The Stars of History: Marilyn Monroe is a graphic novel about the life of Marylin Manroe. This book provides a lovely insight in her life for people who don't know much about her. If you're already familiar with her story , this novel won't provide much new things to you. The illustrations were great, but I think the story needs a bit more focus. It felt like the story was all over the place and it was fast and superficial. I do think people who are new to her story would enjoy reading this graphic novel.

It was interesting to read about Marylin Monroe, because I didn't know much about her at all. So, I was quite curious to learn more and more about her, her movies, her personal life... In this comic, we see a lot, between the abuse, the failures, the despair... It was not very much a happy reading. She had a difficult life for sure. On the other hand, I was not a fan of the art and the chain of events (the change of scene was too quick for me).

This was a really lovely graphic novel about Marilyn Monroe's life. I loved the art style too. It was perfect for that era. It is a perfect graphic novel for Marilyn Monroe fans.

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The Stars of History: Marilyn Monroe by @bernardswysen and @christianpaty_dzack Thank you to #netgalley and @europecomics for the review copy. #eightysixthbookof2020 I enjoyed this #graphicnovel a lot. I had no idea this series existed. I loved the NBC series #Smash, about the staging of a Broadway musical about Marilyn, so of course this cover jumped out at me. I liked the way the story of Marilyn’s life unfolded, starting with her parents. I loved the bright graphics of the book. They’re bold and pretty and really engaging. I thought the story fleshed out aspects of Marilyn’s life that I was previously unaware of, such as her unfortunately tragic early life and multiple miscarriages. Be aware of some nudity and sexual trauma. The story jumps around and skims the surface of things I would have liked more details about, but overall it was a good way to learn more about a life I assumed I knew but actually didn’t.

First of all, I’d like to thank Netgalley for giving me an advanced copy of this graphic novel in exchange for my honest review.

Now, what do I think of this?

This was pretty fast, and also, the graphical part of it was so cool, I loved seeing the illustrations and it was pretty great.
The story was so fast that I was sometimes confused how it jumped from this to the other things, I would have loved to see more of some things that they were showing on it.
But then I also loved that they decided to tell the story of her mother, then we can learn more about her past. I also loved that at the end of it you can see all the movies and songs of Marilyn trascurring the time.

In fact, this was something good but not that great to be worthy of my 5 stars rating, for me it was 3,8 stars, just because of those amazing illustrations.

Marilyn Monroe: an icon that has transcended time and continues to be a favourite starlet of many people.

I was very excited to see a story of her life presented in a medium I had yet to see: a graphic novel! The style of the art is perfect for the story; a style that is timeless and always eye catching. For some people, it presents them more as a caricature than what they were in real life; which in ways makes some of the more well known people quite obvious just by glancing at the art.
The story itself is one that has been told many a time, in many ways, so its hard to judge the story and its contents. We are talking about a real life! Not much will change over the years and research that is done.
For someone who may want to know more about Marilyn and where she came from and who exactly Norma Jean was, this would be a great way to start! For those who are familiar with her story and her troubles, this won't provide much to you, other than a new medium in which to accept the information. Being a fan of hers already, I'm obviously part of the latter group.
The panels were LOADED with text, which did become quite distracting and sometimes confusing, but it meant that there was always something to read. This made the book last a bit longer, which was nice.
For those who aren't super familiar with her life, the first can be a bit confusing as it does not easily distinguish the people at the start of the novel. You figure out who is who quick enough, but it can still be a bit misleading. A nice touch though was the addition of in panel footnotes that would tell you who directed what movies Marilyn was in and other relevant information to the panel topic. So this could potentially be a good guide for someone who wants to not only know about her, but also be familiar with her film history.

To sum it up: for first time fans, a great option if you don't want to read a biography. For established fans: its a nice change, but won't bring you much.

This one wasn't as satisfying as I thought it would be. It felt too all over the place. I didn't feel consistent enough, story-wise. I didn't feel truly representative of Marilyn Monroe. However, the illustrations were nice. This just wasn't as good as I expected.

I have loved Marilyn Monroe since I found out we shared our birthday years ago. So I was so excited when I saw that her story was made into a graphic novel. That said, I was kind of disappointed with this. I'm not sure if it was the graphic novel format or the storytelling itself, but all the nuance of her life was stripped away. This book made Marilyn seem ditzy and flakey, when she was deeply intelligent and was forced to use her body to sell her career. They did excel in showing how much trauma she went through in her life, but I'm not sure that her depression came across well. It also felt like there was an agenda to make it seem like Arthur Miller was a good husband to her, and making it seem like her previous husbands were astronomically worse by comparison. By the end of this I just wanted to pick up one of the Marilyn biographies on my shelf, including rereading her journal entries in "Fragments" and her own accounts in "My Story."

Marilyn Monroe is a towering figure of pop culture history, both in the United States and around the world. Rightfully so. She exuded a charisma and sexuality that cannot be put into words; it must be seen. Her prodigious talent as an actress and model was at once natural and diligently honed. No one biography can ever present a complete, unilateral snapshot of who Marilyn was. That is one of the reasons why we have so many.

Europe Comics has decided to add one more Marilyn biography to that growing pile, this one an entry from their The Stars of History graphic novel series. In about 100 pages, this graphic novel covers A TON of ground. Indeed, each page is jam-packed with many panels and words. The pace and abrupt jumps in setting, both of time and place, can make your head spin (often more than once on a single page). It certainly takes some time to get used to the writing/plotting pace and style. As an educational book for those who don’t know very much about Marilyn, this book succeeds, as it is a pretty comprehensive, mostly accurate roundup of her life, both personally and professionally. As a deeper exploration of Marilyn’s inner psyche, however, the book comes up short. Though it does not ignore Marilyn’s struggles with mental health and physical and mental abuse, there simply isn’t enough space to delve into these subjects beyond a superficial level.

Like the writing, the art takes a little getting used to. It is a cartoony style, often crossing over into caricature. With so much somber, melancholic material, it is at best an interesting choice that lightens the mood and at worst an ill-suited choice that distracts from the serious nature of the written content. I eventually grew accustomed to the art style and its vibrant colors and even came to appreciate it for what it was, even though it’s not the option I would have chosen.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I have read several Marilyn Monroe books over the years, so I know her story well. However, this book did include a handful of people and events that I had either forgotten or of which I was unaware. For those wishing to get a fast-paced, educational primer on Marilyn’s life, this book fits the bill. For those wanting a deeper exploration of who Marilyn was, you may want to look for something more substantial.

Note to whom it may concern: There are a few panels with (cartoonish) nudity.

*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I have previously read the 'Chaplin' book in the Stars of History series, and really enjoyed it. So I was excited to read this.
Once again, I really loved the illustrations, and the story is so well told considering its a graphic novel.

My knowledge of Marilyn is a little vague, so I'm not sure how close the plot is to Monroe's real life story, but I enjoyed it nevertheless and it's made me want to go and watch a Marilyn Monroe film now.

I'm sure any Marilyn fan will love this book, and I can see it being a great gift for any movie-lover!

I look forward to reading other books in this series!

This graphic novel follows the life of Monroe from before she was born to her tragic end. The illustration style is ok and fun to look at . I felt the story jumped around a lot but the first half was much stronger than the second half. I almost gave up in the second half. I found Monroes childhood very compelling to read about though .

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I was very much interested in this. Marilyn Monroe is such an interesting person, but sadly this graphic novel didn't work for me. It was boring/bland, at times just jumped around which made me very confused (like when she was singing for the soldiers and then cues to a few months later where we find out that she is being abused by Joe or when she was having a bad Christmas and the next we see she is in prison/clinic), I wasn't fan of the characters and sometimes even wasn't a fan of Monroe. Something just didn't click for me and I found myself checking how far I was constantly. One time I thought I was nearing the end and I still had more than half the pages to go. But I did find out some new things about Marilyn, and I felt for her even more. So many miscarriages, people treating her like crap because she is a woman/blonde.
The art was pretty great though I would have liked them to be more consistent on how characters look, especially Marilyn's body went from one way to another in just a few panels.

A perfect graphic novel representation for movie lovers and those who enjoy visual media. The art is stellar, and I love the possibilities for line up comics jd popular culture in any ensemble.

Marilyn Monroe is a name that pretty much everyone will recognise; even if you couldn't name a single film she'd ever been in you know who she is. But one thing that I realised when I came to reading this book was that really, I knew nothing about her. Her life was nothing like I was expecting, especially her early years, and Stars of History: Marilyn Monroe manages to condense her story down in a manageable way.

I've read another of this series before, Stars of History: Charlie Chaplin, and found that that book covered the career of Chaplin more than it did his personal life, but in this book that seems to be flipped somewhat. A large section of the book is given over to Marilyn as a young woman, when she was still just Norma Jean, trying to make her way through a difficult childhood. We start to get inside her head a little, and focus on the emotional difficulties that she faced.

Even when the book moves forward through time and she becomes a famous movie star we focus less on her career and the roads she made as a star, and instead focus on what effect that had on her as a person. We see hoe frustrated she was at not getting the roles she wanted, and how that went on to effect her mental health and her behaviour.

The book doesn't sugar coat the difficulties that Marilyn faced, and makes sure that we see how these issues impacted her. We don;t just get a hand-wave saying 'this thing made her job on the set difficult', but instead we see her at home, suffering and saddened because of what's happening. This book really hammered home that despite her wealth and fame she was still just a regular person, one who can suffer just like you and me.

However, there are a few issues that I had with the book, though this mainly comes down to my not feeling it was long enough. I wanted more pages, in part so that some of the gorgeous artwork from Christian Paty could have more room and been showcased more, but also so that we could have slowed down a bit and spent more time with these people, rather than rushing from one major event to another. These books are great for giving you a broad overview of a person's life, but can sometimes feel like they're moving at breakneck speed, and that was certainly the case here at times.

This book won't completely satisfy your craving to learn more about Marilyn Monroe, and I think if you're anything like myself you'll come away wanting to read a bigger book all about her to be able to spend more time on the little details this book sometimes has to move past quickly; however, it will give you a really good overview of her life, and leave you knowing a good deal about her. This is probably the perfect gateway book if you want to know more about this figure from history, but aren't sure if you want to pick up a huge book about her.

Interesting graphic novel bio, with a solid chunk covering Norma Jean's youth (and her mother's life before her birth), continuing through the greatest hits of her life in Hollywood. Not for the middle grades/younger YA ages, as it directly approaches Norma Jean and then Marilyn's sexuality, the Hollywood casting couch, what became the legendary Playboy pictorial, etc. I did really enjoy the approach to her final, unfinished film, Something's Got to Give...it covered a significant portion of the book's last act. And her ultimate end was approached in a fragmented way, as it has been in history.

While the art is solid, I'm not sure if fits its subject matter. Marilyn looks fine, but many others in her life verge on too much to caricature for my taste.

The end matter was very interesting, with a filmography and select movie posters.

This graphic novel was an ARC provided by Netgalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read it!

The Stars of History: Marilyn Monroe was a beautifully illustrated graphic novel of the tragic and lonely life of Marilyn Monroe. This novel covers her entire life thru the highest highs to the lowest lows. I know this is a short novel, but I wanted so much more! I felt like we just skimmed over the majority of her life. The illustrations were great tho! I think if you want a brief story of her life this is a good start! Thank you to NetGalley for providing this graphic novel!

Beautifully illustrated story about Marilyn Monroe's life from her childhood to becoming a famous star.

The Stars of History is a biography piece about the life of Marilyn Monroe, starting from her years before Hollywood up to her untimely death. I think it’s relevant to my review that I say I am a fan of Marylin Monroe and am rather informed on the subject of her life. Marylin Monroe was a very smart and very sad woman. This comic captures none of her nuances. The story hits all the highlights of her life, which if you skim Wikipedia you’ll save time get the gist. They portray Marylin as rather stupid and vapid, which is largely how she was portrayed by the media in her time but does not reflect her true identity. The comic glazes over most aspects of her life and personality with utter carelessness, and it makes for a very uninteresting read.
I strongly dislike the art style. I understand that the artist was probably going for a retro feel, but I don’t think the art style complements Marylin’s story. It looks too cartoony, even if it’s being used ironically, it just looks bad.

A great elaborate read that follows Marilyns life from her start as a simple girl to her infamous death. The cartoon drawings are adorable and playful. This is a great and details account of her life, which is fantastic. It is clear that a lot of work went into making this book. A+

After a few tries of downloading this book, finally got the PDF copy. It is a cute graphic novel of Marilyn. The illustrations are gorgeous. Bring Marlyn back to live.