If you think graphic novels are for light-weight reading, this one will prove you wrong. It is a very DENSE biography of Hawking and covers some complex science in addition to details of Hawking's life.

The science in this book can be prohibitive to readers who aren't interested in physics. Fortunately, it's not really necessary to understand the scientific content to grasp the story. The science might scare younger readers, but if you're a teacher or parent talking about this book to students, assure them that they can understand the story without having to become a theoretical physicist or cosmologist themselves.

The art of this book feels a little less polished than most graphic novel memoirs or biographies. Sometimes there are large blocks of small text that are too clunky for the medium in which the story is presented. But overall the story is good and accessible. I wanted to know more about Hawking's illness, but the book presents that storyline rather briefly, to let the reader know that Hawking's illness didn't define him and shouldn't be the focus of the story. Hawking's ability was never diminished by his disability - and I think that's a very POWERFUL message.

I appreciate how well-researched Jim Ottaviani's graphic biographies are, but the information can seem a little overwhelming at times. This one, in particular, includes a good amount of background science, which makes this suited for older or more focused readers. The illustrations do a great job of keeping the pages visually interesting. I didn't review this publicly because the ending has been changed and I couldn't be sure the version I had was accurate to the final printed book.

This is technically speaking, a good book. I just don't see any mass appeal in it and the cut overs to the past really stagnate the momentum of the book. Could take many readers out of it.

I have always been interested in knowing more about Stephen Hawking, but never actually knew much about him. This is a thorough overview of Hawking's life that is interesting, but at times a little complex or hard to follow. Great illustrations though.

This graphic novel biography of Stephen Hawking did not limit itself to his life. It also spent time covering the history of his science and some of the development of the cosmological theories which he developed in his lifetime. The skill of the author us in the graphic novel as such a powerful medium for a biography is unsurprising considering that he has written several others explaining such things as the history of space flight, women in primatology, and (I recently found out and want to buy) Feynman.
The main character was, of course Stephen Hawking, and the author and illustrator did a superb job of showing his physical decline while not making it (except of a few pages) a central figure in the book. The other major character was Hawking's first wife Jane and I found myself wondering at the amount of access that the author must have had. Jane was portrayed as truly in love and devoted to a man who was often distracted and nearly dismissive of her. Such is the skill of the graphic narrative that you can feel the the relationship descend into problems before ultimately ending in divorce without it being explicitly stated.
To me, the book does an excellent job of portraying a life of an icon without idolization, of presenting difficult science understandably (as Hawking eventually was able to do himself), and of telling the story of an important physicist in a way that is approachable by people from early high school on up. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to learn more about Stephen Hawking than his brief stints on the Simpsons and Big Bang Theory.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a prerelease version of this book.

I've been a fan of Jim Ottaviani for a long time and was eager to read this book. Unfortunately it went a good bit above my head with the science. I think many of his other books were a bit more accessible for the less scientifically inclined. I'm sure this has to do with the complexity of the science Hawking was involved in more than anything else. I still enjoyed what I could understand and felt that he did a good job of showing the way Hawking's life and work were affecting his friends and family, in particular the way his wife's face progressively got more exhausted in so many sections was affecting.

If your science and biography sections don't have an Ottaviani/Myrick section yet, you may want to get to work on that. This is the second collaboration the two have worked on; the first being Feynman, a graphic biography on physicist and Nobel laureate Richard Feynman.

Hawking is in parts biography and science comic for teens and adults, moving easily back and forth between Stephen Hawking's life story and explanations of physics, black holes, and the universe at large. The story begins with Hawking's birth, 300 days to the day after Galileo's death, wanders through his early adolescence as a teen who speaks "Hawkingese" and appears socially awkward; his marriage to Jane Hawking and his diagnosis with motor neurone disease, also known as ALS; his research and ultimate pop culture fame, and his later years, second marriage, and the degenerative path of his disease. First and foremost, this is a story about science; there are pages devoted to discussions between defining voices, including Newton, Faraday, and Einstein, about cosmology, light, and gravity. Jim Ottaviani captures Hawking's voice - the graphic novel is narrated by a fictional Hawking - and shows up a glimpse of the man behind the legend. Award-winning illustrator Leland Myrick's artwork is unfussy, providing scientific sketches as easily as he captures Stephen Hawking's wry smirk and his ability to disappear into a cloud of physics, even in a crowded room. The end of Hawking's story will catch readers right in the feelings - I choked up a bit. An author's note discusses how graphic novels are a good medium for narrative nonfiction, and I couldn't agree more. Jim Ottaviani is an New York Times-bestselling author whose graphic biographies also include The Imitation Game (Alan Turing) and Primates (Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas), so the man knows how to plot out a graphic biography. There is a nice list of references that will give interested readers even more material to look through.


I love graphic novel bios - they're a great way to get tweens, teens, and adults interested in reading biographies, and the graphic medium allows for great explanations of topics that may be difficult in solid print (like physics!). If you have readers who have aged up from Science Comics, hand them Hawking. A definite must-add to your (growing!) graphic novel biographies.

I loved "Feynman", the first graphic-novel biography by Ottaviani & Myrick, and "Hawking" is just as fascinating. They've found an elegant solution to representing different kinds of speech, which is particularly important to the story they tell, and I came away from the book with a feeling that I had almost known him.

I'd especially recommend "Hawking" to anyone who likes James Gleick's science writing but likes the details to be a lot less technical, or anyone who's still learning about the variety of stories graphic novels can tell. The creators admirably refrain from imposing more order onto their subjects' lives than actually existed, which means they can't make every transition as smooth, every chapter ending as satisfying, as in fictional graphic novels. Keep that in mind as you start to read "Hawking" and you'll enjoy it at least as much as I did!

While Hawking is a fascinating subject, I found this a little long, and a little dry, and I got lost in the physics of it all - and if I got lost, I fear that a younger audience definitely would. Also, the illustration style was just a bit off for my liking - sometimes the faces and expressions just came out a little weird.

As for the main story of Hawking's life, I thought it was wonderfully creative how they were able to capture his declining health throughout the book - using fading text when his voice was going, using a more robotic font to represent his computer voice, etc. The struggles he had especially early on truly showcase how far the world has come with regards to accommodations. I was surprised, however, by how he really came off as a jerk sometimes - especially to his wife! (how did she stay with him so long??) - but on the flip side, I'm glad his true nature was represented faithfully and not washed over. Conversely, his sense of humor is well known and well captured here as well.

Lastly, while there was a passing reference to his Simpson's appearance, I was sad that his "Big Bang Theory" cameos didn't make the cut. :-P

This was very bland to me. Even though I am interested in Hawking in general, nothing about this book grabbed me.

I enjoyed this graphic novel and learned valuable information about Hawking. An easy ready and awesome illustrations. I find as a special education teacher that graphic novels are awesome for my reluctant readers.

Hawking is a well-done take on Stephen Hawking’s life, showing us how he became everyone’s favorite genius. We get to follow the development of his brilliance, starting with his school days and culminating in the many theories that are essential today. While we see aspects of his personal life and the advancement of his medical condition, the science remains at the forefront. It’s a reminder that, no matter the difficulties he faced on a daily basis, he was constantly theorizing, creating and expanding the world’s understanding of the universe at large.

I was most impressed by the breakdown of the scientific concepts Hawking became known for. Most people, myself included, don’t spend much time with complicated equations and theories, so it was nice to get that bit of historical context. The science becomes easy to understand, presented in a conversational tone amidst graphic portrayals of the concepts.

Overall, Hawking is a great insight into a man who helped bring science firmly into popular culture. By pairing his scientific accomplishments with the events behind the scenes, we see the full picture of a regular man filled with extraordinary knowledge. It’s an inspiring look at his life and taught me a lot.

Review to be published on July 5: https://reviewsandrobots.com/2019/07/05/hawking-book-review

I really enjoyed this graphic novel biography of Stephen Hawking! I am embarrassed to admit I didn't know much about him at all prior to reading this graphic novel. There are some concepts that were beyond me, but it wasn't too overwhelming. It was still an interesting read!

I'll be purchasing this book for my library because I know that it has a wide appeal but it just wasn't for me. I didn't think that the illustrations complimented the work at all. It was also extremely dialogue heavy for having illustrations that did not compliment the style at all. It seemed like the author was trying to inundate readers with facts instead of trying to explain Hawkings works. It feels like readers who are interested in his work but not scientifically inclined may suffer when reading this.

Well done mix of story and illustration. I got a great sense of who Stephen Hawking was as a person. The humor, language and even artwork are more mature (i.e. not dumbed down) along the lines of Maus or other serious works that happen to be in the graphic novel format.

This book was tough because it gets in the way of its own success. Yes, a graphic novel would be a great format for a biography of someone like Hawking: trying to understand his world and mind is a big task and this medium should help make it more accessible. At the same time I found the actual visuals of this book unpleasant and a little unpolished. The text tended to be contained in over-sized white spaces and many speech bubbles were much larger than the content required. I also had a some trouble following some of the science, but I don't think that was prohibitive to following the story.

A graphic novel biography of Hawking that's accessible to upper high school students and adult readers. I agree with the author that GN is a great way to present nonfiction to a non-scientist. Ottaviani's style is notable for depicting the progression of Hawking's disease from his younger years to 2012. Famous scientists enter in and out of panels like a scenes from a play. I was intrigued to learn that Hawking marched in the "Ban the Bomb" protests in England. Myrick’s Illustrations are engaging--thought bubbles change from a dark font to gray as Hawking begins to lose his voice and as ALS starts to take over his body. Thought squares show his genius and his incessant mind which refuses to pause, even for life’s most precious moments. A poignant example of this was when his wife gave birth to his daughter--the baby was literally crowning and he was still theorizing! An absent-minded professor, indeed. The people in his life are vibrantly alive in each panel, however, I did not care for Jane's hair. It's a minor distraction. Her red hair with black tips is a modern look that did not trend in past decades. I was warmed by Hawking's honest observations. I found parts of the gn amusing and his positive commentary on Chinese women, endearing. Besides wave-particle duality, I found the mathematical diagrams and equations very hard to decipher in e-book format. I tried to decode through both Adobe Digital Editions (on my laptop) and Aldiko (on my mobile phone) to no avail. Additionally, a book spanning nearly 300 pages about physics can be daunting--maybe an index to all of Hawking's work would be beneficial. My final note: Hawking would've been happy to know that I do not think his books, including this one, should be relegated to airport bookracks. The story of his life commands a worthy audience—the wider the better.

I'm kind of an easy mark for graphic novel biographies, I suppose. This one was really enjoyable, especially since I don't know anything at all about Stephen Hawking. Some of the math and science concepts here were beyond me, but the biographical details were well presented and really interesting. Definitely gave me a better appreciation for the man himself.

A great graphic novel about one of the greatest scientists of our time. I highly recommend this one.