Cravan: Mystery Man of the Twentieth Century

November 28, 2005
It's not known what became of Arthur Cravan—boxer, poet, adventurer, hoaxer and Oscar Wilde's nephew—after he disappeared while sailing to Mexico in 1918. This graphic novel biography presents the larger-than-life incidents from his life, including various daring escapes, schemes and a scam involving boxing matches with Jack Johnson. Along the way, Cravan runs into such figures as Leon Trotsky and marries poet Mina Loy. Richardson even adds to the mystery by speculating that Cravan was also reclusive B. Traven, author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
. Geary, creator of the outstanding Treasury of Victorian Murder
series, is an excellent choice to illustrate and co-write this historical overview. His distinctive pen-and-ink style captures the reality of the times, especially when it comes to establishing settings like cluttered sitting rooms or angry groups of men in striped suits. Cravan embarrasses his family but claims it's all for experience to become a writer. Their good advice—"If you want to write, sit down and write"—is ignored in favor of more sensation seeking. The result is a life of violence and dada, a colorful footnote to the history of the era.

November 15, 2005
Nonfiction graphic novelist Geary, whose Treasury of Victorian Murder stands at seven volumes and counting, teams with Dark Horse publisher Richardson for the story of a short-lived--perhaps--figure of great fascination. Arthur Cravan (1887-?), ne Fabian Lloyd, claimed to be Oscar Wilde's nephew; labored and scammed around the world; was a charter Dadaist in Paris; met Jack Johnson in New York and sparred with him in Europe; married avant-garde poet Mina Loy; and disappeared in 1918 trying to get away from it all, or at least from government agents interested that he was pals with Trotsky. Colorful should have been his middle name--but between which first and last ones? He had more than a dozen, and one may have been B. Traven, which means Cravan may have been the reclusive author of " The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, " whose self-described "agent" famously visited the on-location filming of John Huston's movie version in Mexico in 1947. All those escapades and more Geary renders in his characteristically droll, historically observant manner. Neat. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)