What do you do when you want to create a biographical graphic novel of someone who was fiercely private, someone of whom little is known?

This seems to be the central problem this book runs into. You could of course make all kinds of things up, try to fill the holes, but then biography quickly becomes fiction.

The compromise the author comes to is retelling the plot of several of Lon Chaney's movies. And it actually is quite charming to start out with, a single page showing Chaney in the role, and a short summary of the film's plot. But then the author starts using several pages for Chaney's more famous movies, and it kind of feels like filler. I didn't really see how retelling these movies helped to tell the story of Lon Chaney, the man.

The art is kind of whimsical, cartoonish at times, and it works well (although some of Chaney's more frightening characters come off more funny than frightening in this style).