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Comics & Graphic Novels Biography & Memoir

Muybridge

by (author) Guy Delisle

translated by Helge Dascher & Rob Aspinall

Publisher
Drawn & Quarterly Publications
Initial publish date
Apr 2025
Category
Biography & Memoir
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781770467729
    Publish Date
    Apr 2025
    List Price
    $34.95

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Description

How do you capture a changing world in the blink of an eye?
Sacramento, California, 1870. Pioneer photographer Eadweard Muybridge becomesentangled in railroad robber baron Leland Stanford’s delusions of grandeur. Tasked withproving Stanford’s belief that a horse’s hooves do not touch the ground while galloping atfull speed, Muybridge gets to work with his camera. In doing so, he inadvertently createsone of the single most important technological advancements of our age—the invention oftime-lapse photography and the mechanical ability to capture motion.
Critically-acclaimed cartoonist Guy Delisle (Pyongyang, Hostage) returns with anotherengrossing foray into nonfiction: a biography about Eadweard Muydbridge, the man whomade pictures move. Despite career breakthrough after career breakthrough, Muybridgewould only be hampered by betrayal, intrigue, and tragedy. Delisle’s keen eye for detailsthat often go unnoticed in search of a broader emotional truth brings this historical figureand those around him to life through an uncompromising lens.
Translated from the French by Helge Dascher & Rob Aspinall, Muybridge turns a spotlighton what lives in the shadow of an individual’s ambition for greatness, and proves thatEadweard Muybridge deserves to be far more than just another historical footnote.

About the authors

Born in Québec City, Canada, in 1966, Guy Delisle now lives in the south of France with his wife and two children. Delisle spent ten years working in animation, which allowed him to learn about movement and drawing. He is best known for his travelogues about life in faraway countries: Burma Chronicles, Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, Pyongyang, and Shenzhen. He has since expanded his oeuvre by telling a Doctors Without Borders acquaintance’s story as a nail-biting thriller (Hostage) and revisiting his teen years and first summer job (Factory Summers).

Guy Delisle's profile page

Helge Dascher has for 25 years translated texts with a dynamic relationship to images. A background in art history and literature has grounded her translation of over sixty graphic novels, many by artists who have broadened the medium's storytelling range. Her translations included acclaimed titles such as Julie Delporte's This Woman's Work (co-translated with Aleshia Jensen, Drawn and Quarterly, 2019), Sophie Bédard's Lonely Boys (co-translated with Robin Lang, Pow Pow Press, 2020) and Michel Rabagliati's "Paul" books (Drawn and Quarterly, Conundrum). She also translates exhibitions, digital stories, and films, most recently Theodor Ushev's The Physics of Sorrow (with Karen Houle, NFB, 2019). A Montrealer, she works from French and German to English.

Helge Dascher's profile page

Rob Aspinall's profile page

Editorial Reviews

Delisle, a former animator, has a knack for visual shorthand (his self-­portrait is a few jauntily canted lines with dots for eyes) and for drawing environments.

The New York Times

Minimal line[s and] personable observational style.

The Paris Review

[Delisle] must be counted as one of the greatest cartoonists of our age.

The Guardian

Delisle's graphic novels take readers on journeys both startlingly unfamiliar and some perhaps all too relatable.

CBC Books

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