‘A Tale of Two Arthurs: Book 1' by Nine Antico with art by Gregoire Carle is a graphic novel telling the story of a couple boxers.

Jack Arthur Johnson was a black boxer. Arthur Cravan was a white man pitted to fight him. Jack Johnson was expected to lose. When Jack Johnson didn’t lose, it was upsetting to the white folks, but it made Jack Johnson famous. The story of Arthur Cravan is also supposed to be in this book, but the story was lost to me due to strangeness with the file size.

The art style is really strange and sort of Avant-garde and it really wasn’t to my liking. The story is pretty good but missing half of it was kind of tough.

A Tale of Two Arthur is yet another graphic novel by Europe Comics with text by Nine Antico and art by Grégoire Carlé.

The two Arthurs are Jack Arthur Johnson and Arthur Cravan, who fought in a boxing match in 1916.

The book begins in 1899, in a context of segregation in the USA, with bliended black men being used as entertainment in boxing matches.


One of these black men is John Arthur Johnson, an American boxer, who went down in history by becoming the first black heavyweight world champion boxer, a title that, until then, was forbidden to people of color.


It is an interesting portrait of a sportsman who lived at a time when the system would be his biggest battle, the son of a former slave and who was even arrested for violating the Mann Law, which prohibited anyone from transporting a woman across the borders of the state for "immoral purposes".

The immorality of his relationships consisted in the fact that he had relationships with white women (including three wives).

Because of the strong box component, it will be a graphic novel that will certainly delight sports lovers.

I loved the loose impressionistic art of this story about race, boxing, and one of the biggest personalities of US society 100 years ago, Jack Johnson. Although it is the first of two volumes, and has an abrupt ending, it still has what feels like a complete story arc. The insights on race in sport and society are searing and given what we've experienced this year with racial relations and police brutality it is sadly as timely as ever. It's also an examination of the well-worn theme of how one's strengths, self-confidence, and exuberance can become one's weaknesses as well as yet another literary take in the beauty of boxing which is one trope I'm glad is on the decline.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book in return for an honest review.

This was a very interesting story about two boxers (Jack Arthur Johnson and Arthur Craven) but I found this very hard to read. A lot of the story is for double-page spreads, the art, while good, was hard for me to get used to and I found the writing hard to read. I personally feel that this would have been easier to read if it was a physical copy rather than a digital.

Rating: 3⭐
Would I Read It Again? No
Would I Recommend it? Check out some previews to see if you can read the font

Reviewers note: A lot of the story relied on double-page spreads that weren't available to be viewed on ARC given. The flow of the story would without a doubt work better in a hard-copy.

This was fine. The art while not to my taste did an acceptable job illustrating the drama of Jack Johnston's life inside and outside the ring. Johnson's life takes up the majority of the book and rightly so. However, Arthur Cravan shares top billing and his history as told here seem like an afterthought. To me, it felt like a cheap gimmick. The fight between the two, which was a freakshow put on to raise money, never felt like the books true focus. Caravan who had a fascinating life and it would have given the book more balance to have had more of it told. While we understand Johnson's reason for taking the fight Caravan's are just glossed over. We never get a sense of why the public wants to see these two collide and more importantly why they are willing to pay for it.

I'd struggle to recommend this but it is not a bad book. The fight scenes were well done and the dialogue captures Johnson's brashness. I'm certainly interested in reading more about Caravan's adventures both before and after the fight.

This graphic novel is a tale of two very different men, who come together under wild circumstances. The art style reminds me of noir film / 50's art all mixed together. It's an intriguing story, but know that there are trigger warnings for racism including verbiage and visual depictions. Overall, it was interesting to read, but ultimately not for me.

This was an interesting read. The conceit seemed good, kind of like The Other Wes Moore" but I didn't feel those same vibes here. While it passed the time, I can't say I particurally enjoyed it fully. I would not read this book again.

Decently-produced look at a real-life historical boxing story, as our hero goes up through the ranks knocking all opponents out that dare share a ring. He has to wait some time for the biggest and best to fight him, though, because they're white and he's not, and the world heavyweight title was only for whites. Some peculiar design choices when it comes to faces aside, this isn't too bad looking, but I do think you have to have some strong interest in the history of the 'sport' to get the most out of it. You also have to forgive this publisher ditching the one-volume format the book originally had, and splitting it into two digital files. I don't have the interest, nor the forgiveness.

A unique take on the graphic novel, brimming with creativity and beauty from a talented artist. There is much to enjoy about this graphic novel experience.