Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns & Moonage Daydreams” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns & Moonage Daydreams

Mike Allred,

Steve Horton,

Laura Allred (Colourist),

Han Allred (Colourist),

Neil Gaiman (Goodreads Author) (Foreword)

4.02 · Rating details · 695 ratings · 145 reviews

Inspired by the one and only superhero, extraterrestrial, and rock and roll deity in history, Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns, & Moonage Daydreams is the original graphic memoir of the great Ziggy Stardust!

In life, David Bowie was one of the most magnetic icons of modern pop culture, seducing generations of fans with both his music and his counterculture persona. In death, the cu ...more

Get A Copy

Hardcover, 160 pages

Published January 7th 2020 by Insight Comics

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Bowie, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Bowie

Lists with This Book

Legend of the Fire Princess by Gigi D.G.

Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang

Great Graphic Novels (released in) 2020

234 books — 88 voters

The Inevitability of Tragedy by Barry Gewen

Biography Published in Year: 2020

121 books — 4 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.02 ·

Rating details

· 695 ratings · 145 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns & Moonage Daydreams

Oct 10, 2020 Scott rated it liked it

"Because music brings people together. It makes them feel something that they wouldn't otherwise feel . . . it speaks to the listener in ways that even the songwriter and musicians would never have intended." -- conversation scene between 'Ziggy Stardust' and David Bowie

The graphic novel Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns & Moonage Daydreams focuses mainly on the years 1969-1974 in the man's storied career, from when he issued his initial and self-titled two albums to lukewarm response and then quickly be ...more

flag 39 likes · Like · see review

May 01, 2020 Rod Brown rated it it was ok

Perfect if you want to know every famous person David Bowie ever met and see every outfit he ever wore while touring during the 1970s. Not the right book if you want to know anything about David Bowie as a person. The authors have lots of factoids but almost no insights to offer.

The art is nice and colorful, if a bit stiff from the obvious dependence on photo-referencing.

flag 17 likes · Like · see review

Aug 31, 2020 Jessica Haider rated it really liked it

Shelves: graphic-novels, non-fiction, i-love-rock-and-roll

A biographical graphic novel telling of David Bowie's life and career from young adulthood thru just after the Ziggy Stardust years. I recommend this for any Bowie fan. ...more

flag 12 likes · Like · see review

Jan 23, 2020 Ned Barnett rated it it was ok

It tries to do too much in too few pages, and never manages to find it's subject's soul. ...more

flag 11 likes · Like · see review

Nov 13, 2019 Andy Burns rated it it was amazing

https://biffbampop.com/2019/11/13/bow...

I grew up on rock and roll and comic books.

It sounds like a lyric, right? Maybe it is because my experience certainly wasn’t a solo one. Often times, those loves would intersect, like with Rock and Roll Comics, published by Revolutionary Comics in the early 1990s. The black and white books were totally unauthorised histories of some of the most prominent artists in music – the Rolling Stones and ACDC, the Grateful Dead and Bon Jovi; The Beatles and Pink Fl https://biffbampop.com/2019/11/13/bow...

I grew up on rock and roll and comic books.

It sounds like a lyric, right? Maybe it is because my experience certainly wasn’t a solo one. Often times, those loves would intersect, like with Rock and Roll Comics, published by Revolutionary Comics in the early 1990s. The black and white books were totally unauthorised histories of some of the most prominent artists in music – the Rolling Stones and ACDC, the Grateful Dead and Bon Jovi; The Beatles and Pink Floyd even had mini-series devoted to their tales. The art was decent if not spectacular, but the histories contained were reasonably accurate, at least for the time. In the ensuing decades, the merger of the two mediums has only gotten stronger, with visual artists putting out volumes of higher quality devoted to legends like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash. For me, though, no combination has proved more exciting, more perfect than the story of David Bowie and the artistry of Mike Allred.

I love David Bowie. I’m a fan of all of his work, though later albums like Black Tie, White Noise, Outside and Earthling have special places in my heart – those were the ones I came in on. I saw Bowie in concert three times – one with two thousand others in a sweat-drenched club on the Earthling tour; once on the Area 2 tour, where I leaned on the stage and watched a master at play right before my eyes; and on his final tour, in an arena, performing songs from throughout his career. A new Bowie record was a day and day listen for me, to hear what he’d come up now, and see how he’d ch-ch-changed his game. His final offering, Blackstar, remains on rotation here. I have a Blackstar tattoo on my arm, which I got a week or two following his passing.

And then there’s Mike Allred. I love Mike Allred’s work, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I came to it probably later than most. It wasn’t with Madman, his revered creator-owned character, but with the massive gigantic X-Statix Omnibus from Marvel that collected the various mutant series Allred worked on with writer Peter Milligan. Allred has this uncanny ability in his art to combine cartoon and real life. I won’t dwell on trying to describe his talents, other than to say you instantly know when you’re looking at a Mike Allred illustration. Along with his comic book art, I think my favourite piece by Allred was his cover for The Monkees’ Christmas Party album. He even made the video for ‘Unwrap You At Christmas’.

As you can imagine, Allred’s BOWIE: Stardust, Rayguns & Moonage Daydreams is an absolute dream come true for me. In this gorgeous hardcover graphic novel, Allred (credited here as Michael) and his co “Screenwriter” Steve Horton and “Technicolor Cinematographer” Laura Allred trace Bowie’s career from his earliest days as an aspiring folkie through to his Ziggy Stardust period alongside the Spider From Mars. Along the way, we watch Bowie as he encounters some of the brightest rock stars of the era, as Allred puts his distinctive illustrative touch to icons like Freddie Mercury, Alice Cooper and Lou Reed.

Allred’s work, to my eyes, has always possessed a healthy dose of psychedelia to it – the colours, the faces – and here in BOWIE it all comes together in the trippiest graphic novel this side of Jack Kirby’s classic Fantastic Four and Fourth World tales. While the book itself only focuses on less than a decade of David Bowie’s inspiring career, that’s probably a good thing, as the story never loses its focus. Had Allred and company aspired to do Bowie’s entire life, well, we’d probably still be waiting for that particular book. However, Allred does feature a few pages I’d consider a wrap-up, focusing on images of post- Ziggy Bowie, and there’s where some of my favourites instances sit (the Twin Peaks cameos are the highlights there). Really though, every page of BOWIE is poster-worthy.

As I said earlier, there have been other books that meld comics with rock and roll. None of them, though, have done it so seamlessly and so attractively as BOWIE: Stardust, Rayguns & Moonage Daydreams does. For fans of David Bowie, Mike Allred, rock and roll, comics and art, this is a must-have purchase. ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Jan 11, 2020 Noah King rated it liked it

I really wish this site would let you do half star ratings, because I feel like a 2.5 would be more appropriate for how I feel about this book. I don’t love it, I don’t hate it, it’s square in the middle. The reason I’m leaning more towards liking it is the art, you can tell this is a clear passion project for Mike Allred and co. His love for the music and iconography of Bowie is super evident on each page and it’s all lovingly rendered. The afterward gives some more insight into his Bowie obses I really wish this site would let you do half star ratings, because I feel like a 2.5 would be more appropriate for how I feel about this book. I don’t love it, I don’t hate it, it’s square in the middle. The reason I’m leaning more towards liking it is the art, you can tell this is a clear passion project for Mike Allred and co. His love for the music and iconography of Bowie is super evident on each page and it’s all lovingly rendered. The afterward gives some more insight into his Bowie obsession, claiming that this book is essentially a gift to his younger self who listened to Diamond Dogs way back in 74. That’s the audience here at the end of the day, the young voracious comic readers who are just opening themselves up to the world of music and want a crash course into one of the mediums greatest minds. It fulfills that purpose well, but as a fan myself, I was left wanting a bit more.

I’m not saying you have to cover every aspect of Bowie’s life and make some depressing portrait of ego and the lows of rock and roll excess but something about this just felt disconcertingly, clean? It’s a book curiously free of swearing, free of drugs, free of sex. Albums and iconic moments seem to just be plucked out of thin air, very rarely exploring what got Bowie to those places emotionally. It eagerly jumps from one set piece moment of Bowie’s life to the next, in a very dry way writing wise. This is most apparent in the dialogue. At times it honest to god feels like reading a Wikipedia page. Really, the first thing you’re going to do when Lou Reed is introduced is have him play Perfect Day and have this cartoonishly naive sounding Bowie go “gee whiz, this is just great!” and express interest in producing an entire album on the spot. Oh, Reed also (totally unprompted), specifically mentions loving “Queen Bitch” in this scene, which was famously Bowie’s attempt at doing a Velvet Underground song. It’s just soooo fan fiction-y and honest to god a bit embarrassing how this book is written during moments like this. Given everything we know about Reed and his prickly personality, I have a hard time believing this interaction was as pleasant as displayed here. Also, wasn’t much of the music on Perfect Day arranged by Mick Ronson after this meeting anyway? That just seemed odd to me.

The book frustratingly glosses over the later, arguably much more dramatically interesting moments of Bowie’s life such as his recovery period in Berlin with Iggy Pop. There’s so much more meat to that story then focusing on the glam, and even if they did just want to stick with Ziggy, there was more that could’ve been explored there as well. It just plays like a greatest hits set of his life, which gets really boring to read after a while. Like I said before the art is very good and quite frankly carries the book. If you want a bright, colorful tribute, this’ll do you well. But in the storytelling department it is barebones at best.

...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Jan 02, 2021 Morgan rated it really liked it

Shelves: aliens, own, film, lgbt, biography, music, science-fiction, non-fiction, pop-culture, fashion

First book of 2021!

I mostly got this because I'm a huge fan of Mike Allred's art work. With that in mind, this is more of an art book then a biography. You really only get snippets of information. The writing, in my opinion, isn't that great. There's still a ton of questions I have and feel like I need a full on bio of David Bowie. I do love Bowie's music, another reason I got this too. If you aren't expecting weird, you might be thrown off or your not a real fan of Bowie. ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 08, 2020 Elizabeth (Miss Eliza) rated it it was ok

Shelves: comics, library, bios

The art is phenomenal in that it perfectly captures everyone, Bowie in particular, but after awhile you start to think, they look a bit too like photographs and could have been collaged or directly lifted from images of the period... add to that the fact that each page is jammed with SO MUCH imagery, there's no place for the eye to rest, it's too frantic. Too much. Like a fan magazine from back in the day instead of a very ambitious graphic novel. Also don't get me started on the placement of th ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 18, 2020 Jacob A. Mirallegro rated it liked it

Pretty good, some of the dialogue was really on the nose but I can tell this book isn't supposed to be completely literal so it's fine, just kinda took me out of it. I wish there was a bit more depth or emotional weight to it but oh well. at the very least it's a stunningly drawn art book of cool looking David Bowie in various iconic looks throughout that era. Mike Allred's drawing are so good and I just love looking at them, his artwork is so perfect for Bowie it's so appealing to look at. A co ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Mar 08, 2020 Laura L rated it it was amazing

Shelves: trades-graphic-novels, 2020, nonfiction, books-i-own

This is beautiful. A must for any Bowie fan!

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Sep 03, 2020 Michael rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, biography-memoir, music, david-bowie, sequential-art

Five stars for the fantastic art work and my favourite subject matter - David Bowie - which are sufficient for me to overlook the lacklustre writing, flat dialogue and superficial, trivia-laden storyline.

Despite its shortcomings, this is a book I'll return to for its style, I just wish it had more substance. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 25, 2020 Richard Gray rated it liked it

Shelves: 2020-releases, non-fiction, comics, biography, graphic-novels, music

I remember where I was when Bowie died, more or less. It was 30,000 feet in the air somewhere between San Francisco and Sydney. The pilot made the announcement over the PA, and I wanted the people around me to keenly feel the sharp shock as much as we did. David Bowie’s songs, much like The Beatles, are hardwired into our DNA at this point. So, this comic book biography crossed into so many of my wheelhouses that I was genuinely excited to see him “live” again. I’ve been following Steve Horton’s ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 17, 2020 Alain Gutierrez rated it really liked it

While the writing leaves a little to be desired the art is amazing and more then makes up for it. A must have for any comic book and/or Bowie lover

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 12, 2020 Cidnya rated it really liked it

4.5/5 stars
Official Review I wrote for butwhythopodcast.com linked https://butwhythopodcast.com/2020/01/... ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 07, 2020 Tim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: graphic-novels-trade-paperbacks, 5-star-books

Any fan of Bowie should not miss this

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 19, 2020 Caden H rated it it was amazing

This was really fantastic. A slice of Bowies life with amaziny done art filling the pages and with a little bit of Si fi action with Ziggy Stardust. (And also an introduction by Neil Gaiman- LOVE)
Overall got me to put the Starmans music back on repeat.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 23, 2020 Bryan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: comics

Best thing Mike and Laura Allred have ever done. And they have done some amazing things. Just absolutely gorgeous.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 03, 2020 John Ferrigno rated it it was amazing

I have always been interested in David Bowie. I am by no means a devoted super fan or anything, but I know all the hits, and am familiar within his various identities. I have always meant to get more into his music and career, so when I saw that a graphic novel about him was coming out, with art by Mike Allred, it seemed like a great way to dive deeper into Bowie's life and career.

The script by Steve Horton is very well done, capturing the right balance of biography and story. The story moves a ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 05, 2020 Mike Gibas rated it liked it

Bowie, of all performers, seems perfectly placed to have his life rendered in a graphic novel. And, of all the modern artists out there at the moment, Michael Allred seems to be the perfect choice with his lovely retro artwork oozing influences such as Kirby and Ditko.

As a piece of artwork this is a 5-star book. As a piece of graphic novel storytelling it probably only scratches two stars. The problem is that the research has overpowered any sense of story or character.

It is impeccably researche ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Mar 09, 2020 Chris Serafimov rated it it was amazing

This graphic novel is a sensory celebration for all Bowie fans. It tells the story of Bowie's rise to fame as well as the birth of his Ziggy Stardust persona. It's so well-researched and detailed and I loved the inclusion of other musicians that were ruling the musical landscape in the 60s and 70s. I'd say this book is not very plot-driven so it's not that suitable for David Bowie beginners but more so for fans that are going to get all the amazing details and references. The drawing style is ve ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 26, 2020 Bonnie G. rated it really liked it

Shelves: aahhhrrrt, poppy-cock-culture, funny-books

This book is beautiful and thoughtful and a great idea. The execution is pretty great but it does vaguely remind me of Hedwig and the Angry Inch a bit? Also I felt kinda annoyed that I wasn’t sure who everyone is- a super fan will love this book a bit more than I will since I didn’t know who I was supposed to identify in large scenes. Overall a beauty and a gift for a super David Bowie fan.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Sep 22, 2020 Joe rated it it was ok

Shelves: graphic-novels, biography

I was massively let down by this. As other reviews have stated, this is more of a book about the famous people that Bowie met/played with/knew. It has some biographical elements to it but it's pretty thin and most of the stuff in it could probably have been sourced from Wiki or other internet sources. The art is gorgeous and about the only thing that helps it hold up at all. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Oct 07, 2020 Linda Klein rated it liked it

It’s not a very interesting story. Very clinically details who Bowie knew, the name of every band he was in, concerts he went to, what famous people were at his concerts...after a while the exhaustive lists become, well, exhausting. The redeeming feature? The artwork! I loved seeing the evolution of David Jones into Ziggy, then all of his many looks throughout the seventies. The book is misnamed. It should have been called Ziggy Stardust. I recommend skimming the text, and sitting back and enjoy ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 09, 2021 Liz Yerby rated it liked it

This book to me shows how modern comics style flattens its subjects. The standard line consistency and flattened colors make all the celebrity likenesses feel the same. While reading the book I realized I wish I had just gotten an art book of Bowie outfits, and the original photos which were recreated in this book. It also has kind of an abrupt stop— and the 4 page epilogue covers parts of his life id wish there was a whole nother book of.

Also not a lot of gay stuff??? Neil gaiman points out he ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 11, 2020 tony dillard jr rated it it was amazing

Goodreads list this book as being by Steve Horton, but Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns and Moonage Daydreams is ultimately Michael Allred's baby!

Having read Michael Allred's Red Rocket 7, about an extraterrestrial rock God come to save the earth, I already had the notion that Michael Allred was destined to be David Bowie's visual biographer. It was just a matter of time when he would fulfill it. That when was revealed recently in the amazing graphic novel Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns and Moonage Daydreams. Goodreads list this book as being by Steve Horton, but Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns and Moonage Daydreams is ultimately Michael Allred's baby!

Having read Michael Allred's Red Rocket 7, about an extraterrestrial rock God come to save the earth, I already had the notion that Michael Allred was destined to be David Bowie's visual biographer. It was just a matter of time when he would fulfill it. That when was revealed recently in the amazing graphic novel Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns and Moonage Daydreams.

In the summer of 2019, Mike Allred announced his plans for a David Bowie biographical graphic novel. I was automatically on board with hit with the news. Red Rocket 7 read so much like an adaptation of David Bowie's sci-fi classic movie, The Man Who Fell to Earth. Allred's rock opera, also spans the entire history of rock and roll. While you can see the Madman Creator's love for music throughout; the scenes where Rocket meets David Bowie are where you feel the most connected. For Mike Allred is clearly a fan of Bowie!

Back to last summer. I follow Michael Allred and his equally talented wife, Laura, on social media. One day I was scrolling down my feed when I was struck by this beautiful black and white sketch of the Starman himself in the style of Allred. I knew that this scene didn't appear in Red Rocket 7. Where did it come from? Imagine my surprise as the image was the first preview for the new Bowie biography! My wishes had been granted!

Over the course of about 6 months, a new sketch would pop up on my social media feed pretty regularly, showing the progression of this project. This began a lengthy countdown to last week when the book finally debuted in stores. And I was first in line for a copy!

Stardust, Rayguns and Moonage Daydreams focuses on the early years of Bowie's career. From having to change his name in order not to be confused with a member of the Monkees all the way through the creation of Bowie's personas of Ziggy Stardust and later Aladdin Sane, this is a whirlwind history of the early days of glam rock.

Helping Michael Allred with research and co-scripting duties is Steve Horton (Amala’s Blade). Horton does a great job introducing the reader to the entire lineup of the pioneers of glam. But it's Allred's talented hand that brings heavenly icons such as the late Bowie as well as Marc Nolan, Mick Ronson and Freddie Mercury back to life. With such a large cast of characters, especially in those large group scenes, a ‘Who's Who’ in the appendices would have been appreciated.

This book is very much an Allred project. One of Michael Allred's favorite motifs is the use of the third eye. In much of Allred's work, the third eye is used as a New Age portal between other worlds or dimensions of consciousness. In this book, the third eye is the Stargate between David Bowie the man and his creative process which evolves into Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

Another example that makes this book a very Allred project is the presence of Laura Allred. Laura has been Michael's longtime colorist and sometimes inker. Her amazing palette makes Bowie's world so colorful and at times ethereal.

This graphic novel was a visual delight. So many images of the Starman looked so real. This might be graphic novel blasphemy but I would kill for Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns and Moonage Daydreams to be made into an animated movie. Not that the artwork of the Allreds was lacking a fluidity of motion. It's just that the biggest missing piece to this rock and roll tapestry was the music. Couldn't a Kindle version of this book be released with a soundtrack?

Minus the tunes, Bowie was still a complete sensory adventure into the creative process. Be sure not to overlook the loquacious tribute from Neil Gaiman at the beginning. To gloss over the sketchbook and Michael's afterword would be an equal disservice to the reader.

An intergalactic playlist for the soul. It's only January! But 2020 is going to have a difficult time coming up with something to beat this book for graphic novel of the year.

Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns and Moonage Daydreams debuted on January 8th, 2019! If you can't find this in the graphic novel section of your local bookstore, check the music books section. That's where I found my copy! ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Sep 15, 2020 David Turko rated it really liked it

Simply wonderful. The writing and the art are stellar. My only complaint is that Allred only focused on the first half of Bowie's life. Hopefully there will be another bio-comic on Bowie. Besides that this is a great bio on David Bowie's life/career. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Mar 07, 2020 Christopher rated it it was amazing

My musical and artistic obsession as cooperatively brought to the graphic novel arena by one of my all-time favorite comics artists - someone who hooked me into the genre and sent me plunging down the hole way past superheroes and The Big Two.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 24, 2020 Tina rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020, memoirs-biographies, grahic-novels

If anyone's story should be told graphically it is Bowie's. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 26, 2020 Ashley Beery rated it liked it

I guess as non hardcore Bowie fan, the book was a little weird. It jumped all over the place. The artwork was great, but the story just didn't flow for me. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 05, 2020 Damian Knight rated it it was amazing

Amazing book covering the Ziggy era in full colour and style

flag 1 like · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Sequential Art > Graphic Novels

70 users

Sequential Art > Comics

37 users

Biography

33 users

Music

30 users

Nonfiction

25 users

Graphic Novels Comics

10 users

History

8 users

LGBT

4 users

Biography Memoir

3 users

Culture > Pop Culture

3 users

See top shelves…

About Mike Allred

Mike Allred

124 followers

Michael 'Doc' Allred (Also Credited as M. Dalton Allred) grew up in the 60's and 70's and was surrounded with the best in pop culture and a steady diet of music, movies and comic books including the three B's: Beatles, Bond and Batman to the point of obsession.

So it should come as no surprise that he keeps a hand in film and music (He's the lead singer and guitarist for The Gear), but comic books ...more