These Graphic Bios About Freud, Marx, and Einstein Belong on Your Summer Reading List
I am utterly smitten with these funny, thoughtful, and gorgeously published graphic bios from NoBrow Press about Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, and Albert Einstein. Written by Belgian psychoanalyst Corinne Maier, illustrated by Parisian cartoonist Anne Simon, the books are thoughtful and surprisingly funny, packing a ton of life into 60 short pages apiece.
All three are hardbacks the size of children’s picture books, printed on deliciously heavy paper. Originally published in French, each discusses the influence of its main character’s Jewishness on his life and work, and each focuses as much on the protagonist’s personal life as it does his intellectual one. They’re written for adults, but comic-book-loving kids over 12 can appreciate them too (as long as you don’t mind exposing them to heroes with feet of clay, or pictures of giant phalluses).