[dropcap style=”font-size:100px;color:#992211;”]T[/dropcap]o call Andy: A Factual Fairytale – The Life and Times of Andy Warhol exhaustive and in-depth would be to undersell it. Illustrated and written by Typex, the biography covers the entire life of the artist himself and clocks in at an impressive 562 pages, so it’s not for the faint of heart.
The book is split into 10 parts, each covering a period of the artist’s life, from birth to death, and is written using anecdotes from Warhol’s nephew as well as an impressive bibliography—not something you see at the end of every graphic novel!
The art style changes dramatically as we move through the different sections of Warhol’s life. It often reflects aspects of his life and art, from the comics of his childhood, through his most iconic work, and into the neon graffiti-laden streets of his later years. The art throughout dances wonderfully along the lines between ugly and beautiful, between caricature and reality, and consistently adds to the dreamlike atmosphere throughout the book.
Andy: A Factual Fairytale doesn’t shy away from the gritty details of the life of the artist, and you’ll find plenty of nudity, profanity, drug use, and sexual content throughout the pages. The matter-of-fact presentation of these often controversial topics only serves to bring a sense of reality, and often a touch of humanity, to a set of stories that could easily have ended up coming off as entirely pretentious and frivolous, being centred mostly on successful artists in New York City.
As an introduction to the life and times of Andy Warhol, you could do a lot worse than to pick up Andy: A Factual Fairytale. For non-fans of his work it is likely to be far too long and dense, but for those already interested in his life and art, this might just be exactly the book you’re looking for.
Andy: A Factual Fairytale is available now
[button link=”https://www.amazon.co.uk/Andy-Life-Times-Warhol-Masters/dp/1910593583/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1541088172&sr=1-1&keywords=typex” newwindow=”yes”] Andy: A Factual Fairytale on Amazon[/button]
