, in its uncompromising treatment of the rich and powerful, paved the way for the great, levelling craft of political cartooning.

In 1778, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart leaves Salzburg for Paris. But there is no grand entrance for the former child prodigy. When Mozart arrives in Paris, he is cash-strapped, unknown and his French is poor. His mentor, the critic Baron von Grimm, introduces him to a number of Parisian nobles. But recognition is hard-won, and at times the French court appears indifferent to Mozart's talents and disapproving of his spontaneity.

A powerful, provocative, and politically charged fictionalized memoir Mikel lives with his wife and two children in Costur, an idyllic Spanish town surrounded by hills. He has a job selling candy, but Mikel is a dreamer, not a businessman, and money is tight. What’s more, the ordinariness of smalltown life is preventing him from fulfilling a life-long dream: to become a writer. Seeking both drama and financial security, Mikel takes a job as a bodyguard. His family is soon uprooted to the Basque Country, where Mikel is charged with protecting politicians from the armed separatist group ETA. It is a job that provides drama worthy of the page—but only at the cost of fear, uncertainty, and family breakdown. In Mikel, author Mark Bellido draws on his own experiences to create a powerful and provocative story about a man who risks everything in the pursuit of a dream.

The ABC of Typography traces 3,500 years of type, from Sumerian pictographs, through Roman calligraphy, to Gutenberg, the Bauhaus and beyond. Brimming with insight and anecdote, this witty and well-informed graphic guide explores the historical, technological and cultural shifts that have defined the look of the words we read, as well as introducing the artists who have marked typography's long history.

"There was never a place for [Isadora Duncan] in the ranks of the terrible, slow army of the cautious. She ran ahead, where there were no paths.” — Dorothy Parker In 1899, performing in the drawing rooms of London's elite, Isadora Duncan was already laying the foundations for modern dance. The 22-year-old's movements were visceral, free-flowing, and expressive; she performed barefoot. She shattered the conventions of traditional ballet and, in doing so, enchanted high society. A year later, in Paris, she met the sculptor Auguste Rodin, whose work proved a revelation, and the influential dancer Loie Fuller, whose support marked the beginning of a dazzling on-stage career. In Isadora, Julie Birmant and Clément Oubrerie capture the astonishing life and scandalous times of the so-called "Mother of Modern Dance.” This extraordinary graphic novel takes in her arrival in Europe, her rise to stardom and the development of a style of dance ? inspired by natural forms and Greek sculpture ? that would become her enduring legacy.

The dazzling, provocative work of Jean-Michel Basquiat 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.

A revealing and compelling graphic biography of Guantánamo Bay detainee Mohammed El Gharani - the life journey that led to his incarceration and the experience of interrogation, torture and abuse in custody. Franc also provided the art for "Agatha: The Real Life Of Agatha Christie".

Belgian comics writer Zidrou and the artist Aimee de Jongh collaborate on this story of older people struggling with loneliness until their fateful collision.