Review - Feynman by Jim Ottaviani and Leland Myrick

Feynman is a biography. I'm not usually much a fan of biographies, but in this case it's a biography of the titular Mr. Richard Feynman- a very famous scientist who is sadly no longer with us, so I thought I'd give it a crack. There's only really two reasons why anyone reads a biography; the first is that you're already interested in the person it's about so want to know how they came to be the way they are, the second is you want to see if you too can extract some life-lessons from their experiences. So, the question is- are you and can you?

                Truth be told, Jim Ottaviani, the author of this bio, pens himself into an awkward position before even the first panel, saying in his dedication that

'If the laws of physics allowed, I'd go back to thank whoever it was that first showed me "Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman!" Then I would read it again.'

Which brings up a very damning point- This is not the first Biography written about Feynman, and if he enjoyed it so much, why should we bother to read this one? What's more, the other biographies were autobiographies penned by Richard Feynman himself. So in what sense is Feynman needed?

                Well, for one, it condenses things. The narrative touches on a lot of events throughout his life but you get the distinct impression that Ottaviani has cherry-picked and rearranged details in order to provide a smoother, more interesting narrative- if a point in the future is relevant to something being discussed at the moment, he has no problems throwing linearity out of the window. At first this is a little jarring, but as soon as you start expecting it and disengage from convention, it does a much better job tying themes and moments together than would otherwise be feasible in a straight A-to-B story...and somehow works to reflect the meandering thoughts of the titular character as he strolls through life. The tone is consistently light-hearted and semi-detached, more interested in the little things in life and only occasionally stopping to clarify his opinions on larger philosophical points, offering maybe a glib comment to paste over the cracks until they can be more appropriately addressed later on.

They're talking about the Atomic Bomb, just so you know.

                Sometimes it makes the moments of grief seem spurious or like they didn't affect him much, how it just glides from them into other things. No tragedy defined him. But then how often does tragedy actually change someone? How often does tragedy strike? So I'm inclined to put this down as a strength of the piece rather than a weakness...there is a feeling, though, that not every scene that's included is strictly necessary, a little editing and shaving down of some of the asides would have gone a long way to making this a more coherent piece.

                Despite this, though the writing can get dense in places it's never overwhelming, (though it might be fair to say that some parts might be daunting if you've forgotten your high-school physics classes), and most importantly Ottaviani knows when to drop the text entirely for some panels in order to change the momentum to suit the mood. He knows what he wants on the page, and it's good to see from a writer.

                ...Which is just as well, as it's really the art that you're here for- the one thing that Feynman's own autobiographies didn't have and by far the most important thematic aspect of this book. Feynman himself was quite the fan of art and artistic expression- indeed, his most famous creation was a diagram- and Leland Myrick does an excellent job in using his own illustrations to explain and expand upon the text Ottaviani puts down to make even the more complex ideas accessible

Give it a minute.

-All while infusing the book with eccentric character; the spindly-yet-accurate linework bringing to mind sketching with a technical pen (an apt choice for a physicist) with the bold unshaded colouring providing clear contrast between the forms those lines are trying to depict. It's the kind of clear obviousness you'd see in a calculation, but with more vibrancy- a flattering portrayal of the kind of character Feynman was

                Which isn't to say it's entirely without its faults. The women tend to look very similar to each other, and the colour-coding as you slide through the timelines doesn't seem to have any meaning or cause behind it other than to note that you've passed into some other era, which can add to the jarring effect that the sudden timeline jumps create.

                So. To go back to our first points...are you interested in Richard Feynman and can you learn from his life? I'd say he's certainly niche...but comics are niche anyway, so I'm sure that if you've even bothered to read this far you will likely get something out of this biography- Feynman has some good lessons to give beyond just physics.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself. You are the easiest person to fool.

With everything done in a style that can get you to rethink things in your own life; a strange perspective that Feynman himself was famous for and which Ottaviani has managed to capture brilliantly.

I suppose the experience of reading this was very familiar to how I felt about the man when I first heard of him, back in college. Back when I was studying physics I saw a lot of Feynman diagrams. Useful as they were, I never thought it vital to know the life of the man who made them. Reading Feynman, that opinion hasn't changed...but to quote the man himself, though the book isn't vital, it *is* very 'in-ter-est-ing'.