Audrey Hepburn

Italian comics writer Botton (Quentin Tarantino: A Graphic Biography) captures Audrey Hepburn’s trademark charisma in this sunny, if surface-level, graphic biography of the actor, who died in 1993. Discovered at age 20 by the novelist Collette, who declares Hepburn to be the perfect lead for the Broadway production of her novella Gigi, the doe-eyed European beauty gets whisked to America—and faces few obstacles to stardom: “I just pretended to be someone else, like little girls do when they play, and I won an Oscar,” she says. In no time, despite her “Dutch accent... or strange face,” Hepburn’s swept to the top of the 1950s Hollywood box office, starring in Roman Holiday, Sabrina, and Funny Face. Her personal life is rockier, and the narrative portrays her three marriages and efforts to have children as an ongoing struggle and search for love. Later in life, she becomes a UNICEF ambassador, leveraging her fame to support global poverty relief. Botton breezes through it all with excellent research but minimal insight. The main draw is Giacchetto’s expressive art, which ably depicts Hepburn’s bright elegance, Hollywood’s midcentury glamour, and a closetful of spectacular fashion ensembles. Film fans ought to pick this up simply to bask in Hepburn’s glow. (Nov.)