The Giant Orson Welles
Aside from being the creator of Citizen Kane, who was Orson Welles?
If you’re like me, mention of Citizen Kane’s director brings to mind some concept of an early and influential Hollywood figure, someone who set the course of filmmaking and left a mark for decades to come. But what if you were asked to describe his other films? Perhaps his roles in television, on stage, on the radio? Even his connection to the early and infamous radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds. How much does the average moviegoer know about Welles’s antagonism with Hollywood, or his career and artistic vision which were hampered by a variety of obstacles that seemingly stood between him and the artist he craved to be? Created by French cartoonist Youssef Daoudi and published by 23rd St., The Giant Orson Welles: The Artist and the Shadow seeks to capture the life of the influential director honestly, but also with an artistic flair worthy of a man who chased his vision regardless of whether those around him believed it possible.
Narrated by Welles himself, this graphic biography highlights key moments in the life and career of the director, writer, and actor. Although he continually crossed paths with other significant figures in world and film history, the story keeps the lens close to Welles.  From his childhood as a declared prodigy where he was told he could accomplish everything, through an adulthood where such promises failed to materialize, until he found himself raging against a world that felt it did not appreciate him. Welles created Citizen Kane at only 25 years of age, and despite its controversies, it was the film that would follow him for the rest of his career, setting the bar for any later attempts to grasp success.Welles was a complicated man who created goodwill documentaries and artistic films that pressed back against the mainstream, and faced accusations of communism and the fears of the red scare. It is these complexities that Daoudi tries to capture on the page. With the character of Welles as storyteller, the book is immensely sympathetic to the man and all that seemed stacked against him. At the same time, it shows that he was a man who struggled with his own success, who could be abrasive and uncompromising to those around him, and who struggled to find his way while he refused to let others chart his course. The Welles of this book would prefer to watch his promising career crumble around him than compromise the artist he sees himself to be. It is a difficult thing to create a biography of any person, much less to condense such an immense life and career into a singular graphic novel. Nevertheless, with extensive citations and a clear appreciation for a man who shaped modern cinema, Daoudi’s book is an immensely inviting and readable guided journey that feels informative without ever failing to remember that it is meant to be telling a story.
And make no mistake, the book is entertaining. It is nonfiction, but from the opening pages of Welles striding across the Hollywood landscape in a long coat and hat, swirling smoke around him as he declares his name to the reader, it is also clear that this will be no dry recounting of facts. The book unfolds with stylized realism, moving across time with a mix of straightforward presentation and interjections from Welles himself. The color palate is bold black and white with shocks of yellow consistently brightening the illustrations. Daoudi does not waste the graphic format. Episodes are introduced and play out with script directions and scene setting. The imagery splays across the page with a cinematographer’s intent. Sequential panels follow dual page spreads scattered with scenes from movies, advertising posters, and dramatic stagings of Welles’s own life. In one of the more remarkable scenes, a pile of televisions reminds the director of the multitude of seemingly worthless commercial jobs he has taken, solely in an effort to fund his more passionate projects. At another turn of the page, Welles is confronted by characters from his own incomplete films, specters that follow him through life as reminders of the things he has yet to achieve. Always easy to follow but never overly simple, the book endeavors to create a visual and artistic experience that gives shape to a story with the completeness that such a life deserves.
The book does not carry a specific age rating, but 23rd St. is a comics line aimed at adults. The more mature content elements include violence both in a science fiction context and in realistic depictions of bullfighting. There is occasional strong language and a couple illustrations of nonsexual nudity. None of these elements are pervasive, but coupled with the tone and content of the comic, it’s a read aimed mostly at adults and older teens with an interest in film history. Anyone curious to learn more about Welles or the earlier days of Hollywood should find something to appreciate here, along with more general readers of graphic nonfiction and anyone who wants to take a journey through a biographical comic clearly created with intention, respect, and striking artistic vision. Whatever else one may say about Orson Welles, he was an imposing man, a driven visionary whose work casts a shadow even into the present day.
Turning an eye toward that legacy and those complexities, The Giant Orson Welles is a bold and quite readable work of graphic biography that earns a place in any collection where a comic of this subject matter and style might be appreciated.
The Giant Orson Welles: The Artist & The Shadow  Â
By Youssef Daoudi
Macmillan 23rd St., 2025
ISBN: 9781250805942
NFNT Age Recommendation: Adult (18+), Older Teen (16-18)
Creator Representation:Â French,
