I just finished this graphic novel, and while I didn't find it entirely my cup of tea, I can see how it might appeal to others. The graphic novel attempts to offer a fresh perspective on the iconic Marilyn Monroe, blending art and bits of humor into the narrative.

The book delves into Marilyn's life, from her turbulent childhood to her tragic final days. The events are presented in vivid detail, and the humorous touch adds a unique flavor to the storytelling. However, I personally didn't connect with it as much as I hoped.

The artwork is interesting, but not quite fascinating. The attempt at a fresh look is evident, and some might find it appealing, but it didn't entirely resonate with me. The illustrations, while conveying the essence, lacked a certain captivation.

Now, onto dislikes – and here's where personal taste comes into play. The graphic novel fell a bit short of leaving a lasting impression on me. Despite its attempts at uniqueness, it didn't quite hit the mark for my preferences.

"The Stars of History: Marilyn Monroe" might still find its audience. If you're open to a different take on Marilyn's life with a sprinkle of humor and unique artwork, give it a shot. It might just be the graphic novel you're looking for.

This was a great insight into the life of Marilyn Monroe. She's always felt like a myth to me. And seeing her life in such vivid detail was nice. She was an amazing person but she definitely had her flaws. This was a biography in graphic novel form, but it really gave me 'The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo' vibes because of the Hollywood aspect.

The book wasn't mind-blowing on its own but it was nice to learn about Marilyn. She made some terrible choices and I'm still intrigued about her death.

The art was great. This was a good book but not really special, IMO.

I enjoyed this Marilyn Monroe comic book, the art style was well done and I enjoyed reading this comic.

My thanks to Europe Comics for a digital review copy via NetGalley of ‘Stars of History: Marilyn Monroe’ written by Bernard Swysen with art by Christian Paty. It was translated from the French by Dan Christensen and Tea Bodson (preface). It was published in November 2020, my apologies for the late feedback.

This is part of Europe Comic’s series of biographies of the legends of cinema in graphic novel format.

It opens with a preface by French actress Mylène Demongeot, who provides a moving testimonial to Marilyn Monroe’s life and legacy. I wasn’t aware of much about Monroe’s life, especially the degree to which she was exploited financially and generally messed about by the studios. As Mylène Demongeot writes: “When she finally discovered her strength and power, it was too late.”

The artwork is retro, referencing the style of comics of the mid-20th century. This felt appropriate given the period setting. I also appreciated that after the main biographical section that Monroe’s filmography and songs was provided, including images of her iconic movie posters.

Overall, I felt that this was an excellent example of how the graphic novel format can expand beyond its expected parameters into areas such as biography and cultural history.

All I knew about Marilyn, apart from her unfortunate death, was that despite the drama, she wasn't the blonde bimbo that Hollywood made her out to be. On the contrary, she was a woman of substance, sensible and longing to be loved and accepted as a PERSON. Her story is utterly tragic. I had to remind myself of the spirit of the times to keep from being livid at the unfairness of the whole situation. This may have happened a long time ago yet so much can be learned of her story, especially since most of it still runs true to this day.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Europe Comics for this free ARC. This review is made of my own accord, with no monetary compensation whatsoever from the names mentioned above and/or the rightful owners of this ARC.

3 Stars ( I received an e-arc from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

TW: Drug use, sexual harassment

This art style was quite cute contrasting Marilyn/ Norma Jean’s crazy life, it did give me some more insight into her life details. Last year I read a novel in verse from Marilyn’s point of view but this book provided some more concrete details. I forgot how young she gets married and how many different homes she goes through.

I have absolutely nothing bad to say about this book. I love to learn about other peoples lives through biographies. I find that this makes them more human for me, knowing about where they come from, what they had to do to be where they are right now... And this one, in comic book form, is truly amazing. It was my first bio in comic form, and I really loved it.

Many thanks to Europe Comics for the complimentary e-copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

3 stars. This is a good graphic novel depicting Marilyn's life, but I felt like a lot of it was glossed over and condensed. More parts of her life were focused on and others were only given a couple of blocks. Review to come.

Due to being a high school English teacher, I am often behind on writing reviews. Here is a summary of my initial thoughts.

Graphic novels normally delve into superheroes, horror or action-oriented genres that use an interesting concept to bring a story to life. Swysen and Paty decide to tackle the life of a Hollywood icon and do something that is thought provoking and insightful.

The story of Marilyn Monroe is an exciting and sad story of a goddess who rises from a poor disadvantage beginning to become one of the world’s leading icons that is very much alive 50 years after her death. Swysen and Paty’s new book is an exciting graphic novel that chronicles her rise and sad death.

This is an excellent graphic novel that would make a great gift for people who are real Marilyn Monroe fans and for people who know very little of her life, a great way to learn the inside story of this Hollywood icon and goddess who will live on for centuries to come. I can’t wait to see what they do next.

I was really looking forward to reading this time. Marilyn Monroe lived a lot of life in her short time on this earth, and it is difficult to condense all of her life in a short graphic novel.

I was surprised with Monroe’s early childhood. I appreciated that the start focused on her mother and family history so much. It gave a great context to Monroe’s psyche throughout her life. Swysen and Christian did a great job with the text and art panels in regards to her early life.

As the story progressed, I had some trouble following the timeline they had chosen to use. The art would sometimes not match the tone. The panels were sometimes overwhelmed with text and there were a lot of asterisks that were not necessary for the story’s progression. The illustrations felt more comic book-y or like a caricature, when there was serious potential.

I didn't know much of Marilyn Monroe's life so I found this to be a fun way to learn about her life. She definitely had a sad life from childhood to her death. This graphic novel does jump around quite a bit though and sometimes I couldn't tell the characters apapr which caused some confusion story wise. I did appreciate the style of the drawings and thought they were well done.
Thanks to Netgalley.com and Europe Comics for my complimentary eARC copy.

This is a very interesting graphic novel about the life of Marylin Monroe. I didn’t know much about her early life and learned a lot from reading this comic. After reading this book I’d like to learn more about her.

I enjoyed reading about how sad and dramatic her early life was. Her mother’s life clearly influenced Marylin and her love life choices. You can see parallels between Marylin and her mother, both had rough lives, sad periods, bad love life’s, and many bad choices.

It was a sad read but also enjoyable. This graphic novel makes me want to learn more and to me that shows this book did a good job.

I do agree with some reviewers who thought the book was fast paced but I think that was done on purpose. There is only so much of her life you can show in a comic book form. I’m also curious how much of this graphic novel was exaggerated and how much was true.

I’d like to read the Charlie Chaplin Stars of History book. I’d like to see what I can learn about him.

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

I find Marilyn Monroe interesting and want to know more about her but I found this quite boring and rushed with an art style I couldn't really get into. I think for Marilyn Monroe, the graphic novel has to be longer or to be a written book as more had to be fit in.

Rating: 2.5⭐
Would I Read It Again? No
Would I Recommend it? Not really

Thank you to Net Galley and Europe Comics for the advance copy of this book.

One of the reasons why I requested this book is because I knew little on Monroe's life and I have found quite a few biographical graphic novels on here to provide a great overview of the highlights of someone's career.

The Stars of History does just that. This book touched upon pivotal moments in Monroe's career that I had heard about - most were potential rumors - and it was nice to see them addressed in this book and provide a bit more info - and create a timelines of these events.

This book left me wanting to read more about Monroe's life.

Another nonfiction graphic novel! This one was a historical account of Marilyn Monroe. The art for this one was both beautiful and whimsical. I did appreciate that this was just a brief overview of her life. It wasn't an in-depth account, but it seemed to cover all the main points of her life. I wasn't too familiar with Monroe's story outside of the Hollywood fame, bouts of depression, her death and the rumors of her affair with President JFK. So I found this graphic novel to be informational about her childhood, the beginning of her modeling/acting career, her love affairs and her tragic demise. I knew of her marriage to Joe DiMaggio - the baseball player, but I didn't know of her first marriage to James Dougherty and Arthur Miller. THE ARTHUR MILLER!!!! As a lover of literature, I feel like I should have known this. I empathized with her struggles with miscarriages and the pain it brings. I shed a few tears for our shared misfortunes. Since her death was shrouded in mystery, I think this novel did her death justice in this novel.
This graphic novel painted her struggles and tragedies in full color. I appreciated the way in which Marilyn Monroe was portrayed.

'The Stars of History: Marilyn Monroe' by Bernard Swysen with illustrations by Paty Christian brings the superstar's life to the pages of a graphic novel.

This is a good introduction to the life of Marilyn Monroe. From her tragic childhood, to the rest of her somewhat tragic life, Marilyn managed to have a fairly decent Hollywood career and become an icon. She struggled with being shuffled from house to house while growing up. She struggled with marriages to controlling men who were verbally and physically abusive. She struggled to be taken seriously as an actor as she was stereotyped as the dumb beauty.

I liked this story. It feels a bit one-sided, but many celebrity bios feel that way. That art is really quite lovely and I love the depiction of Marilyn that is made.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Europe Comics and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this graphic novel.

I’m not normally a graphic novel reader but having an interest in Marilyn’s life I was grateful to be able to read this.
I really enjoyed this graphic novel, it had a lovely preface before getting into the story.
It was bright, colourful, informative and wasn’t too much detail when retelling Marilyn’s life.
The filmography at the end with her film posters was a fitting finishing touch.
I do hope to see more icons from the writer and artist as I for one would pick it up.

This graphic novel is a fast-paced biography of Marilyn Monroe starting from birth until her untimely death.

And by fast-paced, I mean very, VERY rushed account of her life. I like the art style for the expressive faces but the body proportions are iffy in places; like all of a sudden someone will have a HUGE behind or look like their back is broken. Unlike something like Irena - a biographical comic that is entertaining and detailed enough to act as a jumping-off point for further research - this book is more like a cliff-notes of a real biography. It's ok but superficial. 3.5 out of 5.

I enjoyed this book and found it really eye opening into Marilyn Monroe's life. I didn't really know much about her before reading this other than the fact that she was an actress and I (like everyone) had seen the iconic photo of her in the white dress. This graphic novel is beautiful and I really liked the art style.

***** SPOILERS BELOW ******

The story itself opens with an insight into Norma Jean's mother's life and from the very beginning it becomes clear that life isn't easy and there are challenges in the families life. Norma is passed around from person to person and at one point is even placed into an orphanage. Her mother and grandmother both have mental health challenges which result in them being hospitalised during their lives. Being young, Norma is unsure what is happening in her life other than that no one seems to want her and she keeps receiving unwanted attention from boys and men because of her looks and her chest developing quickly. She is forced into a marriage when there is no one to care for her which leads to her being very unhappy as a housewife with no connection with her husband. During the war, he becomes a soldier and she begins her modelling career after a photographer noticed her at her work. An agency picks her up and convinces her to get a divorce in order to develop her career. After this she is picked up by fox and begins her movie career. During this time she is told to change her name, henceforth Marilyn Monroe is born.

Marilyn has many marriages and is in and out of love with various men, some of which are abusive or controlling. This causes her to spiral into abusing anti-depressant medication and drinking. During one of these relationships, Marilyn experiences multiple miscarriages (we learn she has endometriosis which she has surgeries for) which further worsens her mental health and substance abuse. She accidentally overdoses and ends up being hospitalised at one point with little support from those around her. Her death was very sad and sudden and is still speculated about today: was it suicide, accidental overdose, or were The Kennedy's involved in an assassination?

Marilyn Monroe is still an icon today but I feel like many of us do not know her full life story nor her struggles. It just goes to show that you never know what someone is going through even if they appear happy and successful.

The artwork of this novel is stunning and did such a great job rendering Hollywood's stars in very accurate portrayals. I only know the basics of Marilyn Monroe's history, so I can't agree with the accuracy of it, but it provided a lot of details and seemed to stick true to her story. Marilyn, born Norma Jean, grows up the daughter of a single mother who suffers from mental health issues. Shuffled between relatives, friends, and foster care, Norma Jean dreams of becoming a big star one day. Getting married at 16 in order to escape her home life she continues to struggle throughout her short life time. Hoping to make it big she changes her name and spends her days running from one studio to another asking for roles trying to be a star. Jumping from role to role and man to man, Marilyn became a well loved star who died too early. Her infamy continues on, Unfortunately because this is a Europe Comic title I can't purchase this for our library.

Thank you to publisher and NetGalley for a copy.