I appreciate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I really enjoyed this book the characters were interesting and the book was hard to put down. I highly recommend

[Imagine if you will, a netgalley disclaimer]

This brief look into the life of the elusive, private Lon Chaney was an alright start. The art was a little cartoonier than I would have expected for the subject, but it wasn't bad. The story touched on the highlights of his life, revolving around the public information we know about his work.

One of the things that I liked about this book is that it explored the social standards for the time and explored them in a thoughtful, sensitive way. In particular, Chaney's work in western and yellow face films is put into context, but not excused away. The author also doesn't smooth out Chaney's edges around his first wife's problems --he leaves that public, unhappy relationship in its raw state of discomfort.

I wish that this book had bridged the father-son work aspects a little better. Creighton (better known as Lon Chaney Jr.) carried on his father's style in acting and portraying many faces during the heyday of Universal's monster films. Seeing that connection between the Man With 1000 Faces and Monster Man (or Wolf Man as we more often see) would have been a nice bridge and carry on in the story. In the end, the story ends suddenly and sadly with Chaney's somewhat premature death.

This was a great graphic novel to enjoy and dive into a piece of cinematic history. I enjoyed the color palette utilized throughout this graphic novel and the illustration style was accessible and enjoyable throughout the book. Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of this book.

The parents of Lon Chaney were both deaf. He learned sign language. He started out doing vaudeville and theater. When his first wife attempted suicide unsuccessfully, it did cause Lon to look into doing film. Lon Chaney became a well know actor in silent films. He was well known for his characters that were tortured, often grotesque and afflicted. He did makeup for the films before there was any makeup artists. He was so good at makeup, he became known as “the man of a thousand faces.”

This graphic novel is introduced as an imaginary biography as Lon was a very private person. Milestones of his life are shown in black and white illustrations. The graphic novel does honor to his life and film career. I was always a fan of Lon Chaney as I had a chance to see some of his silent films that he did. I will never forget how well he portrayed the characters of the phantom of the film “Phantom of the opera.” It’s excellent written and illustrated imagined biography of him. This is a book for everyone!

This graphic novel serves as an enjoyable peak into the life of a legendary man and one of the molders of what is now classic cinema. The author does a good job of touching on all the main components of Lon Chaney's life, and the man is truly fascinating.

I will say that this reads more like a simple biography. Regardless of the fact the Lon Chaney was so private and there really aren't many 1st hand (or even 2nd hand) sources on his life and person out there, I feel there was still room for the author to delve much deeper into both the character and story. You could tell the author had a good enough grasp on Mr. Chaney and the time period to take some creative liscense and really bring Lon Chaney back to life, but fell short. There was definitely an avenue there for both a great set-up and truly emotional pay-off, but we don't quite get it.

That being said, the illustrations were lovely and I fully and enthusiastically support any attempt to push Lon Chaney's name and story into the mainstream.

Definitely give it a read!

Lon Chaney Speaks is a great overall biography of Chaney. Pat Dorian not only introduces you to Chaney’s life, but summarizes the films. Now, normally, someone doing illustrations of films may seem a little weird, but we don’t have much more than production stills left of famous lost films like London After Midnight. Dorian’s done the hard work of reading all of the biographical information out there, assimilating photo references from who knows where, and giving us an easy-to-read graphic novel.

Dorian’s illustration style reminds me of the Drawn and Quarterly artists of the ‘90s; he would have fit in really well with Seth and Joe Matt. His linework is bold and compelling, and really pops out with his minimal use of color. There’s also some kind of retro-illustration influence I can’t really pin down, something between the Friz Freleng animated Pink Panther and comic strips from the ‘60s. Regardless, the drawings are very compelling and well done.

I This was an interesting way to get to know a man who was a famous actor, but notorious for keeping his private life private. This book was good, but not overly informative. It gave some information on him and his life, but not very deep, as I was expecting. But it was a good read overall and fun to read. I love his movies, too.

Lon Chaney does manage to speak in a movie, but he is best known for the monsters he played in silent pictures. In this graphic novel, the the reader gets a chance to see behind the screen and see a representation of Lon Chaney's life and his movies. So if you are interested in old movies or just in horror films, take a gander at this book and consider what he managed to do long before computers made special effects so easy!

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this title.

Note: I read sample pages only. The sample pages I read seemed out of order but the text and art both seriously fit Lon Chaney's life and the rich array of horror characters he portrayed. Art was appealingly rough and done in a cool mid-20th century style. I hope the final title is more cohesively put together as it was hard to tell from the pages provided whether they were out of order or the storyline jumped around incomprehensibly.

"A stunning graphic debut: the life of the legendary silent-film actor Lon Chaney (the original Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame), as imagined by an artist whose work recalls the style and skill of early-era New Yorker cartoonists.

From the artist: "'No one will ever love me!' I believe it was this near-universal fear that makes Lon Chaney's characters continue to resonate with us today. On their surface, most of them are distinctly unlikeable: they are monsters, outcasts, criminals. But through his unique magic, Chaney makes them empathetic. He pioneered the craft of makeup artist long before that term ever existed, and he used his expertise to hide himself from public view - what if nobody loved him?""

I'm a huge Lon Chaney fan, so obviously I need this book. Likewise if you don't know who Lon Chaney is, you obviously need this book.

From reading the description of this graphic novel, I was expecting a fictionalized biography of Lon Chaney. Instead, the novel reads more like the greatest hits of Lon Chaney's life. His childhood is very briefly touched upon before we delve into his most memorable roles, each again covered briefly. This novel seemed more concerned with covering Chaney's movie career highlights rather than exploring Lon Chaney as a person.

It’s a shame Lon Chaney was such a private person, as I would’ve loved to learn even more - however, with the limited information available, the author did a fantastic job of giving the readers a glimpse into his life and a lovely tribute to his life’s work with vignettes of his notable movies. I will say, when I was around 7 years old, my dad took us to see Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera at the Ohio Theatre, and to this day that was the most scared I have ever been in my entire life. When Lon/the Phantom takes off his mask I literally had the sensation of jumping out of my shoes. So part of my was glad that visceral reactions such as that were intended! Hats off to Lon, whose amazing make-up work continued to thrill audiences in the ‘90s :-)

Lon Chaney lived a very private life so Dorian extrapolates in some places and recaps his movies to fill this out. Chaney was a fascinating man, willing to endure incredible discomfort for many of his roles. The art was very cartoonish but it kind of works.

A heavy fictionalized biography of a great early film star who was as uncompromising in how he approached roles as he was in his personal life. The art is very soft, curvy, and cartoonish, which stands a bit at odds with the noirish feel of the narrative. Interesting look at early film history and a man that wanted to leave it all on screen.

Lon Chaney Speaks more than ninety years after his death in this excellent graphic novel biography.

Lon Chaney was famous for his ability to turn himself into completely different looking, and scary, monsters. Everyone knows his iconic Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame. But some of his forgotten roles depicted here are even more amazing. An armless knife thrower? A legless gangster bent on revenge? All without special effects. Just using Chaney’s own props.

The biography also discusses Chaney’s private life. The tragedy of his first wife and their son, Craighton, who changed his name to Lon Jr. for his own horror movie career. Lon’s eventual happiness with both his private and his public life.

Overall, Lon Chaney Speaks is an interesting and mostly unknown tale. The ratio of dialog to panels was perfect allowing the story to flow by showing rather than just telling. 5 stars!

Thanks to Pantheon Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

A fantastic graphic novel that looks at the fascinating and tragic story of one of the great actors of silent cinema.

It explains the Lon Chaney's ups and downs . His chronicle health, his relationship with of his dearest friend, his Odyssey being a actor when everything looks happened wrong.
(Thanks Netgalley for give me the message by this e-copy once again) ✌

A very good book! A short and sweet look at the life of Lon Chaney that will definitely contain lots of new factoids for casual horror fans. The occasional interludes to describe the plots of his works felt jarring at first but I eventually realized it was a necessary break in the otherwise somber story of his life. The artwork was simple but consistent and never felt inappropriate. My pdf was formatted slightly strangely, occasionally two page spreads would refuse to show both pages on the screen at the same time. But other than those slight formatting issues I had no complaint about this graphic novel.

For anyone even vaguely interested in the history of Hollywood, this graphic novel is manna from heaven. It's also a quite eye-opening biography of someone who conveyed the heart of the monster, whether it be Quasimodo, the Phantom of the Opera, or copious crims-needing-redemption, in silent cinema. Yes, the looks at the films he made here are insufferably melodramatic, taking in carnies, jealousy, and the heightened emotion of backstage at the circus, but the man's life itself is riveting. This version of his own story – for we don't have much in the way of a proper biography or words from the horse's mouth to go on – starts with him being bullied due to both his parents being deaf (there's that affinity with the outsider writ large on page one), and carries on through marriage to a drunk, when all he could afford was his own chain-smoking habits, to success, which never stopped him caring for others. I wasn't sure about the retro style here, all Saturday supplement swoops and characterisation, but it's on a level of subtlety with his movies and does show an attractive charm itself by the finish. If it's true that we can't be sure about the man's early life and thoughts when not working, then the level of depth here is probably a perfect amount for his biography – and this, for all its possible guess-work, and perhaps imbalance with the amount of film summary we get, ended up being right up my street. Four and a half stars.

I loved this graphic biography of Lon Chaney. Most of us know who Lon Cheney was, even if just from the movie Hunchback of Notre Dame, but few know his life story. I know all I knew was he was an amazing special effects makeup artist before there was such a title.

I also was aware of his son, who very successfully followed in his footsteps, Lon Cheney, Jr.-best known for his movie “The Wolfman”.

I was not aware Cheney’s parents were both deaf and mute nor that he was bullied over it. It seems an odd thing to get beat up for, but people are crazy...that’s one thing that has never changed.

It was interesting to learn of his early years in vaudeville and more of his personal life. He was very private so little was printed of his life at the time.

The art was excellent in this graphic novel. Though I don’t think the artist captured what Chaney looked like, I also don't think he tried to. The creations of Chaney were on point, you recognized the characters Chaney played even if you had no idea what the movie was.

This is Dorian’s debut graphic novel and it’s a hit. I will keep his name in mind when looking for other graphics like this. Definitely worth your time to read this, and learn a little about the Hollywood stars of yesteryear.

I received this book free from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and Netgalley for my honest, unbiased review.