I've been fascinated by Dali's art and cinematography for years, so I jumped at the chance to read this graphic novel.

Dali - Before Gala is the first volume in the series and tells about Dali's early life and art before the widespread fame. I enjoyed the context of his friendships and other relationships with other artists of the age, as well as his family dynamics and motivation behind becoming an artist. One of my favorite scenes was the imagining of his famous movie, Un Chien Andalou, together with his friend Luis Bunuel.

There's some confusion however and the story is rather disjointed, mostly due to the fact that Dali rarely says anything 100% intelligible. He is portrayed as perpetually doing and saying odd things that have nothing to do with the context, but everyone around him somehow enjoys and celebrates him for it. For this reason it's not really a biography, but rather an abstract interpretation of his life. Fitting that it leaves a lot to the interpretation, but some scenes just left me wondering what it was that I just read.

What I did love was the artwork. It has nothing to do with Dali's art style, and I didn't expect anything of the sort either. It's light and sketchy and portrays the general weirdness really well. There's also a Dali-as-a-cat narrator that's delightful throughout the book.

Overall, an interesting book - I'm just not sure where it's going! Maybe Vol 2 sheds some light.

✨ Disclaimer ✨ I received a free copy of this book and this is my honest review.

Volume 1 (?) Before Gala

The story of Dali, in comic book form. I love surrealism, and I am familiar with Dali's artwork, even doing a paper on his 'The Persistence of Memory', (1931) in college. His early life was a mystery to me and this comic lays out Dali's early years. Kicked out of art school, being famous for his early works, the artists he hung out with, only makes me desire to grow as an artist (myself) at that time in his life.

The artwork in this comic took liberties at showing us what it looks like in his head. I did know he was a bit of a nutcase.

Dali’s work has mesmerized me since I was a kid, but I had never read anything about who he really was before reading this graphic novel. What an engrossing introduction to young Dali with an intriguing framing of the story. Mephisto the cat acts as a Virgil of sorts to the reader’s Dante--exploring the world of Dali.

The watercolor style of artwork is well done and the full page frames are gorgeous. I really enjoyed the references to familiar artworks and all of the tidbits about Dali’s past–which offer different paths of thought on their own. Soon to be going down a Dali and Lorca rabbit hole. I also learned what a phasmid is.

There were a couple of muddy parts (e.g. false nun in Paris) and did not have fun reading the cursive text, but overall a very enjoyable book. I would suggest this to readers who have an interest in Dali or art history.

I adore the art of Dali but I will admit this graphic novel left me very confused. I understand it is about Dali before his most famous art was even imagined but that's all I understood.
Was the author insinuating Dali was gay or Bi? No idea. Crazy? Yes that I can assume is true. I found the story a little hard to follow.
The artwork itself is lovely though. The story is well drawn and detailed.

It is worth taking a lok at but may be easier to follow once the entire series is out.

Thanks to @netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this eArc in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion./

I found this biography whimsical and wonderfully weird, in a way that seems to suit a Dali biography to a T. I didn't know much about his life from before he met Gala, so I learnt something as well as spent an hour with a beautifully drawn, fantastic graphic novel,

A fine collection of amusing anecdotes about the young Dali, told by himself (well, by his alter-ego, the cat Mephisto, drawn by Picasso).

As a child, he demonstrates the superiority of painting over music... by jumping on a classmate's violin case. He glues stones to a painting to make clouds. As a teenager, he's already unable to fit in and obey the boundaries of the Beaux Arts entrance exam. As a student, he's so odd that his only friends are centenarian (Velasquez, the best!), at least until he meets his first great (platonic!) love of his youth, Federico Garcia Lorca - and his gang, Luis Bunuel and Pépin Bello.

Julie Birmant (Pablo, Isadora, Drôles de femmes...) has fun building an eloquent portrait out of Dali's idiosyncrasies, while Clément Oubrerie (Aya de Yopougon, A mains nues, Pablo...) excels at capturing the zeitgeist, although he doesn't copy his protagonist's style at all.

A not-so-serious biography, yet very seriously written, a very funny and instructive read, whether you like Dali or not.

Disclaimer: I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. This didn't influence my opinion in any way.