We all know who he is and we all remember the first time we saw him: Andre the Giant, towering over his opponents in the ring, a brute force of nature with a gentle smile and breezy sense of humor, an apparent contradiction that created a magnetic attraction to his fans. True pro wrestling fans know all the ups and downs of his career and everyone else knows him as an ‘80s pop culture icon, the lovable giant in The Princess Bride. But few know the true life story behind the legend, a story more incredible than anything that could be concocted for a Pay-Per-View special. This is the story Lion Forge Comics is bringing to fans in the authorized graphic novel biography, Andre the Giant: Closer to Heaven.
Eisner-nominated writer Brandon Easton (ThunderCats, Marvel’s Agent Carter) charts Andre’s entire life story in an introspective first-person narrative he crafted with assistance from Andre’s daughter Robin Christensen-Roussimoff. The book opens on the idyllic farm in the French countryside where Andre spent his childhood and steadily weaves through his amateur first days in the squared circle, his rise to fame in TV, film, and Vince McMahon’s upstart WWF (now WWE), and the demons he collected along the way.
Artist Denis Medri (Red Hood/Arsenal, Spider-Verse) masterfully illustrates Andre’s quieter, reflective moments alongside brutal wrestling action without missing a beat. His painterly brushwork and muted colors deliver a page-turning sports narrative with heart and soul worthy of the man himself and his legend that lives on.
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