This seems to be a really interesting graphic novel and the artwork certainly adds to the dark gritty feel of the story. Unfortunately I can’t review this on Goodreads or Amazon because I only had a sample. It does seem like a great story though. I wish I had the rest of the book to read.

This was an excerpt of a book but I will definitely buy it. It is so beautifully illustrated and tells the tale of a mysterious woman who posed as a German actress and mingled with many famous artists. Will we ever know the full truth behind her story? This book is a great start to solving the mystery. The illustrations are incredibly detailed and fit the story so well. It was clear the great care and effort that went into the making of this book. This book would be a great gift.

Thank you to Netgalley and Fantagraphics Books for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

What I've read looks great, lovely expressive art, an interesting story. But because it's only an excerpt, I can't review it for Goodreads.

Fascinating, but flawed – not perhaps as flawed as giving a full review file, which of course means nobody gets a full review.

a sad, dark grotesque story of maria lani life leading from antisemitic poland to the roaring 20s in paris and the nazi occupation of europe through her eyes
with the help of her husband, maria convinces 50 artists to depict her in 50 different ways for a movie and conning a man into paying for a movie that would never come to life
traveling the world with the art they eventually disappear 1931
the grotesque yet beautiful art follows her life after working in nyc and eventually returning to paris

This was a preview of 100 pages of this upcoming graphic novel, and I'm definitely going to buy this fascinating story about a woman trying to survive in the INter-War years, while pretending to be a famous actress. I really liked the art style-it felt very appropriate for the period of history it's set in.

I'm always fascinated by unusual true stories and this was definitely one of those! The graphic novel way of telling the story suited the setting, both time and place, perfectly, with the drawings being able to show the darkness and hideousness of what was going in without writing about it. It gelled excellently with the story.
I was fascinated by Maria's life and journey, and I now want to know more about her - surely that's exactly what any good type of non-fiction does? Engage you, entertain you but leave you with more questions?
A great book - clever, informative and engaging.

Maria Lani's story is quite interesting: a Polish woman with a difficult childhood who marries a scammer and with whom she works all over the country until they are forced to flee the country, which is where the NetGalley exhibition ends. Apparently, once in Paris, they are so convincing in their scams that they get most of the outstanding painters of the moment to paint her and set up an exhibition whose trail is lost once out of the country.

The drawing is a very detailed black and white, but also a little ugly in its approach to people, which it presents in a grotesque way that has not convinced me.

This wasn't a full book, what I did read was interesting but felt a slow start and I was left hanging without anymore info.
The illustrations weren't in a style I would typically enjoy, so if I hadn't received a partial advance copy I probably wouldn't have read any of it.

A fascinating look into history. A surreal quality to the art, like Tenniel’s Alice illustrations by way of Marvin Peake.

If your summary promises to tell the story of this big heist, what attracts most of us to read this comic/graphic novel is the promise of said heist. In that sense, I personally find it a big mistake to provide only such a small sample of pages that have nothing to do with the premise.

The art is fantastic, with this grotesque quality that I find it really fits what little of the story we were given, but the pages just go so fast, I could barely start getting into the reasons why Maria decided to became a con artist before it ended.

It has potential but the sample is too small to properly judge.

★☆☆☆☆ Disjointed and Disappointing

"The Woman With Fifty Faces" by Jonathan Lackman promises complexity and intrigue but delivers confusion and pretension instead. What should have been a layered exploration of identity ends up as a muddled mess of pseudo-intellectual meandering. The narrative lacks cohesion, the characters are shallow despite their supposed multiplicity, and the prose often feels more like it's trying to impress than to express. Lackman's overindulgence in metaphor and fragmented storytelling sacrifices emotional depth and clarity. By the end, I felt like I had read fifty disconnected ideas rather than a single compelling story. Hugely underwhelming. There are few mistakes as well. I the intro the Author's name was Jon Lankman and not Jon Lackman. In addition this is only sampled 99 pages and not a complete 232 pages comic book as mentioned on NetGalley or other websites. Sketchy art was good but expressions were so bad.

This wasn't for me. I was excited about the premise of the story, but the end result just didn't work for me. I didn't realize this was only a sample, so while reading I was sometimes confused due to the disjointed feeling in the telling (this may be due to the selected sample pages and not the actual story line). The art also wasn't enjoyable to me.

This is an intriguing concept—exploring identity through fifty shifting personas. The writing is imaginative, with moments of brilliance that delve deep into human nature. However, the sheer number of perspectives can feel overwhelming, and some characters lack depth. While the ambition is admirable, the execution stumbles in places. Still, a thought-provoking read for fans of experimental fiction.

As the subtitle describes, the greatest art heist (and celebrity disappearance) of 20th century Europe was actually the work of a Polish con artist couple. I devoured this historic mystery in graphic form, and will continue returning to look over the art and details again and again. With each perusal more of this amazing story comes to light - different perspectives from various artists' work crystalize and become recognizable, and with focus chaotic timelines of war and economics align and illuminate. The art of Zachary J Pinson, research of author Jon Lackman, and genius of Mr and Mrs Max and Maria Abramowicz are all outstanding.

I thank Fantagraphics Books and NetGalley for the preview galley on Kindle, and will definitely get myself a proper version of the complete book soonest. Publisher release is scheduled for July 22, 2025.

I was able to check out the first 100 pages of this from NetGalley. It’s a really beautifully rendered, pencil-scratchy impressionistic slow glimpse into history. The art is wholly original, breathtakingly evocative and an emotional slow journey. You really feel the sadness, desperation, and inspiration of the genesis of an actress. I did not want this preview to end and was especially fascinated with the way it rendered Jean Cocteau. Something about the way this is drawn allows you to see the characters’ internal struggles and their dreams toward idealized transformations. I want to read the rest!

This is a really fascinating story that I had never heard of before. The artwork is interesting and the interpretation is compelling.

3.5 stars

She arrived in Paris with no fame to her name, yet left behind a myth that outlived her. The Woman with Fifty Faces traces the strange, haunting story of Maria Lani—a woman who convinced the greatest artists of her time to paint her, only to vanish from history almost as suddenly as she appeared. In this graphic biography, fact and illusion dance in shadow, brought vividly to life through stark, unsettling illustrations and a narrative that resists certainty.

This graphic novel stands out for its distinctive artistic style. Rendered entirely in intricate black and white pen and ink, with dense cross-hatching and expressive lines, the visuals are nothing short of hypnotic. Pinson’s art channels expressionist moods—equal parts brutal and tender. The monochrome palette adds a gritty, atmospheric depth, while faces are often distorted or exaggerated to convey raw, unsettling emotion.

The narrative unfolds like a hall of mirrors. The book artfully establishes that Maria Lani’s entire persona was a meticulously crafted illusion. We see her orchestrating "hype," drawing crowds, and using the façade of luxury to establish her credibility. The story cleverly juxtaposes her public grandeur with her private reality.

At its heart, The Woman With Fifty Faces is a profound exploration of identity as a performance. The historical backdrop adds poignancy and weight. The book doesn't shy away from the darker undercurrents of the era – the "vulgar glamour and decadence of 1920s Paris," but also the looming shadows of "Poland’s antisemitic pogroms" and the "Nazi occupation of France." This tumultuous backdrop adds a layer of urgency and danger to Maria's story, suggesting that her reinvention might have been born out of necessity as much as ambition. 

The story is left midair , much like Lani herself—part illusion, part history. In its final frame, the book turns to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, as if to say: this was never just biography, but myth. Maria Lani becomes one of Ovid’s shapeshifters—her identity slipping between truth and performance, illusion and reinvention.

I closed the book not with answers, but with a quiet disquiet. It doesn’t offer resolution—only the lingering weight of reflection. Yet it leaves an indelible impression, its stark visuals and fragmented narrative style continuing to echo long after the final page.

I didn't realize this was a sample instead of an ARC, si I can't properly review incomplete material.

An aspiring film actress, Maria Lani pretended to be a star and managed to persuade over 50 artists to draw her, including Cocteau, Matisse and Chagall. She is a person I hadn't really heard of before, and yet she has been immortalized in seminal paintings and sculptures through her "ruse."

Maria Lani was a Polish Jew living in a time where pogroms and antisemitism in general were rife, and the art in the novel encapsulated the dreary atmosphere, but cinematically too, in black-and-white— presenting Maria's charm and beauty back then. The style is also characterized by caricatures which I think fit the tone and register of the biography.

It's hard to judge a 100-page sampler fully but I would give it 3.75 to 4 stars out of 5 based on what I've read and seen. Definitely an important biography that I feel more people should be more exposed to.

Thank you Fantagraphics and NetGalley for the partial eARC, all opinions are my own.