I have wanted to read Messenger: The Legend of Muhammad Ali by Marc Bernardin and illustrated by Ron Salas for a while now. It is from the company First Second. Their graphic novels are usually fun, educational, clever, unique and interesting. I might not like all of them, but I do appreciate them. And while I am not a fan of Muhammad Ali, I have enjoyed a few biographies of the man, so I figured why not try this one.
The introduction to things comes out and says this is the essence of Ali and not a true biography. If you try to use it for your history report, you will fail. I had to remind myself of this a few times as I was thinking, “I wonder how “true” this scene and/or situation is.” Such as, I am assuming that Ali probably did run the street of the village he was in while in Zaire, but the individual conversation with the young boy probably did not happen. I had to remember it was honestly a poetic story that hits the highlights of Ali’s life, but does it as an aspect of his persona.
The illustrations are realistic, but some are more “true” to the person than others. Some of the scenes at the Olympics in Atlanta looked as if they were a photograph that was blurred to give it an illustrated look. The black and white coloring gives it a certain tone of “then” and almost otherworldly. While reading, I was not aware that Bernardin is also the author of Adora and the Distance. And while the two are far from similar, now I know, I can feel the same style of writing. Yet, if you did not like one, that is fine as the other is different.