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  • Me and the Devil Blues 1: The Unreal Life of Robert Johnson

Me and the Devil Blues 1: The Unreal Life of Robert Johnson Paperback – July 29, 2008

by Akira Hiramoto (Author)
CROSS ROAD BLUES

Legend has it that if you take your guitar and stand at a crossroads at the witching hour, the devil will appear. He’ll grab your instrument, play a song, and hand it back to you. You’ll walk away an expert bluesman, but you’ll have to pay the price: your immortal soul.

The year is 1929. Deep in the Mississippi Delta, a young man named R J dreams of becoming a bluesman. R J is a simple farmer who can barely play guitar, but when he takes a midnight stroll, his life is forever changed.

A phantasmagoric reimagining of the life of legendary blues great Robert Johnson, Me and the Devil Blues follows the journey of a man who really did sell his soul to the devil. Why not come along for the ride?
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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up—Hiramoto has taken the few facts and all of the legends about the father of the modern blues guitar and spun them into a fantastically haunting tale of music, self-discovery, and redemption. The book opens with Johnson struggling as a plantation hand in the 1930s, barely eking out a living for himself and his pregnant wife. He hates his way of life, and his one pleasure is slipping away at night to hear blues at a gin joint. Although he tries, he doesn't have the knack for playing. Late one night, Johnson stumbles out of the joint and passes out. He wakes up with several months of his life missing, finding that his wife and child have died and that he's now gifted with guitar skills like no one has ever heard before. Confused and frightened, he sets out on the road, where he's befriended by the charismatic thief Clyde Barrow. The two journey through the darker corners of southern America, all the while confronting racism, violence, drug abuse, and religion. Hiramoto's black-and-white art is quite different from what most readers are used to in manga. Lacking most of the cartoony devices, his realistic approach relies on strong storytelling and powerful facial expressions to get his ideas across. The volume ends on a cliff-hanger, hinting that future tales will bring even more of an emotional punch. The music and horror aspects will provide the immediate draw for readers, but Hiramoto's well-developed, mature storytelling makes this a series to watch.—Matthew L. Moffett, Pohick Regional Library, Burke, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Del Rey
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 29, 2008
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Japanese Version/Edition
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 544 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0345499263
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0345499264
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 0.01 ounces
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 16 years and up
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.15 x 1.4 x 8.1 inches
  • Best Sellers Rank: #1,543,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Erik N. Carlson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazong Manga
    Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2009
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    I read comic books. Not cape stuff, but most of this generations greats: Ellis, Gaiman, Brubaker, Etc.

    Generally I don't have time for manga (what building itself an ivory tower of stereotype). This however, is amazing. I found it while trying to find a Robert Johnson T-shirt. This is much better. There is not much else I can say that was not previously said other than, "I cna't believe this isn't one of the most talked about Manga around."
    One person found this helpful
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  • Anime Abyss
    4.0 out of 5 stars Damn good manga
    Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2011
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This is an awesome manga. It was good to see black characters, during a specific era in America, in a manga. The art is good. The story is good aswell. His encounter at the crossroads a fairly vague (I wasn't even sure when it happened) but other than that I like everything else about it. I love how they threw Clyde (from Bonnie and Clyde) in there. I would definitely recommend. I also got the second volume but haven't started reading it yet. I can't wait!! I hope they make more of this series.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Leon Spencer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2014
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    an amazing graphic novel with great art, even if you're not in to comics you should read this.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Spencer
    4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
    Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2015
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Was not in as good condition as described.
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  • GraphicNovelReporter.com
    5.0 out of 5 stars A one-of-a-kind ride that does nothing consistently if not confound expectations
    Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2009
    Format: Paperback
    It's pretty easy to see why Akira Hiramoto's fantastical reimagining of bluesman Robert Johnson's life has been so well received, even earning a place on School Library Journal's list of "Best Adult Books for High School Students."

    Me and the Devil Blues not only thoughtfully details the historical underpinnings of its subject matter, but it also evokes the blues itself so effectively that you can practically hear the music reverberating off the plank boards of the 1930s juke joints. And of course there are intriguing, if obvious, cross-cultural possibilities inherent in dealing with a distinctly American art form within the context of a distinctly Japanese one--manga. More to the point, the two volumes released so far are simply great reads: exciting, often thought-provoking, and full of surprising and sometimes innovative visuals.

    But arguably Hiramoto's real achievement is how he's created highbrow pulp of the first order. He does this by weaving the heavier thematic material and social commentary (which ranges from the subtly inspired to the crudely belabored) into a narrative fabric that grows increasingly dependent on genre conventions. Indeed, readers familiar with only the first volume (the one honored by SLJ) may be taken aback by the dramatic turn into full-scale action-adventure and Western tropes that the second one takes.

    In what at first seems to be just another episodic chapter, our protagonist forges an uneasy alliance with renowned bank robber Clyde Barrow. In the second volume, Barrow himself quickly takes center stage as "RJ" (as the gangster calls him) spends much of the time in a jail cell in the run-up to a planned lynching. In fact, Johnson doesn't sit down to play guitar until the final one of the story's 550 pages. So while Me and the Devil Blues initially uses its Faustian premise to work squarely in the Southern Gothic mode of the horror genre, Hiramoto then shifts the tempo and tone quite radically. Taking these kinds of chances with the narrative is probably to be expected, though, from an artist so adept at mixing graphic styles: compositions heavy on negative space, while silhouettes give way to woodcut-like precision in some places and more manga-like high-energy sketchiness in others.

    However, despite its intensity as a survival thriller and its occasionally exquisite creepiness, the second installment is not nearly as original as its predecessor. When the two "outlaws" are on the lam, clichés abound; we get the ol' firearms-concealed-in-an-instrument-case routine, and it's soon followed by our mismatched buddies jumping from a cliff into a river to avoid pursuers.

    Still, even if some of the territory seems familiar upon arrival, there's no telling where Hiramoto might take readers in future volumes. Combining unapologetically lurid elements with a deeply felt anguish over the injustices of the Jim Crow era, Me and the Devil Blues is a one-of-a-kind ride that does nothing consistently if not confound expectations.

    -- Peter Gutiérrez
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Top reviews from other countries

  • DrLin
    5.0 out of 5 stars A new classic
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2013
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Excellent graphic novel which I obtained easily and quickly from Amazon. Buy 1001 Graphic novels you should read fro more recommendations!
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