Johnny Cash: I see a Darkness is a graphic novel by Reinhard Kleist. It chronicles the early life, rise to fame, crash and eventual rebirth of the Man in Black and his career.
Each section begins with one of the songs he was so well known for done in comic form, including a brawl with the Boy named Sue and his Pa, a man shot in Reno during the Folsom Prison Blues, and Ghost Riders in the Sky telling cowboy Johhny to change his ways, lest he want to join their ride.
I really enjoyed this book. The artwork is simple, yet detailed. Kleist's black and white drawings, expertly shaded, add dimension and life to the pages. Cash looks like Cash. I think I would have preferred to read more about his later life. This graphic novel covers the same events that the movie, "Walk the Line," covers, with even less about the relationship growing between Johnny and June.
Kleist uses Glen Sherley, a former inmate at Folsom Prison who wrote Cash's song Greystone Chapel, as a narrative tool. Sherley is telling a fellow inmate everything he knows about Johnny from reading the "yellow papers." Through Sherley, we see Cash from a starstruck point of view, but as an inmate he is impressed with Cash not because he is famous, but because he is a man who knows what it is like to yearn for freedom, like the prisoners. He doesn't make excuses for Cash, and the story deals with the gritty details of Johnny's failed marriage, drug addiction, drunk driving and arrests.
For Kleist to have fit as much of Cash's life into the story and still have it read as a good narrative, and not an encyclopedia entry, is impressive. If I had picked this novel up knowing nothing about Johnny Cash, I would have felt like I'd learned quite a bit in the hour or so it took me to read the story. I recomend this to anyone who is a fan of Cash, or graphic novels in general.
Rating: 4/5
Bonus:
Ain't No Grave, Video done with 1000 drawings
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