Boxing the Giant: 'Andre the Giant: Life and Legend'
By Shannon McCormick and Wayne Alan Brenner, May 6, 2014, 3:25pm, Under the Covers
Andre the Giant, as you're likely aware, has a posse.
Now the legendary wrestler's also got a biography in graphic-novel format, and the man responsible for that will be presenting it at Austin Books & Comics tomorrow: Wed., May 7, 4-8pm.
Note: The "man responsible for that" is also one of the artists who participated in the Presidential Losers exhibition curated by local arts mover-and-shaker Shannon McCormick at the SVT Gallery a couple years ago – which is why we're gonna let that McCormick himself tell you about this meet-and-greet booksigning event (that also features classic wrestling videos running continuously in the Back Issue room):
"Box Brown," says McCormick, "might just be the hardest working guy in comics these days. He first pinged my radar at the old Domy Books, where, if I’m remembering correctly, Russell Etchen suggested Brown’s self-published mini-comic series Everything Dies to me. Shortly thereafter I backed Brown’s ambitious Retrofit Comics imprint on Kickstarter. See, not only is Brown steadily busy cranking out his own cartooning work, he’s a publishing impresario. He saw indie publishers moving increasingly toward book-length work with all the attendant fancy binding and such, abandoning the single-issue stapled ‘floppy’ format that they formerly put out, the kind of ephemeral object people still think of when you say comic book. Observing that absence, Brown created Retrofit, a monthly series of beautifully printed minicomics from a who’s who of the small press scene. Now in its third year, Retrofit is helmed by that all-too-rare kind of artist: One who puts as much care and craft into promoting others’ works as he does his own.
"So let’s return the favor, shall we? Brown will be here in Austin not to promote his fine imprint of co-conspirators, but to debut his new book Andre the Giant: Life and Legend, put out by First Second Books. Not only is it a fine showcase of Brown’s kinda cute/kinda bigfoot art, it’s one of the first biographies of the heel wrestler/Princess Bride pop icon out there. That Brown is launching the book in Austin is testimony to both our city's growing pull in the comics world as well as our fondness for … wrestling? Off-kilter character actors? Eighties nostalgia?
"Something like that.
"However you slice it, how you not gonna love a comic from a guy with the nickname Box?"
Addendum: Anybody want a peanut?
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