'In creating The Little Tramp, Charlie Chaplin became a legend. Who remembers now that he was English, that he came up from nothing, that he made his fortune in the United States, that he had to flee the country under pressure from McCarthyism, or that he created the very first production house run by artists? Full of humour, the “Stars of History” collection offers a fresh new look at the legends of cinema.'
I knew a little about Charlie Chaplin going into this book, and by a little I mean the bare minimum, that he was from the UK, and was a silent movie actor. Which is a pretty basic understanding to say the least. So, a book that would provide an overview of his life in a clear and understandable way was something that definitely piqued my interest.
I've not read any of the Stars of History series before, so had no idea what to expect going in, and at first I was a little surprised at how quickly the book moved. Sometimes the narrative would jump by months or years, but I never felt lost because of it, and it quickly became clear that if the book didn't move through events quickly it would have to be five times as long.
There were occassions where I wished more time could have been spent establishing some of the people who appeared in the narrative, and exactly who they were, as some people appeared one page, has an effect on Chaplin's life, then is gone by the next page. I know that it's because of the limits of the format, rather than an issue with the writing, but it did leave me feeling lacking at times.
However, the book covers a lot of ground, and manages to include a huge amount of events that happened during Chaplin's life, events that I had no idea about. I didn't know that he made as many films as he did, that he played a part in founding United Artists, that he was chased out of the US because of McCarthyism, or that he has multiple sexual encounters with underage girls.
Bernard Swysen doesn't hold back some of the less savoury aspects of Chaplin's life, he doesn't try to make him a saint or a villain, but simply allows the reader to make their own decisions based on the events as they were. It allows the reader to decide themselves how they think of him, whether they consider him a good person or not.
The book also made me want to learn more about the man, to go and find another biography about him, so that I can delve a little more into some of the details that the book is unable to cover in depth. I went into it not knowing anything about Chaplin, but came out fascinated by the man, eager to learn more, and feeling like I had a decent grasp of the broad strokes of his story, and all from a graphic novel that's only ninety pages long; I think that's pretty incredible.
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