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The Cigar That Fell In Love With a Pipe
On the eve of the release of his latest movie, The Lady From Shanghai , Orson Welles receives a An admirer has sent him a box of cigars. Rich and full bodied, they are the finest he’s ever tasted. But then, these are no ordinary They’ve been assembled by the most famous cigar roller in Cuba, Conchita Marquez. It is an exquisite gift, though one not appreciated by Welles’s wife, Rita Hayworth. As he smokes these most coveted of cigars, he daydreams about the plump genius Conchita Marquez, whose story of triumph, despair, and love unfolds within the pages of this stunning and imaginative graphic novel.
128 pages, Hardcover
First published April 15, 2014
1 person is currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
David Camus
41 books5 followersDavid Camus was born in 1970, and currently lives and works in Paris.
He has made documentary films for television, worked in publishing, written several articles and done many translations.
The Book of the Cross (Le Roman de la Croix), his main work, is a series of five books telling the story of a knight Hospitaller named Morgennes.
David Camus is also famous for his translations of H.P. Lovecraft. Currently, he teaches "Science fiction, horror and fantasy" at the French University of Paris III Censier, and is town councilor of his home town.
He has made documentary films for television, worked in publishing, written several articles and done many translations.
The Book of the Cross (Le Roman de la Croix), his main work, is a series of five books telling the story of a knight Hospitaller named Morgennes.
David Camus is also famous for his translations of H.P. Lovecraft. Currently, he teaches "Science fiction, horror and fantasy" at the French University of Paris III Censier, and is town councilor of his home town.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
January 2, 2016
You want to read a book with this title, admit it. That was the allure for me, anyhow. Oh, and skimming the description of it, it has to do with cigar-loving Orson Welles and lover Rita Haworth, so it has that period attraction. . . only it really isn't very much about them, finally.
The heart of the story is about a cigar rolling legend, Conchita, whose last box of cigars come to Welles, and a sailor who carves pipes. The premise, vaguely romantic, is that the woman falls in love with the sailor, and by association, the cigar falls in love with the pipe. Is that clever, or kinda dumb? I say B. And in the end, this cigar-pipe love figures in the Welles-Hayworth relationship, but by that point, if you are still reading, well, you just go with the fantasy.
It's a diverting story for an hour, colorfully designed, with that title that promises the very strangeness you actually get, I guess. It doesn't add up to much, but it's pretty fun, I guess.
The heart of the story is about a cigar rolling legend, Conchita, whose last box of cigars come to Welles, and a sailor who carves pipes. The premise, vaguely romantic, is that the woman falls in love with the sailor, and by association, the cigar falls in love with the pipe. Is that clever, or kinda dumb? I say B. And in the end, this cigar-pipe love figures in the Welles-Hayworth relationship, but by that point, if you are still reading, well, you just go with the fantasy.
It's a diverting story for an hour, colorfully designed, with that title that promises the very strangeness you actually get, I guess. It doesn't add up to much, but it's pretty fun, I guess.
May 18, 2014
Orson Welles receives a box of delectable cigars to celebrate the release of his latest movie, The Lady from Shanghai, and realises that these are the last cigars created by the greatest cigar roller of all time, Conchita Marquez. In a smoky haze, Welles recounts Conchita’s brief life and bizarre afterlife that sees her soul imprisoned in her cigars and her lover’s in a pipe!
The Cigar That Fell in Love with a Pipe is as whimsical as its title suggests and from the opening line “Once upon a time…” you know you’re in for a modern-ish fairy tale. True to the genre, writer David Camus eschews any attempt at creating real characters - Conchita’s boss/husband is as cartoonishly wicked as any villain Charles Perrault dreamt up - and of course the story is magical realist at best, so it’s hard to critique the usual narrative elements.
But like a lot of fairy tales, this book is a very light read and, barring any real message/moral, leaves little impression on the reader. You’ll read this in one sitting but will you remember it a month later? Unlike many of SelfMadeHero’s recent releases, no. Conchita’s life was tragic for the most part but quite one-dimensional.
It’s still enjoyable in parts and Orson Welles’ turbulent relationship with his then-wife Rita Hayworth was fun as the two fought over Welles’ cigar consumption (he was a true lover of them). I also get a strong Disney flavour to the book - the enchanted objects recalled the characters in Beauty and the Beast while Rita’s mischievous nephew felt like Sid from Toy Story. But by far the best part of the book is Nick Abadzis’ lovely artwork.
All of the pages look amazing but the splash pages in particular stand out, where Conchita’s soul leaves her earth-bound body and soars across the globe, revelling in sights and places she would never see outside of her dreams. Vibrant and colourful, they conveyed a powerful sense of freedom, and those last few wordless pages? The perfect ending.
If you’re looking for an amusing and unusual fairy tale with wonderful art, and of course enjoy non-superhero comics, give this book a chance to entertain you. If nothing else, you can’t say that this is another retread of “that old cigar roller becomes a cigar and her sailor lover becomes a pipe” storyline!
The Cigar That Fell in Love with a Pipe is as whimsical as its title suggests and from the opening line “Once upon a time…” you know you’re in for a modern-ish fairy tale. True to the genre, writer David Camus eschews any attempt at creating real characters - Conchita’s boss/husband is as cartoonishly wicked as any villain Charles Perrault dreamt up - and of course the story is magical realist at best, so it’s hard to critique the usual narrative elements.
But like a lot of fairy tales, this book is a very light read and, barring any real message/moral, leaves little impression on the reader. You’ll read this in one sitting but will you remember it a month later? Unlike many of SelfMadeHero’s recent releases, no. Conchita’s life was tragic for the most part but quite one-dimensional.
It’s still enjoyable in parts and Orson Welles’ turbulent relationship with his then-wife Rita Hayworth was fun as the two fought over Welles’ cigar consumption (he was a true lover of them). I also get a strong Disney flavour to the book - the enchanted objects recalled the characters in Beauty and the Beast while Rita’s mischievous nephew felt like Sid from Toy Story. But by far the best part of the book is Nick Abadzis’ lovely artwork.
All of the pages look amazing but the splash pages in particular stand out, where Conchita’s soul leaves her earth-bound body and soars across the globe, revelling in sights and places she would never see outside of her dreams. Vibrant and colourful, they conveyed a powerful sense of freedom, and those last few wordless pages? The perfect ending.
If you’re looking for an amusing and unusual fairy tale with wonderful art, and of course enjoy non-superhero comics, give this book a chance to entertain you. If nothing else, you can’t say that this is another retread of “that old cigar roller becomes a cigar and her sailor lover becomes a pipe” storyline!
April 20, 2015
Huh.
The spirits of a famous cigar-roller and a sailor fall in love through their respective smoking devices. Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth are involved.
I don't have a smoking thing (in fact, quite the opposite), so maybe I just don't get the allure. I found the figure drawing inconsistent, and the coloring a little garish for the tale. I liked a lot of the full-page panels, and the images of smoke (and ghostly wispiness). Never really got the point of including Welles and Hayworth.
I struggled a little with the depiction of Conchita Marquez, actually. While I appreciate the presence of a romantic lead with an out-of-the-box body shape, she is presented as unusual in that way, and not necessarily in a good way. It's a tricky issue.
Well produced, though. Nice tight binding, well-designed cover.
Just not my cup of smokes. ;)
The spirits of a famous cigar-roller and a sailor fall in love through their respective smoking devices. Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth are involved.
I don't have a smoking thing (in fact, quite the opposite), so maybe I just don't get the allure. I found the figure drawing inconsistent, and the coloring a little garish for the tale. I liked a lot of the full-page panels, and the images of smoke (and ghostly wispiness). Never really got the point of including Welles and Hayworth.
I struggled a little with the depiction of Conchita Marquez, actually. While I appreciate the presence of a romantic lead with an out-of-the-box body shape, she is presented as unusual in that way, and not necessarily in a good way. It's a tricky issue.
Well produced, though. Nice tight binding, well-designed cover.
Just not my cup of smokes. ;)
January 24, 2021
I’m not sure how this came into being. This odd juxtaposition of Welles and Hayworth after the release of The Lady from Shanghai and a story with some unflattering descriptions of a Cuban cigar roller and a Popeye-looking pipe-whittling sailor.
I was hoping the oddity would pay off with a smirk and the joy that comes with uncovering all obscure gems. But I was just left with the odd.
I was hoping the oddity would pay off with a smirk and the joy that comes with uncovering all obscure gems. But I was just left with the odd.
April 12, 2015
Delightful concept. Original and fresh, although more of a fairy tale for children than the sophisticated adult story that I was hoping for. Unfortunately, the execution is mediocre, both in the writing and the drawing.
The writing is patchy, and in some places it's really amateurish. For example: in a story about cigars, I would have expected some original description of the cigar or smoke taste, but no, you get the standard terminology that you can find on every cigar blog on the internet. Another example: how can Rita be "impervious to her desperate squeals", when we don't know if she can actually hear the cigar's squeals, and if there are any squeals at all. Another example is how Conchita falls in love with the sailor, just because of the smell of his pipe. That's ok in the context of the character, but it gives the plot a huge weakness, since that moment, that emotion is supposed to support the rest of the story. There needed to be a stronger revision effort there, in adding at least a minimum of human substance to the relationship between Conchita and the sailor.
The drawings... I liked some of them. They are at their best when it comes to Conchita and to some backgrounds. Other people are often sketched too quickly, and Orson and Rita have a different face almost in every drawing, sometimes proportionate and resembling the real personalities, sometimes completely off. Overall, a quick, fun and inspiring graphic novel that could have been better executed.
The writing is patchy, and in some places it's really amateurish. For example: in a story about cigars, I would have expected some original description of the cigar or smoke taste, but no, you get the standard terminology that you can find on every cigar blog on the internet. Another example: how can Rita be "impervious to her desperate squeals", when we don't know if she can actually hear the cigar's squeals, and if there are any squeals at all. Another example is how Conchita falls in love with the sailor, just because of the smell of his pipe. That's ok in the context of the character, but it gives the plot a huge weakness, since that moment, that emotion is supposed to support the rest of the story. There needed to be a stronger revision effort there, in adding at least a minimum of human substance to the relationship between Conchita and the sailor.
The drawings... I liked some of them. They are at their best when it comes to Conchita and to some backgrounds. Other people are often sketched too quickly, and Orson and Rita have a different face almost in every drawing, sometimes proportionate and resembling the real personalities, sometimes completely off. Overall, a quick, fun and inspiring graphic novel that could have been better executed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 31, 2025
Fun and fanciful. I enjoyed Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles as well as Conchita, who rolled cigars, and her sailor Wooden John, who whittled a pipe.
September 19, 2015
I'm not really sure what happened and why someone would be convinced that they had to tell this story. It's strongly hinted that the whole thing is just a delusion of a pretty nutty guy.
But if the author really wanted to tell an Orson Welles-Rita Hayworth story, he really ought to have given them some depth.
By contrast, if he really wanted tell a story about the two more allegorical figures, he should have focused more tightly on them. IT feels a little bit like we've been given a "B" story and a "C" story (in network television parlance.) Only Conchita Marquez is a sympathetic character and she does not have an inner life for much of the book.
But if the author really wanted to tell an Orson Welles-Rita Hayworth story, he really ought to have given them some depth.
By contrast, if he really wanted tell a story about the two more allegorical figures, he should have focused more tightly on them. IT feels a little bit like we've been given a "B" story and a "C" story (in network television parlance.) Only Conchita Marquez is a sympathetic character and she does not have an inner life for much of the book.
December 22, 2016
A nice little story, fact padded out with quite a bit of fantasy which gets a bit too silly by the end. The story is billed as "Featuring Orson Welles & Rita Hayworth" as if that were some sort of selling point, but they are just the window dressing for Conchita Marquez's story, who is really the star of the book, a big woman with a big heart whose capacity for love goes unfulfilled (at least in her lifetime, beyond that is speculated by the author). Conchita's dream sequence is undoubtedly the artistic highlight of the book with gorgeous double page spreads, but there isn't anything else that jumps out. Not a bad idea, but not really enough substance to make a worthwhile story out of.
July 18, 2014
A quick read, but lots of fun. I have no idea how much of this is based on reality, nor, I suppose, do I care. Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth were real people. As for the rest, who knows. The title is more literally accurate than one might normally suppose. Yes, there's a cigar. A whole box of them, in fact. There is also a pipe. Yes, they do fall in love. How does this all work out, and how do Welles and Hayworth figure into the story? You'll just have to read and find out ... Recommended.
August 5, 2014
I liked the art for this book and how that it was fully colored. The story telling at the beginning was really nice, detailed, and relaxed but I felt halfway through the narration started slacking and a bit too fast paced for appreciation. Thus, the story and the ending in general wasn't really such a great read which lead to the overall experience to be unsatisfactory. In addition, the fantasy concept was kinda interesting, but I felt that it didn't work well with the fact that the beginning of the story was so realistic before.
October 15, 2014
Great artwork can't make up for weak storytelling. What's mostly an amusing story centered around love and love of tobacco, seems to go awry with the shrill, nagging Rita Hayworth who is such a poorly formed character she has little substantive dialogue or presence.
January 19, 2015
What an odd premise! Moderately well-executed for sort of coming out of left field! What lovely, delicious, at once sensual and silly drawings of a fat lady who rolled the best Cuban cigars of them all! If this comic's job was to make me want a good cigar quite a lot, it succeeded marvelously.
January 10, 2024
Yes, the title did attract me even though I've never been a smoker! The story - wrapped around Orson Welles' obsession with smoking paraphernalia - tells of a box of cigars that he is sent, which he enjoys down to the last one - and there's a tale there. We get to know Welles' problems with Rita Hayworth, his then wife, and the main character Conchita Marquez, the greatest ever torcedora - cigar roller. It's a tragic love story about cigars, Welles and a sailor!
Ah forget it! It's too hard to describe but oh so enjoyable
Ah forget it! It's too hard to describe but oh so enjoyable
February 28, 2025
This is a story, not about Orson Welles, but one he is in. It does remind me of the type of story Welles would tell. It is a fantastical story of the greatest cigar roller in Cuba who becomes allergic to nicotine and falls in love with a man who smokes a pipe. It is a mystical story, one that wraps around itself, and had the potential to be great, but seems drawn out and could have been about twenty pages shorter. The art is incredible, especially the depictions of a young Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth.
April 18, 2023
Considering this one in the running for 'Worst Books I've Ever Read' and am truly unsurprised because, in addition to finding it at the Dollar Tree, it is the worst way a Cigar could ever fall in love with a pipe. Think of all the ways, in all the universe and your last guess that it would be in the most misogynist, borderline racist way possible. Camus hates women and infantilizes people of color.
Despite the hyper-analysis, I did enjoy some of the illustrations.
Despite the hyper-analysis, I did enjoy some of the illustrations.
February 18, 2019
A tale of tobacco and love.
I found this graphic novel really bizarre but incredibly effective.
Reading time roughly 45 minutes.
I found this graphic novel really bizarre but incredibly effective.
Reading time roughly 45 minutes.
May 17, 2019
Excellent example of the graphic story telling medium adapted from Camus work with art by the consistent Nick Abadzis starring Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth.
August 13, 2019
The story was charming but the art was horrid.
October 9, 2019
This is why we have graphic novels!
A very specific and unique tale, that might only be able to be told in this medium.
Just great!
A very specific and unique tale, that might only be able to be told in this medium.
Just great!
January 30, 2022
rosa falleg og skemmtileg bók
July 27, 2022
Just not for me …
September 6, 2023
What a weird, lovely comic.
October 31, 2014
Niet explosief maar een buitengewoon charmant en geestig tussendoortje over een Hollywoodroddel. Met name Orson Welles en de onophoudelijke rookkringen in zijn 'study' spreken erg tot mijn verbeelding. En bovendien een aardige opmaat voor het lezen van het onlangs aangeschafte Roken in de kunsten, van olieverf tot celluloid.
November 1, 2015
This graphic novel covers so many characters succinctly and fully, touching on a variety of subjects without needing to be "in your face" about it. It takes the focus from a film legend and his girlfriend and places it on the people often forgotten in history. Not the most complex graphic novel ever, but definitely worth the read.
July 14, 2014
Interesting magical realist fable, and great art. I loved the Cuban and shipboard settings. But was Rita Hayworth really this much of a bitch? Not from what I've read about her, and I wasn't sure why they chose to cast her in the villain role.
March 31, 2016
It's hard to pass on a title and cover art like this. Featuring Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth - a bonus. Is this for real? You'll be Google-ing "Conchita Marquez" after you read this one. Light and entertaining.
January 28, 2016
this comic is adorable and i loved it.
August 10, 2014
Excellent story with a strange title that caught my eye. Fast fun read that let me exercise my imagination.
I'd describe more but don't want to give more away. Just read it!
I'd describe more but don't want to give more away. Just read it!
September 28, 2014
Orson Wells, Rita Hayworth, a cigar and a pipe? Yup.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews