Hellraisers

by Robert Sellers, JAKe (Illustrator)

Overview

Raise a glass to the story of four of the greatest actors—and boozers—of all time: Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O’Toole, and Oliver Reed. This inventive graphic work seamlessly weaves their four biographies into one fast-paced adventure of drunken binges, orgies, parties, and fun. The story begins at a London pub one sorry Christmas and is told through the eyes of Martin, a wannabe hellraiser sitting at the end of the bar alone, drinking himself into oblivion. He’s joined in turn by Burton, Harris, Reed, and O’Toole, who take Martin on tours of their tumultuous childhoods, rises to stardom, and chaotic personal lives.

Hellraisers:

“A savage sock in the jaw to polite, reverential biographical graphic novels, these hilariously bleak shock tales make the modern-day antics of Lindsay Lohan look like Dr. Seuss.” —Publishers Weekly

“In the hands of less talented creators, this book would be a boring mess. But it’s the exact opposite.” —Boing Boing
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781906838362
Publisher:	SelfMadeHero
Publication date:	01/29/2013
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Robert Sellers is the author of several celebrity biographies, including the original hardcover Hellraisers: The Life and Inebriated Times of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O’Toole, and Oliver Reed, as well as books on Sting, Tom Cruise, and the film industry. He lives in St. Albans, England. JAKe is an artist whose work has appeared in Esquire and Time Out; he also worked for LucasFilm on Star Wars and Indiana Jones. He lives in London, England.

Editorial Reviews

If you’re going to hear my confession,” actor Richard Harris says to a hospital priest, “prepare to be here for days.” He might well have been blurbing this graphic novel biography of Harris, Richard Burton, Peter O’Toole, and Oliver Reed—not only stars at the crest of 1960s British new-wave cinema, but fast-living, hard-partying icons of the decade. Sellers adapts his own prose celebrity biography of the same name into this graphic novel by enveloping it with the stars’ cautionary Christmas Carol-style visitation to the fictional Martin, a serial drunk and rabble-rouser in the making. It’s the adventures of Burton et al., however, that kick the narrative into bleakly hysterical and over-the-top sagas of extreme debauchery and decadence. Sellers’s script skips from one outrageous incident to another, deftly and fittingly portrayed by JAKe, who eschews photorealistic depiction in favor of bold, heavy-lined caricature. His illustrations are reminiscent of the work of Kyle Baker and Jamie Hewlett; he skillfully sets these instantly recognizable, larger-than-life characters in their hallucinatory whirlwind tours from drink to drunk and from beds to bed-ridden. A savage sock in the jaw to polite, reverential biographical graphic novels, these hilariously bleak shock tales make the modern-day antics of Lindsay Lohan look like Dr. Seuss. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Hellraisers wants only to be a rowdy collection of greatest hits, and it lives up to that fun-loving ambition. It reels off riotous tales about Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole and Oliver Reed without giving a moment's thought to what those tales might mean…Anyone horrified by the reckless abandon of Hellraisers should know what its ultimate effect turns out to be. This fun-loving celebration of drunkenness proves to be an even more sobering cautionary tale than some of the most serious addiction and recovery memoirs. And the fact that none could entirely stop drinking, even when it became a life-or-death medical necessity, makes it that much sadder. Funny as it is, the book's boisterous beginning gives way to grimly premature states of illness and dotage
—The New York Times

Janet Maslin

UK-based showbiz author and former stand-up comic Sellers profiles the four actors of the subtitle by the decade, alternating their stories and recounting their exploits. Sellers has drawn on various biographies for tales of lifelong hell-raising behavior. Chapters cover "The Plastered Fifties," through "The Pickled Nineties," to, finally, "Last Man Standing" (Peter O'Toole). A quotation from director Peter Medak captures the spirit: "It was the same with Burton and O'Toole, and Harris and Reed, there was this terrible sense of danger around them, you didn't know if they were going to kiss you, hug you or punch you right in the face. They were just wonderful." One anecdote tells of Oliver Reed drunk, on the baggage conveyor at Galway Airport. All four men experienced ups and downs in their careers and private lives exacerbated by drink; Sellers also covers how the wild life affected their health. VERDICT Akin to Gregory William Mank's Hollywood's Hellfire Club, which focuses on golden age Hollywood, this readable and amusing but sad biography benefits from four different subjects. Some stories may be considered offensive.—Barbara Kundanis, Longmont P.L., CO

Library Journal

A British stand-up comedian turned journalist scrutinizes four celebrated, heavy-drinking actors. Sellers' blackly humorous biography chronicles the bawdy, outrageous reputations of "four of the greatest boozers that ever walked-or staggered-into a pub. It's a "celebratory catalogue of their miscreant deeds" that thankfully incorporates notes of humor and revelation, since these conditions not only stalled their careers but cost them their livelihoods. Welsh actor Richard Burton, once one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood, claimed apathy (and a stream of cinematic "drivel") as his primary reason for drinking, that life offstage was too much of a sobering reversal to handle without alcohol. Irishman Richard Harris abused alcohol for most of his life while achieving fame in the film adaptation of Camelot (1967), then more recently as Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series. Despite winning major acclaim in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Peter O'Toole's heavy drinking and public brawling sabotaged his career. After some resulting major surgery, his ability to garner film roles was stunted further. British actor Oliver Reed, the most notorious of the "hellraisers," died amid a legendary drinking binge in Malta during the filming of Gladiator (1999). Sellers delivers decades of debauched history and insider Hollywood information on his subjects, from the "The Plastered Fifties" to "The Pickled Nineties." Chain-smoking Burton was prone to rages and a voracious sexual appetite; Harris' domineering personality and days-long drinking binges often trumped his notoriety; O'Toole, saddled with eccentricities and a failing marriage, befriended Burton in a union that Elizabeth Taylor quickly squashed;and Reed's dour public image suffered even more after his penchant for "showing his cock in public" emerged. Of the four, only O'Toole endures, "the last surviving British reprobate" who "knows he's been living on borrowed time for years, watching all his drinking pals from the 60s [sic] go under turf one by one."A snarky, muckraking, indulgent treat for film buffs.

Kirkus Reviews