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The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam
A full-color graphic memoir inspired by the award-winning documentary-and the life and mystery of China's greatest magician.
Who was Long Tack Sam?
He was born in 1885. He ran away from Shangdung Province to join the circus. He was an acrobat. A magician. A comic. An impresario. A restaurateur. A theater owner. A world traveler. An East-West ambassador. A mentor to Orson...more
Who was Long Tack Sam?
He was born in 1885. He ran away from Shangdung Province to join the circus. He was an acrobat. A magician. A comic. An impresario. A restaurateur. A theater owner. A world traveler. An East-West ambassador. A mentor to Orson...more
Paperback, 176 pages
Published
September 4th 2007
by Riverhead Trade
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Long Tack Sam's life, or what of it can be deciphered from this graphic novel, was pretty amazing. While the format was visually interesting, it didn't do any favors to cohesion. I do agree with the sentiment that history is personal and relative, though, so I can appreciate what the author was trying to do.
This combination biography/memoir in graphic novel form is a complete delight! Ann Marie Fleming knew vaguely that her great-grandfather, his wife, and his daughters had been somehow involved in show business, but all she had were a handful of anecdotes and a single playbill. As it turns out, Long Tack Sam (as her great-grandfather was known) was at one time a world-famous magician and acrobat, and he led a truly amazing life. Harry Houdini stole tricks from him, Orson Welles was among his fa...more
This book is largely kept alive by the fact that the story of Chinese magician Long Tack Sam is so interesting in and of itself. Though listed as a memoir, this is essentially an adaptation of a documentary Fleming made, and I get the sense that she is slightly precious about preserving what she pieced together in the film. Random screen captures from the movie, often with the subtitles still visible, are just one of the many clumsy moves the author makes. Her page construction suggests she does...more
This is a great non-fiction graphic account of the author's hunt for information about her great grandfather, a chinese vaudeville magician who was extremely famous world-wide in his time but who was, for various interesting reasons, completely forgotten by western pop culture. I learned some interesting things abouot the history of anti-Asian racism in the US, as well as some stuff about the history of showbiz! The book is put together in a really fun and light-hearted way in spite of touching ...more
Barky
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What a neat book. The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam is unlike any other graphic novel I’ve read. The great-granddaughter of a once-famous Chinese Vaudeville performer roots out the history of her now-forgotten relative.
Fleming’s own illustrations are horrendous (think stick figures), and she is the first to admit this. Wisely, she keeps her doodles to a minimum and fills the pages with tinted photos, playbills, newspaper clippings, and other scrapbook-like memorabilia.
S...more
Fleming’s own illustrations are horrendous (think stick figures), and she is the first to admit this. Wisely, she keeps her doodles to a minimum and fills the pages with tinted photos, playbills, newspaper clippings, and other scrapbook-like memorabilia.
S...more
After finding this book on Jennifer’s bookshelf and flipping through the pages, I was drawn to it because it blended pictures, film stills, illustrations, comics, and text. Her own illustrations aren’t very good and are sometimes too precious (she admits she’s a filmmaker, not an illustrator) but I did like the photos and her added captions. She could have used some help with the layout of her panels and pages since it’s pretty unsophisticated as a graphic novel. The story is mainly about fillin...more
While there may be a very compelling story here (apparently the movie was quite favorably received), even by the end of the book I had very little idea of the real character of Long Tack Sam, or the ways in which the stories the author shares shaped her vision of her great grandfather over time. Clearly the title character's life is noteworthy, but the descriptive powers of the author seem overburdened trying to capture exactly why. In fact, in most places the writing is just plain bad, and the ...more
Trained as a documentary filmmaker, Anne Marie Fleming has created something truly remarkable in The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam: an engrossing “documentary comic” that tells in vivid detail the life story of “the greatest of the Chinese magicians” while providing vivid snapshots of the major events of the 20th Century, its social history, and its popular culture.
Long Tack Sam was born in northern China in 1885, but spent the rest of his life literally all over the globe, touring...more
Long Tack Sam was born in northern China in 1885, but spent the rest of his life literally all over the globe, touring...more
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Amy
rated it
The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam is the biography of Ann Marie Fleming’s great-grandfather. Ann Marie knew very little about her family. She knew her parents and her brothers and sisters, but nobody else in her family really talked. Her grandmother used to talk about her days as a vaudeville performer and had mentioned that her father was a magician. After her grandmother’s death Ann Marie became more interested in finding out about her great-grand father, Long Tack Sam. What Ann Marie finds ou...more
This illustrated memoir is based on a film by the same name. I haven’t seen the film so I can’t make any comparisons. It’s unusual, though, to have written work based on a film, it tends to be the other way around (and the film tends to suck.) This was a really short read but it packed a punch. Ann Marie Fleming goes on a quest to find out her great-grandfather’s history. She wanted to discover herself through the history of her scattered mixed race family. Her great-grandfather, Long Tack Sam, ...more
A lot of graphic novels are biographical in some way, and many have autobiographic qualities, but this is the first book I've read that inocrporates comics, sketches, primary source materials, text, and photographs to tell both history and historiography... very interesting. the story of "long tack sam" is also very entertaining - funny, sad, frustrating, thought-provoking.
This is an illustrated memoir of a filmmaker who travels the world to unearth the story about her great-grandfather, a Chinese acrobat and magician named Long Tack Sam, who was one of the best-known vaudeville acts in the early 20th century. Told in a mixture of cartoons, photos, old ads and newspaper clippings, and comic book stories (which each describe conflicting versions of his early life), the book reads like a wildly annotated family scrapbook. The author discovers the fascinating story...more
This is right up my alley. A search through history to find the source of something mostly forgotten - nicely illustrated and filled with some really lovely philosophical (not preachy) thought.
Now I need to see the film... and make a book just like this one...
Now I need to see the film... and make a book just like this one...
The story, which is about the author's grandfather, a Chinese magician, was very interesting. Her drawings were pretty bad though. She admittedly can't draw so I don't understand why she chose to make the story into a graphic novel herself.
This is a wonderful illustrated memoir about a woman's great grandfather - a famous Chinese acrobat - told through the history of the 20th century. It made me think that some of the best stories can be found within your own family.
A full-color graphic memoir inspired by the award-winning documentary-and the life and mystery of China's greatest magician.
Who was Long Tack Sam?
He was born in 1885. He ran away from Shangdung Province to join the circus. He was an acrobat. A magician. A comic. An impresario. A restaurateur. A theater owner. A world traveler. An East-West ambassador. A mentor to Orson Welles. He was considered the greatest act in the history of vaudeville.
In this gorgeous ...more
Who was Long Tack Sam?
He was born in 1885. He ran away from Shangdung Province to join the circus. He was an acrobat. A magician. A comic. An impresario. A restaurateur. A theater owner. A world traveler. An East-West ambassador. A mentor to Orson Welles. He was considered the greatest act in the history of vaudeville.
In this gorgeous ...more
This graphic memoir is about Anne Marie Fleming's search for information about her once famous great grandfather, Long Tack Sam. As the book unfolds, she discovers that Sam was a revered magician who rubbed elbows with Charlie Chaplin and played to sold out theaters all over the world. Like Anne Marie herself, who has lived all over the world, Long Tack Sam and his family were gypsies, and her discovery of scattered family members make up part of the story. It is, more than anything else, a s...more
This graphic novel strikes me more as a scrapbook from days gone by. The author never knew her Great-Grandfather but with the help of relatives, magic museums, and the internet she was able to put a time line to her grandfather's life. One of the reasons that I enjoyed this one so much is the genealogical aspect. I love researching my family heritage and Fleming's background is colorful. Her research took her to Australia, China, Hungary...she was a globe-trotter for sure. I learned a lot about ...more
I accidentally stumbled on this book in the "New Books" section of the library. What a delightful memoir illustrated by Ann Marie Fleming. Her great grandfather was Long Tack Sam, the fantastic magician whom the late George Burns raved, "[Long Tack Sam was:] the greatest vaudeville act I'd ever seen! His acrobatics were the piece de resistance!"
This memoir chronicalled how Long Tack Sam got into performing (even though there were several renditions) and how h...more
This memoir chronicalled how Long Tack Sam got into performing (even though there were several renditions) and how h...more
The easiest way to describe this book is to say it's a graphic novel, although I thought it was so much more than that. In the end, I kind of thought of it as a family scrapbook. It's full of snapshots, document facsimiles, newspaper clippings, film stills, and drawings of the author's family. Ann Marie Fleming was in a position, like most of us, I think, where she didn't know a great deal about her family's history. So, when she discovered that her Great-Grandfather was a world-famous magic...more
This graphic novel memoir just blew me away. It's a really astonishing story of a true luminary of the early-1900s entertainment community who has somehow been lost to history--more than that, it's the story of his great-granddaughter tracking down his history. And on a personal level, it was fascinating to read about a mixed-ethnicity family during a time when it wasn't as common or as socially acceptable. Comic-book style, but with photographs and playbills interspersed among the illustrations...more
Ann Marie Fleming gives us a graphic novel/memoir/photo essay of the life of her great-grandfather, Long Tack Sam. Sam was a vaudeville performer and celebrity in the early 20th Century in Europe and the U.S. He was a fascinating man who has been largely forgotten. The hows and whys of his life make for an excellent story, and Fleming's book is an interesting look at multi-modal story telling. There is also a documentary, if you are interested.
This was a very unique graphic novel/photo biography. It was originally a semi-animated film, which I think would work much better to convey the story than this graphic novel.
While the photos and information were interesting, there were many passages that became repetitive and hard to follow.
All in all, a worth while read, but it would have been just as enjoyable to flip randomly and skim passages I think.
I would like to see the film sometime.
While the photos and information were interesting, there were many passages that became repetitive and hard to follow.
All in all, a worth while read, but it would have been just as enjoyable to flip randomly and skim passages I think.
I would like to see the film sometime.
Very interesting format, but a little boring. Her great-grandfather was a Chinese magician and vaudeville entertainer. This is his story - done in classic comic book, black and white photos, play bills from his shows, and her little stick figure drawings of herself thrown in to narrate the story. Like I said, interesting, but the story didn't hold my attention. This in a memoir that doesn't translate well into a story - even with the cool pictures.
I really don't remember how this book landed on my to-read list but I figured I might as well check it out and read it anyway. It was a sweet graphic novel account of a woman researching the life of her great grandfather who was a very famous vaudeville performer, magician, and acrobat. I enjoyed the collage style graphics and the pacing of the story as she unfolded her family's history. It was a fun, sweet read but not spectacular.
A very neat collage memoir of the author trying to find out who her great-grandfather was, and it turns out that he was this famous magician and acrobat during the height of vaudeville. Fleming includes a time line in the margins to provide historical context from the 1880s to the present, video screen caps and photographs, comic book interludes that tell multiple versions of Long Tack Sam's childhood--it's a good read. The style is fluid, like an essayist who has the freedom to add whatever sui...more
This little memoir is so sweet and enjoyable. While it doesn't dig too deep because it is an illustrated graphic novel - the art and writing style of short blips and blurbs and photos is perfect to go with this amazing man's ever changing life. And while learning about the amazing Long Tack Sam, you learn about life, history, and much more.
I really like it a lot. This graphic memoir includes collage techniques and a whole lot of interesting graphical elements. Fleming's search for her own identity and that of her great-grandfather is a great example of what the medium of the graphic narrative is capable of.
This book started off kind of slow. It felt more like the author bragging about a famous relative, but as it went on I could see the world history illustrated through his life.
Although there was nothing that was in depth, it painted an interesting picture of his life and times, with small glimpses into vaudeville and Chinese magic and acrobatics. I'm sure it was a fun book to write and research.
Although there was nothing that was in depth, it painted an interesting picture of his life and times, with small glimpses into vaudeville and Chinese magic and acrobatics. I'm sure it was a fun book to write and research.
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