Comic book biography of Richard Feynman

[Video Link] One of my all-time favorite books is physicist Richard Feynman's autobiography, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!. I just found out that First Second publishing is releasing a graphic novel biography about Feynman. The art looks really good.

Richard Feynman: physicist . . . Nobel winner . . . bestselling author . . . safe-cracker.

In this substantial graphic novel biography, First Second presents the larger-than-life exploits of Nobel-winning quantum physicist, adventurer, musician, world-class raconteur, and one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century: Richard Feynman. Written by nonfiction comics mainstay Jim Ottaviani and brilliantly illustrated by First Second author Leland Myrick, Feynman tells the story of the great man’s life from his childhood in Long Island to his work on the Manhattan Project and the Challenger disaster. Ottaviani tackles the bad with the good, leaving the reader delighted by Feynman’s exuberant life and staggered at the loss humanity suffered with his death.

Anyone who ever wanted to know more about Richard P. Feynman, quantum electrodynamics, the fine art of the bongo drums, the outrageously obscure nation of Tuva, or the development and popularization of the field of physics in the United States need look no further than this rich and joyful work.

Feynman

• [Sam Ley]

  Feynman has always been one of my biggest heros, in many areas:

  -Science (duh)
  -Art (and how anyone can learn to express themselves)
  -Fulfillment of your full potential (never stop learning)
  -Humility when admitting your mistakes (Manhattan project)
  -Believing in truth, even when the situation is complex (Challenger)

  Added to my wish-list.

• [Brent Kirkham]

  Any book by, or about Feynman is going to be interesting.  On my wish-list also.  I’ve never really had heroes, but I’d regard Feynman and Sagan as the nearest thing.  And that’s not because I’m a science geek, it’s just from watching those guys communicate stuff.  

  And bongos!  Damn, what’s not to like?

• [catgrin]

  Happy to hear about this! There are so many reasons to appreciate Feynman, not the least of which is his own approachability as a subject. The fact that he puts a casual, human face on a brilliant mind makes science itself more approachable. Translating his story into a graphic novel is a logical step to take, and continues the process.

• [Nadreck]

  There was a comic book biography of Feynman a long time ago in “Two-fisted Tales of Science”.  The cover had him filling in blackboard with Quantum Mechanics at super-speed, looking out at the reader and saying “Any questions?”

  • [tp1024]

    Which is absolutely in and every way everything that Feynman didn’t do.

• [Justin Goeres]

  The Feynman/Tuva story is one of my all-time favorite stories, and I’m glad to see it included in the comic book since it’s omitted so many other places!

  You can get a quick “chit-chat” version of Feynman’s Tuva adventure from this talk I did at ideaSPARK 2010 / Pecha Kucha Night Raleigh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCos0VBXrwc

• [Kozmund]

  I’ve been excited about this book for a while. I absolutely love Jim Ottaviani’s work and if this is anywhere near as excellent as his comic biography of Neils Bohr, I’ll be thrilled.
   
  Also, previously on boing boing:
  http://boingboing.net/2009/05/22/t-minus-graphic-nove.html

• [Roy Trumbull]

  Feynman was one of those people who thought way outside the box. He was being interviewed by a young lady reporter whose questions were from a well plowed field. When it became apparent she just didn’t get it he just got up and headed down the hall muttering to himself. The reporter hadn’t any idea what she’d done to set him off. This was witnessed by Murray Gell-Mann who quipped, “I see you’ve met our Mr. Feynman.”

• [Cj Hayes]

  The most recent strip on Hark! A Vagrant is presumably from this book.  http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=318

• [ridestowe]

  oh wow this is awesome. i just got done reading this book a couple weeks ago and have been trying to get my friends to read it. but i know they’ll read a graphic novel so this is perfect

• [Thylacinthine]

  Ordering this one for the family. And to add another person to my Gallery of Long Dead Boyfriends.

• [Gulliver]

  Nifty.

  The Feynman Lectures did well because they’re exponentially easier to understand the most standard college physics textbooks/profs.

• [william beaty]

  Feynman walks into the lecture hall with the chalkboard blank, and asks “Any Questions?”

  I adopted this habit the moment I heard about it!

  Hmmm.  The student of ant behavior, if devoting serious time to the avocation, soon stumbles upon the A-bomb of the ant world: the closed loop ant trail.  It’s a “black hole” which can pull an entire colony into its endless call of “food just ahead.”  I often wonder what our world would be like now if Feynman had discovered this during student days; if there had been someone in Manhattan project having serious second thoughts early on.

  • [Gulliver]

    Then, sadly, someone else would have invented it. Once you know how to enrich uranium, a Teller–Ulam device is simpler than some modern rifles.

    My own view is that the problem is not that we know how to build nuclear weapons, but that we as a species are willing to deploy them. That said, given that they were deployed, I’m glad that the only ones ever dropped were a paltry 13 and 21 kilotons and not the 50 megaton H-bombs developed later.

  • [tp1024]

    You forgot the fact that he had a black eye from a bar fight the night before … which kind of makes the scene a lot more hilarious.

• [g0dai]

  The stories in Two-Fisted Tales of Science are well-done and captivating, covering his safecracking and his last days with his first wife.  There’s a heartbreaking scene after her death that’s captured well in the comic; in the final moments of Infinity, the movie adaptation of Feynman’s story, the same scene is flat and disappointing. I had so much faith in Matthew Broderick that I expected much better.  Take my advice and stick with the original work and the comic adaptations!

• [tsa]

  Am I the only one who thinks that Feynmann is the most overhyped scientist of the twentieth century? Sure, he was good, but for some reason he is admired like Steve Jobs is.

  • [Mr. Son]

    I dunno if I’d use the phrase “most overhyped scientist of the twentieth century”, but I do think he’s a gigantic prick. However, he’s led a very interesting life, and done many interesting things, so I’m really not surprised so many people sing his praises.

    In the end, I’d say my favorite scientist will probably always be Nikola Tesla.

    • [Gulliver]

      Feynmann and Tesla both made more contributions to science than I probably ever will. I’m not sure what use there is in rating them, but I can say that Feynmann’s books, both his popular science works and his more technical lectures, have been very helpful to myself and others I’ve known over the years. I have no idea if I’d personally like his company, or that of Carl Sagan or Michael Crichton or Stephen Hawking or any of the myriad other science communicators I’ve never met, but I still appreciate their efforts to explain technical subjects in straightforward terms.

      I’ve noticed in our culture that there is a tendency to asses the personalities of famous individuals from afar through the filter of media. Possibly you knew Feynmann personally, so I’m not saying that describes you.

      By many accounts of the people who did know him, Tesla acted like kind of a prick himself to his neighbors, assistants, colleagues…but I’d still loved to have met him. Then again, partially due to my limitations interpreting complex social situations, I’m pretty oblivious to the drama of interpersonal friction. I’m just not very good at disliking people unless they go out of their way to walk all over those around them.