Muhammad Ali, Kinshasa 1974 by Jean-David Morvan, Abbas, and Rafael Ortiz is an unusual graphic work that grew out of a project organized by the writer Morvan to pair off a series of photographers from Magnum, the celebrated French photography collective, with cartoonists to create hybrid works that make use of comics and photographs. The book documents the historic 1974 heavyweight title fight between former champ Muhammad Ali, out to regain the title stripped from him for refusing army service, and then-champion George Foreman, held in Zaire (now, the Republic of the Congo) that became known as “The Rumble In the Jungle.” In this 8-page excerpt we learn about the background of the fight, including the checkered history of the promoter Don King and Zaire’s corrupt dictator Mobuto Sese Seko, all vividly recreated via Ortiz’s dynamic drawings and photographs of the fight by the late photographer Abbas. Muhammad Ali, Kinshasa 1974 by Jean-David Morvan, Abbas, and Rafael Ortiz will be published in February 2021 by Titan Comics.
