This was an enlightening graphic novel about a truly unique artist. I think most people have at least heard of Janis Joplin, and have probably heard one or two of her songs. I would definitely say this book is for adults because it deals with adult content and themes. It was fascinating to learn about Janis Joplin’s life and career. The illustrations were great and I was surprised and impressed with the artistic depiction of her addiction. The song lyrics jumped off the page and I felt like I could hear them. The writing was stiff and awkward at times and I wish it could have flowed better. I was confused about the narrator because we never found out who was commenting on what was going on. Based on context, my guess is that it was her father, but again, there was never a clear answer. Overall, I liked this graphic novel and was inspired to seek out Janis Joplin’s music after reading it.

Again, I would caution that this is for adults and would not recommend it to younger readers.

Content warnings: profanity, nudity, sex, drugs, alcohol, and death from overdose

Janis Joplin is not a usual topic of books nowadays. This book was nicely done. I think it will make readers want to know more about her

I just love biographies in comic book format. I enjoy the art and the faster pace.

Once upon a time, I was almost named Janis instead of Alex, because my mom loved her and her music so much! I learned so much about Janis Joplin. It was really cool/sad to see her background, to see her struggles, to see her ignore the taboos of her time, to watch her grow to become the rock singer we know.

The art was well done and I really enjoyed learning more about Janis Joplin. However, the story and the writing was very disjointed, jumpy, and stilted. I truly wish I could give this a higher star rating, but I lost the trail of the timeline and people several times.

My favorite illustrations were the images of Janis and/or other musicians singing with their lyrics lettered into the image. Beautifully done and conveys the passion of those musicians and songwriters.

Overall, this is a nice quick read and a well illustrated graphic novel to learn a bit about Janis Joplin's life, her desire to make it as an artist and musician, her fame, her downfall, and her death.

I’m fairly new to the whole graphic novel format… I think this is only the second or third graphic novel I’ve read, but when I saw it was about Janis Joplin I knew I needed to read it. I love her music, and I’ve always found her to be an interesting person. Plus, it was a nice break from the dark thrillers I’ve been into lately.

Most of the art here is a great representation of the psychedelic style of the time although some wasn’t quite as impressive. I thought that some of the dialogue and storytelling seemed a little awkward and stilted, and some sections of the story were fictionalized, although the novel seemed to be marketed as a biography.

All in all, it was a fast, fun read, and would probably appeal to people who love the music and are looking for a quick overview of Janis’s experiences. If you’re looking for something more in depth, this may not be the right book for you.

I’m so grateful to Papercutz/NBM Publishing and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review Love Me Please.

Reading 2021
Book 83: Love Me Please!: The Story of Janis Joplin by Nicolas Finet

Thank you to #Netgalley for the copy of #lovemeplease in exchange for my review. You all know I love a good graphic novel so it was great to get approved for this one. This is an adult graphic novel.

Love Me is a biography of the short music career of Janis Joplin, along with a look at her early years and rise to stardom. As a teen Janis wanted to be her own person, her parents were not onboard for her antics. They send her off to the west coast to work and hopefully learn some responsibility. We all know how this story ends.

The art in this book was amazing, a great representation of the time. The story for me was only so so. Not sure what it was, the story did not hold my attention and seemed to meander along. I did learn lots about Joplin's life before her rise to fame. My rating 3⭐. ,

I had a hard time putting this graphic novel down. I had heard of Janis Joplin but knew very little about her past. This graphic novel told a new side of the story, one that wasn’t always perfect. We see a talented singer rise in a way few artists had at that time. There are good times and some tough moments as well and as this story comes to a close so does the life of this beloved singer.

In terms of biographical quality I can't speak much about for I'm not an expert in the private life of Janis Joplin, and there's a conversation to be had about the treatment and ownership of her life by the public and fans, the ever so present parasocial relationships that have been created throughout her life, and now with her "legacy" and public life on record. That is to say, the interactions and dialogues felt fabricated to give the ideal narrative, there was no authenticity, it read as someone who thinks they know about the life of a celebrity because they know the public record. Her life was full of things we don't know, and filling some gaps with mediocre and simplistic dialogue does nobody a favour.
The overall illustrations felt rushed, messy, sometimes hard to read, hard to follow. There are some full page illustrations that are beautiful, you can tell the dedication of the artists there, their line quality and colour palette, but having these examples only amplifies the neglect in the rest of the work, there were pages mostly with a white background and the figures over imposed, no sense of depth, some illustrations incomplete, not much care.
Overall it was a mediocre job that might find its audience in people who are not familiar with the star's life story, it is a good first glance, but not a great biographical work in terms of writing, tone, and production. It was good enough, but I expected more.

Even though I was born in 1981, I grew up with Janis Joplin's music - my mother played it for me, and I remember being deeply fascinated by a VHS recording of Woodstock 69' which I watched over and over again in my teen years. So, when I came across this title, I was excited to learn more about Janis Joplin and her story.

The graphic novel is well-structured, and the style captures the tone and vibrations of the story. However, it becomes a bit too obvious in stating facts, and often it doesn't sound natural when dates and names are mentioned.

I really enjoyed learning more about the type of person that Janis Joplin was, her fast-paced life, and her ability to live life to the fullest extreme. She did end up paying the ultimate price though.

This was a very fast-paced story that suited Janis Joplin’s very fast-paced life. Her life was heartbreakingly too short.

The story and art didn’t shy away from showing her drug and alcohol consumption, which is obviously a huge part of her story. I think it’s important to see all the external pressures put on her (and others, too). She was constantly swarmed with drug dealers, record labels wouldn’t sign her because of her addiction, but also help was really hard to come by.

The story also included her many musical influences, which I thought was really rad.

Overall, the art style was my favorite because I felt like I was living in the 60’s right along side her.

An amazing visual journey through Janis Joplin’s life. Colorfully and fantastically illustrated, and interesting for fans of the subject as well as the medium.

I'm not going to pretend I have any interest in the music of Janis Joplin, but that didn't really interfere with accepting the biographical information on these pages. For what could have been a very boring seesaw of music-drugs, success-failure, romance-heartache, the read is much more interesting and lively, with a nuanced 'voice-over' from one of the Joplin parents. Visually, it's fine too, and very successfully absorbs the 60s look. The problem is the main script, however, with the amount of exposition in the dialogue quite painful at times. "I'm going to call you by your full name in an unrealistic manner so as everyone knows who you are for the two pages you're in this story. And in the next speech bubble I'm going to tell you something you already know, just so the reader can learn it, too." "I dig ya, you hep cat, now here's some drugs."

Get past that, and/or have any connection with the subject's output, and you could well love this. It was 3 and a bit stars from me.

Janet Jackson is one of the people that I have heard of, but didn't really know anything about.

So reading this was gave me more insight into a figure I only knew in passing.

But what I found most interesting was the depiction of addiction and how even when she was happy it was slithering in through any gap it could find, waiting to wrap a tendril around and pull someone back into the deep.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."
Definitely adult content. I find Janis Joplin interesting so some of this I already knew, some of this was a stylized story. Not sure how much of it was accurate and what was fictionalized. Either way it worked well as a graphic novel.