I had been waiting for years for BDMUSIC, a French publishing company, to release the story of Ike & Tina on comics for years. With previous releases about Nat King Cole, Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez it was predictable that Tina’s story would see the light of the day on such format at some point. The book is divided in 2 parts, the comics part in itself (28 pages) and a biography (both in French and English) together with a 2CDs set of Ike & Tina music from 1960 to 1962 and 1968 to 1969.
If the drawings are pretty well made and the book in itself looks nice, the content isn’t as good as fans could expect from such a release. The story told is more inspired from the movie ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’ than from Ike or Tina personal biographies. So there’s a few inaccuracy in the story but I guess that’s wasn’t the aim of the author. Benoit Bonte tells the story of the notorious couple through big events of their life together, such as their meeting in St Louis, Tina’s first step on stage, life at home, the recording of River Deep Mountain High and the final split.
Having previously written comics on Jerry Lee Lewis & Howlin’ Wolf, Benoit Bonte has clearly a soft spot for Ike and for once, the rock’n’roll genius that he is, is not portrayed in a too devilish way. Concerning Tina, she seems quite transparent in the story, some lack of depth from her character, some inaccuracy and the slang language makes it hardly believable.
All in all, a huge expectation from the moment I heard this would come out and a small disappointment. The two CDS accompanying the book are also a letdown. The audio is correct but nothing exceptional and the tracklist is kind of surprising with songs such a River Deep or Proud Mary missing. But of course it is still a nice object for all the fans to add to your collection so if you feel like ordering it follow the link!
