We travel with Charles after he buys a bowler hat that belonged to an artist of great fame. Magritte was the artist that gave us surrealism. Charles is the man who will navigate the life of this artist via memory, work, art and emotion. Just like Magritte we are entering a world that is new and old. A world that merged the object and the viewer. Blurring the true self with the image of it and adding something new to it.

Imagining the exploration of an artist, from work to research you get close to the magic of Magritte : This is not a Biography.  Vincent Zabus book creates a world that navigates an imagined biography of Magritte by way of the abstract environment of a fable. Comparative to Greek myths by way of an absurd tale akin to a fairy tale of Alice I her wonderland. There is sex, obsession, craft and pain. However we are also infused with the strands of his identity. We become engrossed in a life. That is a skill most biographers dream of.

The visually, Thomas Campi has light tones and the colour pallette down to a fine stroke. He also captures the absurd without over indulging it and I could image the great artist being almost thrilled that the writer and illustrator work intandem but still get that root of abstraction. You get to read often about  many an artists that have shaped our consciousness but with Selfmadehero, you get to immerse inside their works and soul.