Pop icon
David Bowie lives on in graphic novels
The cover of the graphic novel “Starman – David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust Years” by Reinhard Kleist. Photo: Wolf-Dieter Tabbert / Carlsen Verlag / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
David Bowie has long since become an icon for comic artists as well. The German Reinhard Kleist now delivers the most impressive work to date – it focuses on an alter ego of the pop singer.
After Johnny Cash and Nick Cave, two musicians known for their dark, dark image, one of the best German comic artists has now decided on the most colorful bird of all.
And the time of publication – shortly before the 75th birthday of the pop magician David Bowie, who died in 2016, on January 8th – could hardly be more suitable for the new graphic novel by Reinhard Kleist (51).
“Starman – David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust Years” describes the rise and fall of the shrill fictional character who made the ambitious British singer a world star in the early 1970s. “The visual appearance (…) was certainly one of the most important reasons why I turned to Bowie,” said the multiple award-winning Rhinelander Kleist about his opulent work, which with the volume “Low – David Bowie’s Berlin Years” is another one Should be continued.
Kleist was not only fascinated by the extravagant look of “Ziggy Stardust”, but also by the musician’s often androgynous charisma, which flirted with homo- and bisexuality. “I immediately had a crush on Bowie,” said the illustrator in an interview with the Berlin “Tagesspiegel”. «I noticed: It is different. I am different too. Somehow you knew: He also does something with men. “
Although the “Starman” band concentrates on the “Ziggy” years and some of the most important early songs such as “Space Oddity” or “Five Years”: Kleist went through all phases of the artist afterwards, too, “and sometimes liked them more and sometimes less – but the fascination for Bowie stayed the whole time ».
The book is definitely an eye-catcher with its strikingly diverse drawing style and the strong coloring by Kleist and illustrator Thomas Gilke – even if not a pioneer. María Hesse and Fran Ruiz published the picture biography «Bowie. An illustrated life »in German. She summarized Bowie’s artistic career: from his breakthrough with the album “David Bowie (Space Oddity)” from 1969 to his various roles in the 70s to the monumental farewell work “Blackstar” from 2016.
In 2020, the graphic novel “Bowie: Stardust, Ray Cannons and Daydreams” by Pop Art artist Michael Allred, his wife Laura Allred and Steve Horton was launched. This comic biography concentrated – like Kleist now – on the brightly colored “Ziggy Stardust” phase and the years around it. And for children, “David Bowie: Little People, Big Dreams” by María Isabel Sánchez Vegara and Ana Albero was released in German in 2019.