Baby's In Black

Title: Baby’s In Black
Author: Arne Bellstorf

Illustrator: Arne Bellstorf
Publisher: First Second (:01)

Copyright: [May 8] 2012

Price: $24.99

ISBN: 978-1596437715
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Summary and Quick Thoughts: Before The Beatles made it big, they were performing in Germany. Instead of four band members, there were five and this was before Ringo. Paul, George, John, Pete, and Stu were performing a crazy amount of time in a club in a not so great part of town. This is not that story though. This is the story of Klaus, who discovers The Beatles and brings in his friends, including Astrid Kirchherr, whose eyes meet Stuart Sutcliff’s and the rest follows their tragic love story.

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Recommended Audience: adults

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Things to be aware of: smoking…in every panel
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Further Thoughts: I’m not a Beatles Nerd. I’m not necessarily a lover of The Beatles, but don’t mind when The Philosopher Musician puts their music on (probably one of the few things we can agree to in his car). I adored the movie Across the Universe (my intro to most of The Beatles music). I read the YA book that borrows from the song Across the Universe, but like A Million Suns, I had to be filled in by The Philosopher Musician regarding The Beatles and how the songs tied into this book and the YA books.

So, that explains my reaction to this book: lukewarm, excepting the last chapter, which almost made me cry.

The Philosopher Musician should really do this review. Instead, he’s busy with school work.

Baby’s in Black is the love story of Astrid Kirchherr and Stuart Sutcliff, the “fifth Beatle.” He’s really a trapped artist along for the ride because he likes John. Throughout the story, we watch as Astrid works on her English, Stuart works on his German, and they fall sweetly in love. He moves in, discovers his passion for art, watches his friends get deported, watches them come back, and so on and so forth. Then his health starts to deteriorate. He has “episodes” until finally he succumbs in a simply wordless (ellipses-filled) final chapter that pulls on your heart strings.

The last chapter is beautiful. I cannot express how the scenes, at first confusing, express emotions and words not said. You’ll want to cry reading the story, especially if you don’t know how the love story ends.

Sadly, I can’t say I liked the art much. Half the time I was thinking “which Beatle is that?” I couldn’t tell who was who, but after a while, I knew who Astrid was, I knew who Klaus was, and I knew who Stu was. Any “Beatle” that spoke was just “A Beatle” in my mind and for scenes where I couldn’t tell anyone apart, I just decided “dialogue.”

Overall, to sum it up, Baby’s in Black is a reference to a title of a Beatles song, which I did not know and wish I had known earlier. This book could have benefited from an intro instead of the small epilogue we got. Get it for the Beatles Lovers, but pass if you don’t have the budget.

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Bonus:

Source: NetGalley