Overview

"On the morning of July 4, 1910, thousands of boxing fans stormed a newly built stadium in Reno, Nevada, to witness an epic showdown. Jack Johnson, the world's first Black heavyweight champion-and most infamous athlete in the world because of his race-was paired against Jim Jeffries, a former heavyweight champion then heralded as the ""great white hope."" It was the height of the Jim Crow era, and spectators were eager for Jeffries to restore the racial hierarchy that Johnson had pummeled with his quick fists. Transporting readers directly into the ring, artist Youssef Daoudi and poet Adrian Matejka intersperse dramatic boxing action with vivid flashbacks to reveal how Johnson, the self-educated son of formerly enslaved parents, reached the pinnacle of sport-all while facing down a racist justice system. Through a combination of breathtaking illustrations and striking verse, Last on His Feet honors a contentious civil rights figure who has for more than a century been denied his proper due."

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9781631495588

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Reviews

"""[A] dynamic and unforgettable collaboration between artist Youssef Daoudi and writer Adrian Matejka... [Last on His Feet] is a wonder of words and images. It could be called a graphic novel if that description didn't fail to fully capture its cinematically visual and literary substance... [A] masterpiece. "" -- Rick Kogan - The Chicago Tribune ""Last on His Feet... revisits this ""Fight of the Century,"" which wasn't just a landmark in athletics—it was a crucible for the racial animosity Black Americans had to navigate during Jim Crow. Through a stylish mix of prose, blank verse and illustrations, Last on His Feet captures these tensions with unsparing poignancy. "" -- Brandon Tensley - Smithsonian Magazine"

Lyrical narration and powerfully evocative black-and-white illustration combine for an uncommonly propulsive, completely immersive biography.--Library Journal, starred review A desert boxing match becomes an epic, a tragic symbol, and a thunderous encapsulation of America's bloody racial history in this passionately told graphic history from Daoudi (Monk!) and Matejka (The Big Smoke) about America's first Black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson (1878-1946) . . . This is a big brawl of a book that, like the greatest boxing matches, finds the poetry in the violence.--Publishers Weekly, starred review

Lyrical narration and powerfully evocative black-and-white illustration combine for an uncommonly propulsive, completely immersive biography. -- Library Journal, starred review

A desert boxing match becomes an epic, a tragic symbol, and a thunderous encapsulation of America's bloody racial history in this passionately told graphic history from Daoudi (Monk!) and Matejka (The Big Smoke) about America's first Black heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson (1878-1946) . . . This is a big brawl of a book that, like the greatest boxing matches, finds the poetry in the violence. -- Publishers Weekly, starred review Lyrical narration and powerfully evocative black-and-white illustration combine for an uncommonly propulsive, completely immersive biography. -- Library Journal, starred review

Author Information

Youssef Daoudi, a comic artist, writer and illustrator, is the author of Monk!. Previously, he was an art director for multinational advertising firms. Adrian Matejka is the author of The Big Smoke, which won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. He teaches creative writing at Indiana University in Bloomington.

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