The artwork was my favorite part of the graphic novel--lush and exciting--but I found the story hard to follow at times. I'm sure part of this is due to the fact that I'm not much of a sports person and therefore knew relatively little about Clemente, but the narrative jumped around in time a lot and the characters and events of his early years in PR seemed muddled. I would have liked Santiago to have spent more time elaborating on episodes of Clemente's life where instead he seemed just to gloss. To be sure, I came away from 21 with a better understanding of Clemente as a person, but I would have liked it to have been slightly deeper. ( )

This comic left me with mixed feelings. I like the idea and it seems like a lot of research went into it, but there were also multiple technical flaws that made it difficult for the comic to achieve what it set out to do. For the bad, the story feels disjointed and difficult to follow as well as place temporally, with threads picked up and dropped all over the place. Most are eventually picked up pages later. People's lives don't fit a neat narrative, but a good author can still write a story without making the reader work to figure out when there's a time skip and how much of one. I also wish there had been more background info for both the era and the baseball. The baseball stuff especially seemed to assume more historical baseball knowledge than I possess. For the good, I quite liked the art. It's a cartoon-y style that drew me in and made the baseball games feel dynamic. I also came away with a better understanding of Roberto Clemente, his life, and the times he lived in. I just would have liked more and to not have to work so hard at following the story. ( )

Roberto Clemente's name adorns the annual Major League Baseball award for the sport's most humanitarian athletes. Not just the first great Puerto Rican baseballer (and some would argue still the greatest) to play in the United States, Clemente famously and often quietly displayed the best of humanity. In this emotionally moving biography, the Puerto Rican Wilfred Santiago magnificently chronicles the often tragic life of this icon. Beginning with Clemente's final game, where he collected his 3,000th hit, Santiago quickly hearkens back to Clemente's poverty stricken childhood of homemade bats and practice with soda caps through his disturbing journey into the minor leagues of the Jim Crow era of institutionalized racism and onto his life as a star outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Santiago expertly traverses Clemente's tribulations, losses, and success with ease and skill. His portrayal of the baseball games rank among the finest ever attempted in this medium. Under the masterful hands of Santiago, 21 evolves into far more than just a biography of a sports figure. It showcases a life worth emulating. ( )

21: The Story of Roberto Clemente is a 180+page hardbound graphic biography by Wilfred Santiago. I picked this up a Hudson Booksellers in the Pittsburgh International Airport in May 2012, but hadn’t gotten around to reading it until now. If you were a fan Roberto Clemente and you have seen him play many time like I have or if you just admire what you have heard or read about him, this will be an enjoyable and worthwhile read for you. It covers Clemente’s childhood in Puerto Rico with his family. It also covers his developing love of baseball, including his time in the minor leagues and then his emerging brilliant career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. I struggled a little with the part covering his childhood/teenaged years. It covers a long period of time and I found it a little hard to understand what the author was trying to convey. I believe these struggles were probably due to the graphic-novel format and a need for brevity. However, this was not a serious flaw. My favorite part of the book dealt with Clemente’s baseball prowess and his time as a Major League Baseball player. It provides information about his early career with the Pirates, the 1960 World Series, the 1971 World Series, his 3,000th hit, and more. I enjoyed those parts very much. The book also includes his courtship with his wife, Vera, and it covers his tragic and heroic death (December 31, 1972) while attempting a humanitarian food delivery to earthquake survivors in Nicaragua. It’s a unique and well-done graphic portrayal of the life of Roberto Clemente. The artwork is excellent and the story is brief, but informative and engaging. BTW: If you want to learn more about Roberto Clemente I highly recommend: Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero by David Maraniss (see my review on Goodreads) ( )

Stunningly beautiful artwork but muddled narrative. ( )