Chico & Rita

by Javier Mariscal, Fernando Trueba

Overview

Cuba, 1948. Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unite them, but their journey brings heartache and torment. From Havana to New York, Paris, Hollywood, and Las Vegas, two passionate individuals battle impossible odds to unite in music and love.

Javier Mariscal’s art perfectly captures the steamy, vibrant atmosphere of 1940s Havana and transports the reader back to a time filled with music and romance. Based on the true story of Grammy Award–winning Cuban pianist and bandleader Bebo Valdes, this graphic novel is adapted from the animated feature film Chico & Rita, directed by Trueba and Mariscal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781906838294
Publisher:	ABRAMS
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Fernando Trueba is a multiaward-winning writer, director, and producer, with a career spanning more than three decades in film, television, documentaries, theater, and music. Javier Mariscal is an artist and designer working in multiple fields, including illustration, graphics, comic books, paintings, animation, interiors, product design, furniture, and web design. He has a long-standing association with the New Yorker.

Editorial Reviews

Set in 1940s Cuba and New York City, this story started out as an animated feature film about a piano player and a singer, and was nominated for an academy award. Both Cubans of African descent, the would-be lovers must deal with discrimination, exploitation, romantic rivals, and geo-cultural boundaries in order to pursue their art and each other. Their charming and poignant romance is drawn with lovely bande dessinée-style color art in a simple, loose style. Nudity and sex make this one for older teens up.

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