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WORK TITLE: Who Killed Kurt Cobain?
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 10/1/1975
WEBSITE:
CITY: Lyon
STATE:
COUNTRY: France
NATIONALITY: French
http://www.idwpublishing.com/kurt-cobain-graphic-novel-coming-idw/ * https://www.lambiek.net/artists/o/otero_nicolas.htm * https://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/11/04/who-killed-kurt-cobain-not-nicolas-otero/ * https://massappeal.com/does-french-artist-nicolas-otero-know-who-killed-kurt-cobain/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born October 1, 1975.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Comic artist and author.
WRITINGS
Coauthor of works, including Amazonia, Amerikkka, and Uchronie(s) – New Moscow. Author’s works have been translated into English, Dutch, German, and Portuguese.
SIDELIGHTS
Nicolas Otéro is primarily involved in the graphic novel scene as an artist. He has penned and drawn a vast array of works throughout his career, many of which are influenced by American culture. Many of his works, including Amazonia, Amerikkka, and Uchronie(s) – New Moscow, were drawn in cooperation with a separate writer.
Who Killed Kurt Cobain? The Story of Boddah (known in France as Le Roman de Boddah) is the exception. This graphic novel, meant to serve as a new rendition on the biography of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, was both written and drawn exclusively by Otéro. In an interview featured on the Bleeding Cool website, Otéro explained that his inspiration to create the book came from his admiration of Nirvana and other grunge bands, as well as a dream where he witnessed Kurt Cobain’s suicide firsthand. Who Killed Kurt Cobain? is unique in that it covers Cobain’s path to success and subsequent, tragic fall all from the point of view of “Boddah.” Boddah happens to be the infamous addressee of Cobain’s last message, and is commonly interpreted to have been Cobain’s imaginary companion from childhood who resurfaced during the lowest points of Cobain’s mental health struggles. Throughout the book, Otéro uses his artwork to emphasize the fraught world Cobain lived in. All the while, Boddah witnesses everything Cobain goes through, like a phantom. The reader is taken along for the ride through Cobain’s musical success, struggles with substance abuse and addiction, and subsequent mental collapse, all of which is depicted through Otéro’s surreal illustrations. Throughout the events of the book, the reader gets a glimpse of Boddah’s thoughts as he helplessly observes everything, unable to reach out to and help his old friend. The final scene of the book is the immediate aftermath of Cobain’s suicide, drawn in explicit detail. A Publishers Weekly contributor expressed that readers “fascinated by Cobain and the grunge era will find it a familiar if gloomy journey.” On the Diary of a Reading Addict (DORA) blog, one reviewer remarked: “The artwork is serviceable – and the boldness of the more experimental hallucinatory-type panels was sometimes breath-taking.” They added: “The way Boddah seems so realistic is impressive.” Brian Salvatore, a writer on the Multiversity Comics website, commented: “Otero is a skilled draftsman, and has created some visually stunning pages, full of creative layouts and inkwork.” On the Review Room blog, Sab Fox wrote: “I love comics that seem to have a manic style of writing and art, and this comic was perfect at displaying that writing style.” She added: “It truly is a mesmerizing comic to flip through and read.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, October 24, 2016, review of Who Killed Kurt Cobain? The Story of Boddah, p. 64.
ONLINE
Bleeding Room, https://www.bleedingcool.com/ (November 4, 2016), Rich Johnston, “Who Killed Kurt Cobain? Not Nicolas Otero…,” author interview.
Diary of a Reading Addict (DORA), http://diaryofareadingaddict.blogspot.com/ (November 7, 2016), review of Who Killed Kurt Cobain?
Lambiek, https://www.lambiek.net/ (February 22, 2017), Bas Schuddeboom, author profile.
Mass Appeal, https://massappeal.com/ (May 17, 2016), Jordan C., “French Artist Nicolas Otero on ‘Who Killed Kurt Cobain?,'” author interview.
Multiversity Comics, http://www.multiversitycomics.com/ (November 9, 2016), Brian Salvatore, review of Who Killed Kurt Cobain?.
Review Room, http://reviewingroom.blogspot.com/ (August 13, 2016), Sab Fox, review of Who Killed Kurt Cobain?.*
Who Killed Kurt Cobain? Not Nicolas Otero…
Posted by Rich Johnston November 4, 2016 0 Comments
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who-killed-kurt-cobain-coverBy Jason Borelli
Among the titles available from IDW Publishing at the recent New York Comic Con was Who Killed Kurt Cobain? by Nicolas Otero, which is scheduled for release at comic shops on November 9. Based on Le Roman de Boddah by Heloise Guay de Bellissen, Otero’s graphic novel covers the highs and lows of the lead singer of Nirvana through the eyes of Boddah, Cobain’s imaginary friend from childhood. Otero had time for an interview during NYCC. I wound up having to stand at the IDW booth, which meant I couldn’t record and take notes at the same time. While English was not his first language, I got most of what he was talking about…
Bleeding Cool: How did you get interested in Kurt Cobain and Nirvana?
Nicolas Otero: During the grunge period, I was 16-17 [years old], and I was a big fan of this music. I saw them live in Paris in 1992. I saw many bands along this movement. It was natural of me to tell this kind of story. It was like I came back in my teenage years.
BC: What was the appeal of Nirvana for you?
NO: I liked the energy. I liked the non-conformist. It’s like they sent a message that you can do what you want to do.
BC: How did you get to adapt the book into a graphic novel?
NO: It was a strange experience. It all started with a strange dream when I was in the closet. I opened this closet and I saw blonde hair, and there was a lot of blood. In my personal life, I got a cousin and a friend who commit suicide just before, and it was really hard for me to understand that. My friend Heloise was writing this novel. I called her and I said, “I dreamed about your book, and I’ve got to make an adaptation. It’s really important for me.” She finds this very strange, I can agree, but she accepts and I did the book.
BC: How long did it take to do the graphic novel?
NO: It was not too long, but it was hard work. I worked really hard on this, but it takes eight months to do this. Everything is in direct colors and everything [was] manual. No computer in this book. I’ve read this book inside of me for so long, so many times, it has to go out and it was easy to do.
BC: Was it difficult to adapt the book with the perspective of Boddah?
NO: No, it was really easy. I take some distance with the book. I liked the narrative to make Boddah talk, but I wanted to do my own thing. I break a lot of things [and] I rewrite some dialogue. The adaptation is really different from the initial novel, so I wanted to do my own thing . . . a thing really personal and emotional.
BC: What would you want readers to take from your book?
NO: I hope they will have some different feelings. There is violence, there is a lot of blood, there is passion, there is drugs. Some parts are really difficult, really hard. The life of Kurt Cobain was extraordinary, sad but powerful and intense. I hope I put all these things in the book. People are going to read it [and] I hope they feel that.
BC: What else have you been working on?
NO: My next book was released in France two months ago. It’s called Confessions Of A Rabid, and it’s partially autobiographic because I was attacked by a rabid cat when I was four years old. I was nearly dead. I had horrible nightmares about that. I got strong treatment to save me, and it was the start of my story. You can find it in the U.S. next year. I’m [also working] on an adaptation of Stefan Zweig’s 24 Hours In The Life Of a Woman.
(Last Updated November 5, 2016 3:29 am )
by Jordan C.
May 17, 2016
French Artist Nicolas Otero on ‘Who Killed Kurt Cobain?’
The graphic novel tells the story of the iconic grunge singer's death from the perspective of Cobain's imaginary friend, Boddah
We give you the skinny any time comics and hip hop hook up, but this time we’ve got something a little different…comics and grunge. Yes, you read that correctly, IDW Publishing (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers) are set to release the English translation of French writer/artist Nicolas Otero’s graphic novel Le Roman de Boddah: Comment J’ai Tue Kurt Cobain…or Who Killed Kurt Cobain? as it will be titled for North American release in the fall.
Because his English isn’t great and my French is horrible, we got Otero to answer a few questions by email regarding his unique take on Kurt Cobain’s life, his mixed media art style for this project, and his musical tastes in the ‘90s.
Cobain cover
Mass Appeal: How direct an adaptation of Heloise Guay de Bellissen’s book Le Roman de Boddah is this graphic novel?
Nicolas Otero: Adaptation paves the way for interpretation. It isn’t the same story anymore, for sure. I broke the book’s structure, chose another narrative direction, and focused my attention on the love story. It’s a love story in the biggest way; love for a woman, for music, for the drugs…
I created a love story which is sad, rock n’ roll, and absolutely beautiful because of its purity, seen through the eyes of a child.
Other than the letter he left to Boddah when he took his life, is there any other documentation about Kurt’s imaginary friend?
Very few as far as I can remember. My goal was to incarnate Boddah as a person, a guy really close to Cobain since his childhood, like a conscience, the little voice in our heads. I draw him like a roadie and nobody else except Kurt is talking to him…ever. A kind of Tyler Durden experience!
Kurt Cobain's Suicide Note to Boddah
Kurt Cobain’s suicide note.
Was Nirvana your favorite band in the ’90s? Were you into grunge in general?
It was one of my favorites, for sure. I really enjoyed this kind of music at that time of my life. I was a teenager and in France and Europe, music was really boring for young rockers before this sonic wave arrived. I saw them live in Paris, as well as Pearl Jam in the same month. I listened to Soundgarden, Mother Love Bone, Screaming Trees, The Melvins, Alice In Chains, and all those kinds of bands. Long hair, big sound and riffs, incredible energy. That was a great time for sure!
I haven’t got a chance to read the book yet, does Courtney feature heavily?
At the beginning of the book, I write [or Boddah says] that I don’t care about all the rumors, the conspiracy theory, and stuff like that. I’m not an investigator, but an artist. What I was looking for was introspection, a view into Kurt’s mind and feelings, and the love for Courtney was part of that.
North Americans might not be familiar with your work, tell us about some other titles you are proud of?
My first serial called AmeriKKKa is a thriller released by French publisher EP Media. It’s nine books about the arcana of Ku Klux Klan. Very dark and violent and inspired by real facts. A good mix between politics, action, and history. I also like another series I’ve done called Uchronie(s) New Moscow. But Who Killed Kurt Cobain? is my best yet, the first that looks really like me.
Have any of your other comics been translated and published this side of the pond?
No, I’ve been translated in the Netherlands, Brazil, and Germany but this is the first one in the USA. And I hope not the last one!
Your style often looks like it employs water color, does it? Or is that digital?
On this book, everything is handmade. I’ve cut the little pieces of craft and wrote all the texts with china ink. I used pencils and feather, white Posca and the grey tones are made with alcohol felts that give this water color effect. But there’s nothing digital, everything is manual. It was a difficult but very exciting work!
Who is your biggest art influence?
I really like Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. Power and sensibility, so much emotion…
Do you have any desire to do a superhero title for Marvel or DC?
I’d like to try everything that can give me pleasure. Drawing is my life, I put everything into it. So, why not? If I can give my artistic point of view, it can be a great experience.
Check out a 3-page preview of Who Killed Kurt Cobain? below.
Nicolas Otéro
(b. 1 October 1975, France) France
Amérikkka, by Nicolas Otéro
Amerikkka #8
Nicolas Otéro is a French comic book author from Lyon, best-known for drawing the violent comic book series 'Amerikkka' and for his more personal graphic novels depicting tortured souls. He began working on his ambitious series about the Ku Klux Klan with writer Roger Martin almost right after his graduation from the École Emile Cohl in Lyon in 2001. 'Amerikkka' deals with two special agents who investigate terrorist acts by the KKK. Each album in set in a different region of the USA. Otéro's semi-realistic style, inspired by both manga and the French-Belgian school, brings a bit of humor and distance to the violence in the series, of which the first book was published by Hors Collection in 2002. New installments have appeared at Emmanuel Proust Éditions since 2003.
In addition to his main series, Otéro has worked with writer Bat on the post-apocalyptic western 'Bonecreek', of which two books were published by EP Éditions (2007) and Idées+ (2010). He also teamed up with Laurent Moënard on 'Le Sixième Soleil', a series set during the Mexican Revolution in 1917. It deals with a plot of the German general staff to form an allience with the Mexicans against the USA. Glénat released three books between 2008 and 2011. Otéro also provided the artwork for the three volumes of 'Uchronie(s) - New Moscow' (Glénat, 2012-2014), one of Éric Corbeyran's three series about an alternate history of cities. The other series were drawn by Tibery ('New Harlem') and Djillali Defali ('New York').
Le Roman de Boddah
Le Roman de Boddah
Nicolas Otéro became an allround comics author with 'Le Roman de Boddah' (Glénat, 2015), a graphic novel about Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain (1967-1994). It was an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Heloise Guay de Bellissen, and contains a fictional recount of real-life events from Cobain's life, as narrated by his childhood imaginary friend Boddah. The book was published in English as 'Who Killed Kurt Cobain?: The Story of Boddah' by IDW Publishing in 2016. His next graphic novel was 'Confessions d'un enragé' (2016), the story of the troubled Liam, who as a four-year old contracted rabies in 1970s Morocco, and developed an almost animal savagery in his further life.
Also in 2016, Otéro worked with writer Jean-Claude Bartoll on the adventure comic 'Amazonia' (EP Media), about a freelance journalist who is confronted with violence from militias working for large landowners while reporting on the Brazilian Amazon.
Confessions d'un enragé
Confessions d'un enragé
Entry by Bas Schuddeboom
Artwork © 2017 Nicolas Otéro
Website © 1994-2017 Lambiek
Last updated: 2017-02-22
Who Killed Kurt Cobain? The Story of Boddah
263.43 (Oct. 24, 2016): p64.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Who Killed Kurt Cobain? The Story of Boddah
Nicolas Otero. IDW, $24.99 (152p) ISBN 9781-63140-726-0
Adapted from the French novel Le Roman de Boddah by Heloise Guay de Bellissen, this fictionalized account of Cobain's demise takes a unique approach, presenting his life through the testimony of his imaginary childhood friend, Boddah. In a more or less linear manner, though with a frantic incoherence that surely matches Cobain's perception of what went on around him, Otero (New Moscow) ends up presenting less a biography and more a passionate love letter of empathy to Cobain. It's a frantic and depressing journey the reader takes alongside the rock legend, with the inevitability of Cobain's course taking a toll on readers' ability to cling on with him. Otero's art is the star, capturing the chaos of Cobain's lifestyle and the unhinged perceptions in his psyche with swirling lines that coalesce into moments of beauty. Those already fascinated by Cobain and the grunge era will find it a familiar if gloomy journey. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Who Killed Kurt Cobain? The Story of Boddah." Publishers Weekly, 24 Oct. 2016, p. 64. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA468771833&it=r&asid=62bb24a374beac46ce4b84af4a84ba60. Accessed 3 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A468771833
Monday, 7 November 2016
Review! (Graphic Novel Edition!) - Who Killed Kurt Cobain?: The Story of Boddah by Nicolas Otero
Title: Who Killed Kurt Cobain?: The Story of Boddah
Author: Nicolas Otero
Genre: Graphic Novels, Magic Realism, Contemporary, Biography, Non-Fiction* (*ish)
Release Date: 8th November
Amazon: UK - USA
A few starting notes:
I received a free digital review copy of this book via NetGalley. NetGalley provides review copies from publishers in exchange for fair and honest reviews.
If anyone who has bipolar disorder and/or drug/alcohol addiction problems has reviewed this book, let me know and I will provide a link to your review.
This is weird. And probably needs to come wrapped in a 'trigger warning' protective plastic cover.
That said, this was interesting - so let's get down to this review, shall we?
Premise:
Kurt Cobain's suicide note was addressed to Boddah.
Now, given the amount of conspiracy theories over Cobain's death, Boddah's identity and role has been discussed a lot.
The simple truth, though, is that Boddah was Cobain's imaginary friend as a kid.
This is the story of Nirvana, Kurt, Courtney, and Kurt's death - as told by Boddah.
Best bits:
Otero seems to honestly feel for Cobain - which stops the book from feeling as exploitative as I feared it would. (It still does feel disrespectful though - see next section.)
We're encouraged to empathise with a man who was, at heart, actually very childlike and lost.
I felt like the image of Kurt given here was one of an actual human being - as opposed to the caricature or legend that he's become since his death.
This book is also down-right heart-breaking. You are right there with Courtney screaming at Kurt to open the bathroom door, watching him as he slowly self-destructs, and unable to help.
The artwork is serviceable - and the boldness of the more experimental hallucinatory-type panels was sometimes breath-taking.
The way Boddah seems so realistic is impressive. He loves Kurt; when Kurt is gone... the panels where Boddah is left without him are just heart-breaking.
Not so great bits:
Things drawn graphically in this book that people need to be aware of:
drug-use (including heroin injection and joint smoking)
sex
child abuse (physical, emotional)
guns (and a suicidal fascination with them)
attempted suicide
drying-out in rehab
self-harm (I think... not 100%, I might be misremembering - a lot happened in this book)
hallucinations
childbirth
suicide - including a VERY graphic image of Kurt's dead body.
There's also swearing - but, to be honest, if you can get beyond the things listed above, swear-words aren't going to bother you.
The question of respect for both the living and the dead is a difficult one in this book.
Honestly? (And you guys know I'm always honest with you.) I found it quite disrespectful.
I sincerely doubt that anyone bothered to get Courtney Love's permission to draw her explicitly having sex with her late husband - and that's NOT OK. It's just not.
Likewise, I doubt permission was obtained from any of Cobain's family to show the final distressing panel of his dead body. Again, that's NOT OK.
I DO NOT THINK THE SHOCK-VALUE IS WORTH HURTING PEOPLE. If these were fictional characters, maybe it would be different. But they're not.
You're dealing with REAL people here - have some f**king respect, please!
I felt like Kurt's mental health problems weren't really explained. We got one or two blink-and-you'll-miss-them references to his bipolar disorder, and that is it.
Now, given that Kurt Cobain committed suicide, and there's a chance that Boddah was a hallucination brought on by the bipolar (or, indeed, a hallucination brought on by the drugs, or a combination of the two,) some attention to how his illness will have impacted on both his general mental state, and his susceptibility to drug and alcohol addiction, would have been a good idea.
Verdict:
It was interesting. It was readable. It was heart-breaking.
But there were also issues - and one's which can't be ignored; so give it a read if you want to, honestly, it's pretty fascinating, but do it with your eyes wide open.
“Who Killed Kurt Cobain?”
By Brian Salvatore | November 9th, 2016
Posted in Reviews | 0 Comments
Few celebrities engender the sort of starry eyed worship and litany of ‘what ifs’ that Kurt Cobain does. Part of that is that we never got to see him get old, make a bad album, endorse a shitty politician (like his bass player recently did), or get fat. He is trapped in the amber that is the early 90’s.
Nicholas Otero – working from a novel by Heloise Guay de Bellissen – attempts to tell Cobain’s story through a new lens – looking at his life through the eye of his imaginary friend. I would warn that spoilers follow, but if you don’t know that Cobain is dead, I don’t know what to tell you.
Written and illustrated by Nicholas Otero
The most iconic singer/songwriter of his generation, Kurt Cobain left behind a phenomenal body of work, legions of fans, and a mystery… a final letter addressed to “Boddah.”
Now, award-winning creator Nicolas Otero brings the story of this note to life in the forthcoming original graphic novel Who Killed Kurt Cobain?: The Story of Boddah. Based on the French novel, Le Roman de Boddah by Heloise Guay de Bellissen, this adaptation—a work of fiction—recounts real-life events from Cobain’s life, as narrated by his childhood imaginary friend, Boddah.
Through the eyes of Boddah, readers get a front row seat to the highs and lows of one of music’s most influential voices like they’ve never experienced before. Trace the arc of modern rock’s greatest icon from the dark clubs of Seattle to the bright lights of the world stage… and all the angst, horror, and thrill that came with that ride in this captivating graphic tale.
My first problem with this book – and trust me, there are many – is that the title is incredibly misleading. People still doubt that Cobain killed himself, and this title exploits that without ever asking that question. The subtitle of the book – which is not present anywhere on the print copy I have – is “The Story of Boddah,” is a slightly less misleading title, but still doesn’t really convey what this book is trying to be.
That is more of a problem than you may think, because it is indicative of the book’s overall problem: it has no idea what it wants to be.
It is part historical fiction, with little interest in either history or storytelling, part attempt to psychoanalyze Cobain, with no real attempt to go beneath the surface, and part celebration of the man’s music, with little to no writing about the actual music.
The book, essentially, is a fictionalized biography of Kurt Cobain, with healthy doses of his conversations with Boddah, his childhood imaginary friend to whom he addressed his suicide note. On the surface, that could have made for an interesting book, if one that has been done many, many times before. Boddah, in other hands, could have been sort of a (pardon the extreme cliche) Tyler Durden character for Cobain. One that pushed him in different ways, challenged him, forced him into situations he didn’t want to be in. Instead, Boddah is little more than an angel/devil on Cobain’s shoulder, but without the agenda. He’s just there, and is utterly uninteresting.
That’s a huge issue for the book, as Cobain is a tough person to relate to in this book. Most of the characteristics that made him so compelling in real life – his sense of humor, his troubled past, his insecurities, not to mention his amazing talent – are, more or less, absent here. We see a bit of his mischievous side, but it loses all charm when rendered on the page without the wink that always accompanied it.
So, if you don’t really like the Cobain you’re reading – even if, like me, you have a lot of admiration for the real person – you would hope to find something in Boddah to embrace. But he’s just an empty vessel, a poor analogue for the reader, and a character that, visually, looks a lot like Cobain and, at times, is easy to mistake for him. That last point may have been intentional, a blurring of the lines between reality and fantasy, but it doesn’t make for an easier reading experience.
Continued below
That brings me to the book’s sole redeeming quality: its artwork. Otero is a skilled draftsman, and has created some visually stunning pages, full of creative layouts and inkwork – sadly, there are no preview images available of the really creative stuff, which happens to occur both during Cobain’s drug use, and when he’s lost inside his own mind. The inkwash that Otero uses pulls from artists as diverse as Ralph Steadman and Francis Manapul, and makes some absolutely boring narrative passages come to life visually.
Otero’s also done a nice job creating a visual look for characters that we all know. Sure, he simplifies people like Krist Novoselic to a lumbering oaf or Dave Grohl to Cousin It behind a drum kit, but those people aren’t the focus of the story. This is Kurt’s story, and so they have to be reduced to enlarge him. His Cobain has the sadness behind the eyes and the impish smile down pat, and he manages to capture the manic energy that Kurt playing the guitar evoked. Visually, there is little to complain about in this book.
I wish there was more I could say about the artwork here but, ultimately, the artwork is the delivery system for a story, and the story fails so spectacularly. This may be one of the least researched historical fiction works I’ve ever read. There are a ton of anachronisms here that even the simplest fact checking would have uncovered; for instance there’s a reference to Viagra, a drug the FDA didn’t approve until four years after Cobain’s death. Here, Cobain more or less invents MTV Unplugged whole cloth, despite the show having been on the air for four years before Nirvana taped their episode.
I suppose a case could be made that these were intentional decisions, to help fictionalize the story, but that’s hogwash – this is a germ of an idea turned into a book without the proper steps in between. I know that this isn’t a book about Nirvana, but relegating Novoselic and Grohl to furniture is almost as unforgivable as totally excluding Pat Smear, who was a hero of Kurt’s, joining the band for the In Utero tour.
The only person, besides Kurt, given any attention whatsoever is Courtney Love, and she’s presented as she’s always presented: as a crazy person who was very much in love with Cobain. Again, this is a missed opportunity to give her some depth, something that can be said for every non-Cobain character in the book.
Ultimately, though, even Kurt isn’t given too much depth. One of the reasons that characters go to therapy or have journals in film/television, is that it gives the character a place to speak their feelings through less clunky exposition. Having Boddah here is the same tool – he could have been used to give us all this insight into Kurt’s mind. Sure, it would all be bullshit, but this book keeps reminding us that it is fiction. Instead of using that feature as an excuse to be lazy with research, use it to give Kurt the ability to say things that we, maybe, believed he thought.
From the start of the book, I kept waiting for the big twist to be that Boddah killed Kurt – especially as that is said in the first ten pages of the book – he says “I killed Kurt Cobain” plainly over a gruesome image of Kurt’s blown apart head. This is out there online from IDW as part of the preview they released. I’m not embedding it here due to its disturbing nature, but when you tease readers with that early in the book, you expect it to come back into play.
But nope! Boddah could have been the name for an imaginary friend that became the name for his heroin addiction. Or, if Boddah was really the devil on his shoulder, he could have been the one whispering to Kurt about the uselessness of his life. There are dozens of ways that Boddah could have ‘killed’ Kurt. But Otero doesn’t do that.
Ultimately, if Otero simply drew this book, his work would be celebrated. But he is completely over-matched here as a storyteller. Fans of Cobain get nothing from this book and, if you aren’t a fan, why the hell are you picking this up?
Continued below
One final note: I was reminded many, many times while reading this of Montage of Heck, the Cobain documentary released last year, executive produced by his daughter, Francis Bean Cobain. The documentary has come under fire from friends of Cobain, especially Melvins singer/guitarist Buzz Osborne, for missing the point in many ways, and trying to shape the story in ways that simply aren’t logical or true.
Now, granted, whenever someone kills themselves, especially if they are famous and young, there are a ton of leaps of logic that people take to tell their story. But what is it about Cobain’s life that is so open to misinterpretation?
Final Verdict: 4.0 – A beautiful, hollow, inconsistent and inaccurate look at a life cut short.
Comic Book Review || Who Killed Kurt Cobain?: The Story of Boddah
By Sab Fox 11:27:00 PM // 1 comment
Title: Who Killed Kurt Cobain?: The Story of Boddah
Author: Nicolas Otero
Pages: 152
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Synopsis from Goodreads:
The most iconic singer/songwriter of his generation, Kurt Cobain left behind a phenomenal body of work, legions of fans, and a mystery a final letter addressed to Boddah. Now, award-winning creator Nicolas Otero brings the story of this note to life in the original graphic novel WHO KILLED KURT COBAIN?
Based on the French novel, Le Roman de Boddah by Heloise Guay de Bellissen, this adaptation a work of fiction recounts real-life events from Cobain s life, as narrated by his childhood imaginary friend, Boddah.
Through the eyes of Boddah, readers get a front row seat to the highs and lows of one of music's most influential voices like they've never experienced before. Trace the arc of modern rock's greatest icon from the dark clubs of Seattle to the bright lights of the world stage and all the angst, horror, and thrill that came with that ride in this captivating graphic tale.
Thoughts:
When I saw this was an option to read immediately from Netgalley, I leaped at the chance to read it. I love Nirvana, and I especially love Kurt. Not only was his death horrible, but all of the theories surrounding the death made him passing ten times worse. We truly did lose an extremely influential musician in Kurt, so I read and listen to anything and everything I can when it comes to him so I can live vicariously through books and music since I was born only a year after he passed away.
This comic goes through the various states of Kurt's life. His rise to fame, his addictions, and ultimately his death, told through the eyes of his imaginary friend, Boddah. It is insanely graphic, and anyone who loves Kurt will be touched by the amount of things he had to and chose to go through being such a young man, so this comic picked at the raw edges of my heart. I love comics that seem to have a manic style of writing and art, and this comic was perfect at displaying that writing style.
It truly is a mesmerizing comic to flip through and read, and I'll definitely be buying the finished copy when it comes out in *hopefully* November.