Love in Vain: Robert Johnson, 1911–1938, the Graphic Novel

Everyone knows that Robert Johnson supposedly met the devil at a crossroads and that’s where he got his gift for ungodly guitar playing—to this day, his skill seems almost supernatural. Dupont’s graphic biography of America’s most infamous bluesman doesn’t aim to answer that question, although it suggests that the answer would be “hardship and hard times.” The basics of Johnson’s brief life are detailed in a dark and almost succulent level of prewar woodcut-style detail by artist Mezzo. Dupont’s intimate and prying narrative tracks Johnson’s life closely from his dirt-poor Mississippi youth through his later vagabond years as a womanizing roamer and guitar slinger. Dupont takes an interventionist role in the narrative, interrupting it to provide his own opinion and noting where the biographical record is incomplete. The key question of the devil’s involvement is left for readers to decide. (Nov.)