James Joyce

This lively, beautifully drawn portrait of the writer is among the best recent graphic novel biographies, and Zapico (La guerre du professor Bertenev, Cafe Budapest) won Spain’s National Comics Prize when it was originally published in 2012. Zapico takes us from Joyce’s early days as the eldest of 10 siblings, to the friendships and acquaintances of young adulthood, to the crafting of his masterworks. Uncompromising, stubborn, and a raging alcoholic whose addiction should have cost him his marriage and his sight (from chronic iritis), Joyce is presented in many roles, including father and intellectual, and not always in the most flattering light. The strong cartooning is what makes this work. Zapico’s art teems with details of architecture, and the characters are looser but bursting with emotion—both elements are indispensable to understanding Joyce’s peripatetic life. The art not only establishes a sense of place, but shows how these places were unable to contain an indomitable spirit like Joyce: save for Dublin, which, of course, contains his soul. An early candidate for the “Best Of” lists for 2016. (May)