This is an interesting concept, where we live a perceived portion of the artist's life in the format of a graphic novel. Although familiar, I am not intimately acquainted with Bowie's music and career, and there were definitely snippets that I am sure a superfan would absolutely love. For me, it felt a bit tricky to follow the "plot" and overall the work felt quite speculative and a dash like fanfic. That said, the artwork was beautiful and clear, and the layout, design and colours of the book were amazing.

Thank you to Gemini Books Group and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Icongraphics - David Bowie is an interesting look into his production process during a pivotal turning point in his career, but probably not for the reader who is looking for a more comprehensive overview of who Bowie is and why he was such an important force in shaping contemporary music.

The in media res beginning might be jarring and confusing for a reader who is unfamiliar with Bowie and his career. However, for readers familiar with the genre and period of music being covered, the insight into Bowie's relationship with Iggy Pop in the late 70s and their mutual recording processes can prove interesting. Personally, I found one of the most delightful parts of the work to be the threads it weaves between Bowie and German Expressionism. In fact, while the character style wasn't for me - the famous figures were almost unrecognizable - I really liked the interesting and emotive use of gutters, lines, and inserts throughout. In particular, I appreciated the diagonal gutters near the beginning and their reflection of the angularity of German Expressionist art and film.

Overall, I think this is a good work for a reader who is already a fan of Bowie, but not the best introduction for a more general audience.

In amongst all the graphic novel 'biographies', Icongraphics David Bowie concentrates rather on a short time in Bowie's career that defined his move away from mask and into authenticity. Set against the enigmatic Berlin, the novel explores Bowie's relationship with Iggy Pop and the process he underwent to produce Low and Heroes, albums which were turning points in his artistic journey.

Really interesting.

This graphic novel creates a vivid portrait of a particular period in Bowie's career - after the rise of glam rock with Ziggy Stardust but before his re-emergence in the 1990s. Knowing little about this era, I was drawn into the narrative, but I found it disjointed. While this may be intentional to evoke Bowie's internal chaos, unfamiliar readers may find it a barrier to entry. That would be a shame, because the art in this volume is truly phenomenal.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.

This was a fun way to learn more about David Bowie. It was interesting to see this bit illustrated and definitely brought history to life for me. I also had no idea the depths of his addiction and hate for LA. I really enjoyed this & if you like David Bowie give it a read!

Thank you to NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my review.

Graphic novel following the life of David Bowie in the Berlin years of the 1970s, exploring the background to his albums Heroes, Low, and Lodger. It also touches on his friendships with Iggy Pop, Brian Eno, and other musicians. I found it a little uninspiring and vague but I enjoyed the art style.

A really fun graphic novel version of the story of Bowie's years in Berlin. The story tells us of his possible thoughts and feelings of how he came to be in Berlin, the story behind the Lows album, time with Iggy Pop, and some of his personal demons.

I've been a big Bowie fan for years and was excited to see a graphic novel looking at a part of his life, a graphic novel is a great idea for exploring Bowie's life I think. Sadly, this just fell flat. Even though this series seems to be pretty basic introductions to famous creatives, I expected a bit more. The pacing was uneven and doesn't really bother with actually characterizing any of the people in it. It also expects you to have basic knowledge of Bowie already, so someone jumping in blind will be pretty confused. All in all, this was a disappointing one for me.
Also, another reviewer commented on the font used and I really can't agree more. I'm not sure if it wasn't also an issue with the NetGalley Reader making the whole graphic novel difficult to read but it put a lot of strain on the eyes.

I loved this charming graphic novel about my favorite period of David Bowie’s music career. I do wish it was longer in length since Berlin in the 1970s sounds so endlessly fascinating and inspiring. I hope there will be a forthcoming graphic novel all about Brian Eno in the near future.

I didn't think there was a book about bowie that was yet to be written that would offer a fresh story. Let's be real, so many books about David Bowie have been released over the years, mostly with the same information. However I thought this book was very well done. I think it was genius to write it through a graphic novel/comic perspective. It really worked well with how visual bowie was in life, as well as being able to portray his creativity and expressive mind. I would love to see more of these types of books, and honestly would love more of them that tell the story of some of the greats. I will be seeing if the author has done others, as I found this book very insightful. Thank you for allowing me to read this.

Icongraphics - David Bowie is a graphic novel that tells the story of David Bowie behind the extravagant showmanship.

This was unfortunately a hard DNF for me around 23%. I'm usually not one to DNF a graphic novel, especially about something I'm interested in. However there were multiple factors that led me to DNFing this.

The primary factor that led me to DNFing this graphic novel was the font used. I know it's a more typical font within the graphic novel scene - however the spacing between letters made it nearly impossible for me to read the words. At first I thought it was simply that my eyes were fatigued from reading all day, so I slept on it and returned to the graphic novel the following day. However, that was unfortunately not the case and I still found the font difficult to read after returning to it.

The other factor is that this graphic novel does jump around a lot. Even with the beginning, it's slightly hard to follow and picture at what point we're at within Bowie's life.

In my opinion this graphic novel is definitely something that will be more of a collectors item to put on display than something to actually read.

The art and illustration is absolutely gorgeous! It was a bit slow and stilted to start and it took me a little longer than I normally like to get into it, but overall an interesting and mildly enjoyable read.

As a Bowie fan I was excited to read this and at first it really worked for me. It opens by asking 'Who was David Bowie to David Bowie?' and those early pages feel personal and thoughtful. The art is cool and fits the Berlin mood, and I liked how Iggy Pop and Brian Eno show up as actual characters and not just background names.

But the middle started feeling like bits of Wikipedia pasted into panels. It tells you facts about albums and songs instead of showing you Bowie's story, and it loses some of the emotional pull it had at the start. The ending picks up a little with Bowie talking about finding joy in simple things, but by then I felt a bit disconnected.

Rating: 3.5/5 – visually striking and worth checking out for fans, but the storytelling could flow better.

I don’t know how to feel about this. I liked the illustrations, their colours and placements, but I felt like the execution was somewhat undone. I think that to enjoy this book, you have to be a big fan of Bowie. You can’t be only someone who enjoys the music, you also have to be interested in his personal life. I tought I was a fan, but while reading this, I felt like I was missing pieces of a puzzle. I don’t think everyone could read this and enjoy it.

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book.

I didn’t know what to expect but it wasn’t that. This felt like a story mixed with a Reddit thread of someone stating what all Bowie’s songs were about. It felt super choppy at times and felt like it jumped around a lot. The artwork wasn’t my favorite but it wasn’t bad by any means.

Really vibrant and interesting art work. I am a big fan of Bowie and I loved this Icongraphics books. Thanks for the opportunity to take a look!

Amo David Bowie, anche grazie a mio padre che è suo fan da sempre, e penso che questa graphic novel dalla sua non abbia solo i disegni pazzeschi, ma anche una storia che ti tiene incollato per tutte e 65 le pagine. È sempre bello entrare nella mente di un genio come era Bowie, il Duca Bianco, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, e il pretesto di usare un'intervista di fine anni 70 per raccontare la storia la trovo un'idea geniale. Sicuramente mio padre lo leggerà volentieri!