Hendrix, John. Mythmakers, The: The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. John Hendrix, Illus. Abrams, 09/2024. 224pp. Graphic. Trade $24.99. 978-1-4197-4634-5. GRADES 6–10. OUTSTANDING.
Hendrix’s graphic biography focuses on exactly how Tolkien and Lewis’s deep friendship inspired their radical creative leaps. Combining playful illustration, strong research, and thoughtful erudition, the biography embodies the joy, charm, and psychological heft present in the two authors’ best-known stories. Black and white graphite, full-page and panel illustrations with text bubbles convey the vast majority of information. Occasional pages of text are lightened with spot illustrations. A cartoon wizard and lion narrate, following an inventively illustrated quest-like path that deftly provides both biographical and historical context while framing more realistic panels showing events in the authors’ lives. Readers smitten with the stories in book or film form will be delighted with cool anecdotes, what inspired Tolkien’s terrifying spider, why a wardrobe. All readers will come away with a solid grounding in how fantasy delivers meaning and its relationship to fairy tales, myths, legends, and religious stories. Back matter includes an author’s note, endnotes, bibliography, and index. Reviewed from an ARC.
Melissa McAvoy—Retired