Miles Davis (1926-1991) was one of the greatest jazz trumpeters and composers of all time. But his turbulent life was almost as interesting as his music.
Now that life is being shared, and in grand visual style, courtesy of Dave Chisholm’s new graphic novel biography Miles Davis And The Search For The Sound (hardcover). In the following email interview, Chisholm discusses what went into this book, including how his own skills on the trumpet made it that much better.
One has only to go out on Halloween, and look at the happy faces of every kid wearing fangs and a cape, to see the influence of actor Béla Lugosi, the iconic star of 1931’s classic horror movie Dracula.
But while that may be his most memorable role, Lugosi didn’t just play dashing and dangerous, and he didn’t just act. All of which is presented in Robert Cremer’s upcoming biography, Béla Lugosi: The Man Behind The Cape, which has just launched a Kickstarter that includes some special (and exclusive) editions of the book.
In the following email interview, Cremer discusses what’s in Cape, as well as what approach he took to this biography.
As anyone who’s read it will tell you, Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 novel Slaughterhouse-Five is a classic. But it also has a backstory that’s as interesting as the novel itself. It’s this backstory that writer Tom Roston covers in his new book, The Writer’s Crusade: Kurt Vonnegut And The Many Lives Of Slaughterhouse-Five (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook). In the following email interview, Roston discusses how he came to write it, and what he got out of it.