Andy: A Factual Fairytale

Andy Warhol is hailed as the master of art as mass production, a man with a prescient awareness of the power of consumerism, who foresaw the modern obsession with glamour and sensation. Lauded and despised for his fixation on image, superficiality and fame, Warhol — coiner of the phrase ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ — emerges in this biography as a prophet of our celebrity-centric, selfie culture.

Andy consists of ten sections devoted to the distinct periods in Warhol’s life, each illustrated in a radically different style to reflect Warhol’s constant drive for renewal. In his work and in his personal life, Warhol repeatedly broke free of styles, places and people: in the course of over 500 pages, we see him successively embrace pop art, flower power, punk and hip-hop only to move on and leave them behind.

Each chapter is preceded by twelve mini-biographies. Together they read like a Who’s Who of the 20th century, from Shirley Temple to Ayatollah Khomeini, from Lou Reed to Donald Trump. This overload of personalities stands in stark contrast to Warhol’s loneliness: Typex depicts him as a man who yearns for genuine contact yet who grows frightened when people come too close. This is highlighted by the touching rendition of the complex relationship between Warhol and his mother, in whom he never confided about his homosexuality.

Andy: A Factual Fairytale is a monumental graphic novel: multi-layered, funny and moving. It is also a visual spectacle, packed with sly nods and winks to the art and music of Warhol’s life and times.