Black & White
The Rise and Fall of Bobby Fischer
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Author Julian Voloj and award-winning illustrator Wagner Willian’sBlack & White is the first graphic novel biography following the life of Bobby Fischer, from chess wunderkind and national hero to his eventual spiral into madness and infamy.
The life of Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) had many unexpected moves—from his solitary childhood to his stratospheric accomplishments in the world of competitive chess, and eventually, his decent into mental illness and disgrace.
Black & White begins in Brooklyn, where Fischer was born and raised by a single mother. By the time he was a teen, he had established himself as a loner and dropped out of school. But none of that mattered; he had found his true calling—chess. In 1972, Fischer played what many consider “the game of the century” against the Soviet Union’s chess champion Boris Spassky at the height of the Cold War. Later, Fischer became the youngest-ever US Chess Champion and the game’s youngest grandmaster. Never before had chess received such international attention. Fischer, whose sole focus in life up until then was chess, reached the Olympus of chess at 29, and then . . . he disappeared. Suffering from mental illness, the chess genius became increasingly paranoid, lost in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories—despite the fact that he himself was Jewish—and died as a fugitive in Iceland.
Black & White is a beautiful and fascinating work that reveals Fischer’s history while also contextualizing his lasting impact on pop culture and examining the legacy he left behind.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Voloj (The Joe Shuster Story) and Willian depict in a straightforward bio-comic the life and legacy of chess grandmaster Fischer (1943–2008). From his prodigy days in the tenements of Brooklyn to his world championship against Boris Spassky in 1972, Fischer's talent and artistry on the chessboard are adroitly drawn, and his intense animosity toward Soviet dominance of the game ups the Cold War stakes of his one-man battle against the Russians. Fischer's spark and passion for gameplay is tempered by his misanthropic later years, when he descended into antisemitism and conspiracy theories. Though an admirer encouraged Fischer to return to public life, including a rematch with Spassky, Fischer's paranoia and demons followed him to an exile in Iceland, where he died at the age of 64 (the same number as there are squares on a chessboard). A balanced treatment of a controversial figure emerges through detailed black-and-white art, though the abbreviated script can't match the thoroughness of prose biographies such as Endgame by Frank Brady. Still, it's a worthy primer on the spectacular sway Fischer held in the public imagination in America and around the world.
