Django: Hand on Fire” tells the story of the youth of Django Reinhardt, a Roma raised outside Paris who would go on to be one of the most influential guitarists of all time. We follow his early years as an aimless and rebellious kid who is heading for a life of trouble until his devoted younger brother Nin-Nin convinces their mother Négros to buy him a banjo. Captivated by its possibilities and spurred by his natural talent, Django becomes obsessed with the instrument and quickly surpasses his older peers, mastering the popular bal-musette and intrigued by the new jazz coming over from the States. Soon he is playing in clubs and winning awards. He is on the verge of international success at the age of 18 when a tragedy strikes that will mark the rest of his life and career: he is badly burned in a caravan fire and spends the next years relearning how to play the guitar with only two fully-functioning fingers. This is an amazing story of perseverance and of fierce family love that is little known even to many jazz aficionados.

When I found this book, I decided to read it for though I have listened to his music and have actually found a few older records of his. I have also found that many jazzes and a few rock guitarists look at his music as where to start and to become.
The book opens with the story of his music and really how muscly everything came easy for him. It was not until a fire that would burn his left hand and left leg that he would need to work at just moving his fingers first then work to play the guitar once again. The book really goes into the struggles he was facing and how he overcame them.
The first part of the book is done in a graphic novel type which was okay. Once you get towards the end you have an actual written story which I personally liked better. Either way, this is a very good story and really worth the read.

With beautiful artwork and powerful storytelling, this graphic novel brings the story of Django Reinhardt to life in a captivating way.

According to Wiki 'Jean Reinhardt known by his stage name Django Reinhardt was a Belgian-born Romani-French jazz guitarist and composer. He was the first jazz talent to emerge from Europe and remains the most significant.'

He was incredibly talented and in his lifetime played both banjo and guitar. I didn't know anything about him before reading this graphic novel and as I read I was amazed by the adversity Django went through and despite this he still managed to develop his considerable talent. It is an inspirational story and all the more enjoyable because of the artwork.

This novel focuses on his childhood and early career and it would be great if there are future volumes exploring the rest of his life, especially how he survived WW2 but this is an excellent volume and well worth reading.

Copy provided by Europe Comics via Netgalley

Paydirt. I've never really been interested in the story of Django Reinhardt, the early jazz guitarist, but that's because I never knew it. I'll never be a fan of his output – Sheik of Araby sounding like an incoherent mess to my 4/4-bludgeoned ears, and certainly not Arabic – but this book is a biography of the man behind the myth, the boy that became a legend – or, as the introduction says several times, a god. We start with him as a youth slipping into cafes to hear the dance quartets and other musical artistes, until youthful vigour and malaise combine to make it known a banjo might improve his mood. It did more than that – but then came the fire that nearly caused amputation of his limbs, a failure of a marriage, and so much more.

This comic book retelling of it all isn't a classic – it's not the most visually attractive thing, it shows his artistic progression just by dropping the names of the tracks he rehearses on his gypsy caravan stoop, and it has some annoyingly disposable Greek chorus members (apart from the female one, she's gorgeous). Plus it has a really weird thing of dropping a bear and monkey into things. Plus it's only an origins story. Oh and also plus, it gives a little too much time to an essay form of what we've just seen, after the bluntest possible ending, which kind of embellishes and kind of negates the artistry and crafty authorial invention of the main part. But I still think this is a presentation of Django's youth that will appeal to his many fans, and with me as evidence I know for a fact it successfully raises interest in the narrative of this man's life where it never previously existed. A strong four stars.

A beautifully drawn, very well researched telling of the early life of Django Reinhardt. We are presented with the known details of his early life and musical influences through sensitive, beautifully watercolored drawings that present us with a detailed and evocative portrait of life in "la Zone." The attention to specifics of period dress and setting bring the reader into vivid contact with a long-gone era.

Although there are poetic liberties taken with the details of Reinhardt's biography, Hand on Fire does a wonderful job of maintaining fidelity to what we know of the great man's earliest years while still maintaining the mythical resonance of what is essentially a superhero origin story: a Manouche banjo prodigy suffers a catastrophic injury following a caravan fire. Nevertheless, due to his boundless belief in his talent and the support of his family, he was able to overcome his injury and emerge as one of the towering masters of the defining instrument of the 20th century, and one of the most influential musicians of all time.

This is a lovely first volume of what promises to be an excellent biography of the great Django Reinhardt. It should appeal to lovers of jazz as well as the general BD audience. Includes an introduction by Thomas Dutronc and a contextual essay by the author. Highly recommended.

I thoroughly enjoyed this Django Reinhardt biography. Although I have loved his music for a while and knew aspects of his story, it was fascinating to read and see the colour and life in this cultural and historical backdrop. The book focuses mainly on his young life, but this is of course the significant period, leading to his later fame. In addition the detailed written account at the end of the novel with photographs, provide an excellent and enjoyable read. I loved the artwork for this graphic novel. The characters were depicted well and there was clarity on every page. All in all, an enjoyable and emotive read. Excellent.

I picked this comic up based on the cover alone, not knowing who Django Reinhardt was or his incredible yet tragic story. Reading through this comic has given be a basic understanding of his life but in such a beautifully drawn way that I am considering researching further into his life. The way it was drawn kept me hooked all the way through, it is a true beautiful biographical comic that catches us and doesn't let us go before the final point.