Johnny Cash: I See A Darkness
By Reinhard Kleist
Translated by Michael Waaler
Paperback with flaps, 224 pp, £14.99
Johnny Cash was a seventeen-time Grammy winner who sold more than 90 million albums in his lifetime and became an icon of American music in the twentieth century. Graphic novelist Reinhard Kleist depicts Cash's eventful life, from his early sessions with Elvis Presley in 1956 through the 1968 concert in Folsom Prison, his spectacular comeback in the 1990s and the final years before his death in 2003.
Nominated for an Eisner Award, Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness vividly portrays the unpredictable, turbulent life of a loner, patriot, outlaw and music business rebel with all the drama and character befitting a man who became a legend in his own lifetime.
Nominated for an Eisner Award, Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness vividly portrays the unpredictable, turbulent life of a loner, patriot, outlaw and music business rebel with all the drama and character befitting a man who became a legend in his own lifetime.
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Reinhard Kleist
Reinhard Kleist, born in 1970 in Hürth, Cologne, has worked and lived as an illustrator and comic book artist in Berlin since 1996. He made his international breakthrough in 2006 with the biographical comic book Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness, which was awarded the renowned Max and Moritz Prize and nominated for both the Eisner and Harvey Awards. With The Boxer in 2013, Kleist became the first cartoonist to receive the German Youth Literature Prize. In 2017, Kleist once again tackled one of music’s great storytellers in Nick Cave: Mercy on Me, which was simultaneously released in many languages. In 2018, Kleist was honoured for his work with the Max and Moritz Prize for Best German-Language Comic Book Artist. In 2021, Kleist tackled another extraordinary boxing champion, Emile Griffith, in the comic book Knock Out! His critically acclaimed graphic biography of David Bowie forms two parts: Starman: Bowie’s Stardust Years (SelfMadeHero, 2023) and LOW: Bowie’s Berlin Years (SelfMadeHero, 2025).
Reviews
"A tour de force."
— The Guardian
"The Man in Black has become the Man in Black and White... a handsome addition to Cash mythology."
— Financial Times
"Way beyond any stereotypes people may have about comics and graphic novels."
— The Independent
"Cash may be six years dead, but the Man in Black is alive and still kicking."
— The Washington Post