Reinhard Kleist

In his graphic biography Nick Cave: Mercy on Me, Reinhard Kleist paints an expressive and enthralling portrait of the musician, novelist, poet, and actor. It is, according to Nick Cave himself, “a complex, chilling and completely bizarre journey into Cave World.” Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: An Art Book collects Kleist’s moody and expressive portraits of the musician and his band, spanning 30 years of writing, recording, and live performance. Kleist also returns readers to Cave’s imaginative world with comic book reimaginings of “Deanna,” “The Good Son,” and “Stagger Lee.” Filled with visual delights, this record-size art book is a kaleidoscopic portrait of Nick Cave’s wide-ranging career as a storyteller, musician, and cultural icon.

Musician, novelist, poet, actor: Nick Cave (b. 1957) is a Renaissance man. His wide-ranging artistic output—always uncompromising, hypnotic, and intense—is defined by an extraordinary gift for storytelling. In Nick Cave: Mercy on Me, Reinhard Kleist employs a cast of characters drawn from Cave’s music and writing to tell the story of a formidable artist and influencer. Kleist paints an expressive and enthralling portrait of Cave’s childhood in Australia; his early years fronting The Birthday Party; the sublime highs of his success with The Bad Seeds; and the crippling lows of his battle with heroin. Capturing everything from Cave’s frenzied performances in Berlin to the tender moments he spent with love and muse Anita Lane, Kleist’s graphic biography, like Cave’s songs, is by turns electrifying, sentimental, morbid, and comic—but always engrossing.

LOW traces the aftermath of David Bowie’s ground-breaking tour of America, and the iconic “Berlin years” that followed. Hot on the platform heels of Starman: Bowie’s Stardust Years (SelfMadeHero, 2023), Reinhard Kleist masterfully concludes his two-part biography of David Bowie. In 1976, Bowie escaped the frantic madness and substance abuse of his life in Los Angeles for the Wall of the divided city of Berlin. With his friend Iggy Pop in tow, Bowie quit drugs and created LOW, the first album of his “Berlin Trilogy”. But even here, in some of the happiest days of his life, Ziggy Stardust would not let him go…LOW follows Bowie’s forays through West Berlin’s revolutionary music scene and wild club life, and takes us deep into his recording sessions at Hansa Studios. The friendship between Bowie and Iggy drives both artists to new creative heights, while Bowie’s relationship with the cabaret artist and drag icon Romy Haag illuminates his fascination with Berlin as a city on the brink. Kleist’s LOW is both a retelling of Bowie’s Berlin years and a vibrant portrait of the city itself. [This publication has not been prepared, approved, authorized, or licensed by the David Bowie estate or any related entity.]

In 1972, the rock’n’roll messiah ZIGGY STARDUST was born. His provocative play on sexual identity and gender roles laid the foundation for David Bowie’s ascent to becoming one of the most successful pop musicians of all time. Reinhard Kleist’s Starman weaves the gripping tale of this outrageous character’s genesis, rise, and fall, as well as of David Bowie’s hapless efforts in the London music scene before Ziggy’s arrival, and of the struggles he experienced with his own creation at the height of his fame. As Bowie transforms himself, ever more frenetically, into the egocentric rock star he first conceived, the extravagant lifestyle he had only ever imagined threatens to engulf him, and bring everything down before his eyes… [This publication has not been prepared, approved, authorized or licensed by the David Bowie estate or any related entity.]

In 2008, 17-year-old Samia Yusuf Omar stood alongside some of the fastest women in the world on the start line of the Olympic 200m. Four years later, she boarded a refugee boat to Europe, risking her life on the waters of the Mediterranean. An Olympic Dream tells the remarkable story of Samia’s attempt to compete at the London Games in 2012. Picturing her life in Mogadishu, a city ravaged by conflict where the female athlete encountered discrimination and abuse, Reinhard Kleist reveals the challenges she faced both as a sportsperson and as a woman. In doing so, he shows why Samia, like so many others, would choose to flee. Following Samia’s journey through Ethiopia, Sudan and Libya to its tragic conclusion, An Olympic Dream is a forceful statement on Europe‘s response to the refugee crisis. But it is also a moving account of a remarkable life, best remembered for a single moment: when an unlikely Olympian, dressed in knee-length leggings and a baggy t-shirt, finished in last place – and the Bird’s Nest stadium erupted.

As America moves closer to normalizing relations with Cuba, this gripping, vivid graphic novel reveals life and times of Fidel Castro, one of the twentieth century's most intriguing, charismatic, and divisive figures. The book is narrated by a German journalist named Karl Mertens, who is plunged into the searing heat of pre-revolutionary Cuba in the mid-1950s. He first meets with Castro while the latter is hiding in the mountains, then follows him through the dramatic revolution and his ascent to the presidency that, despite the Bay of Pigs confrontation and years of international trade blockades, lasts for nearly fifty years. We also witness his involvement in bloody skirmishes, failed missions, and brutal crackdowns, as well as his interactions with and on behalf of the Cuban people, which reveal as much about his fallible human qualities as they do his legend. Castro is the work of acclaimed German graphic novelist Reinhardt Kleist; it was first published in English by Selfmade Hero for the British market, and is now being made available in the United States for the first time. Bristling with energy and alive with the spirit of Cuba, Castro has much to offer about the complex politics of one of the most enduring and controversial figures in modern history. Reinhardt Kleist is the author of fourteen books, including two others available in English: The Boxer and Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness. His many awards include the BZ Cultural Award for outstanding cultural achievement from the City of Berlin.

Poland,1941. Sixteen-year-old Hertzko Haft is sent to Auschwitz. Separated from his family and his fiancée, he draws a will to survive from the thought of seeing them again. His ability to survive, though, comes from something else – a unique talent. When Haft is forced to fight against other inmates for the amusement of the SS officers, he knows the price of a loss. But his extraordinary physicality and skill make Haft a formidable boxer, and he manages to escape death. As the Soviet Army advances in April 1945, he manages to escape the Nazis as well. After the war, Haft emigrates to the US and earns a living as a heavyweight prizefighter. But his new-found fame fails to reunite him with the fiancée he left behind in Poland. Finally, after losing to heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano in 1949, Haft retires from the ring. Soon after, he is married, and building a new life for himself in Brooklyn, New York. The Boxer is a gripping and complex graphic novel – a powerful and moving story about love and the will to survive.

The graphic biography of the most famous country singer of all time - the Man in Black. Renowned graphic novelist Reinhard Kleist depicts Johnny Cash's eventful life from his early sessions with Elvis, through the concert in Folsom Prison, his spectacular comeback and the final years before his death. Cash is an idol to music fans of every generation and his entire unpredictable life as a loner, patriot, outlaw, music business rebel and a drug addict provides a complex true story for graphic novel and music fans alike.