Reader's Diary #2257- Nicolas Finet (writer), Christopher (artist), Montana Kay (translator): Love Me Please/ The Story of Janis Joplin (1943-1970)

The preface of Love Me Please: The Story of Janis Joplin (1943-1970) is a mere 3 short paragraphs, written by Gilbert Shelton, an old university friend of Joplin's. About the book itself, he writes, "Christopher's biography of Janis doesn't deal with her legend, only the facts." It's not exactly the most glowing, nor insightful, of prefaces and I wondered why they'd even include it. 

While it's not the most detailed of biographies, I actually think it was more artistic than Mr. Shelton made it sound. It's narrated, for instance, by the spirits of Joplin's idols: Bessie Smith, Odetta, and Ma Rainey. And the art is great, especially the depiction of Joplin's addictions as growing tentacles. 

It wasn't perfect though, and definitely could have use some editing. The most egregious mistake was a page where a text block was repeated twice on the page, and you can tell it was someone trying to figure out where the best placement was and two choices slipped through. 

Shoddy quality control and a weak preface aside, I still enjoyed learning more about Joplin and her tragically short life. You can tell the creators respected her, but they still didn't attempt to hide any flaws.