GOAT
Author: Emanuele Rosso
Title: Goat
Pages: 224, Color
Price: 21,00 euro
Date: October 2019
A prodigious French tennis player of Syrian origin, Idris Arslanian, (also) oppressed by a fanatic mother, herself a former player, quickly rises to stardom playing against some of the strongest champions around, Federer, Nadal, Murray and Djokovic, with a goal: to go beyond himself and his personal limits. A modern tennis manual and a fable at the same time, inspired and informed by Agassi’s Open, Foster Wallace’s tennis writing, and John McPhee’s cult Levels of the Game, GOAT is a moving sport tale, halfway between fiction and reality, where an instinctive backspin can make art and tie-break rules feel like poetry.
GOAT is an exciting comic mockumentary that guides us through the backstage of the tennis world through a mix of imaginary characters, interviews and real champions of the international circuit. For every big name that reaches the heights of big tournaments there is an army of athletes who face a daily struggle to emerge … A story about sport, but above all about life: rises and falls, desires and obsessions, failures and successes.
A mockumentary about the tennis industry that —like Andre Agassi’s Open and McPhee’s Levels of the Game— will excite even those who have never picked up a racket in their life.
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« A literary drama without smiles or answers, of considerable literary depth: another great work of cartooning. »
La Gazzetta dello Sport
« Emanuele Rosso tells about his passion for tennis. With an intriguing, easy-going
style, full of crafty solutions. Like Roger Federer’s game. »
La Lettura, Il corriere della sera
« Goat hits the mark mainly for two reasons: the perfect mix of reality and fantasy, a well crafted game to the point that one might think that it really happened; the dynamism of the pages, the stroke, the colors, whose mix manages to get into tennis games even those who do not understand a damn thing about tennis. »
Blow Up Magazine
EMANUELE ROSSO was born in Udine in 1982. For the last fifteen years he has been drawing comics, making illustrations and storyboards for different companies and clients such as GQ Italy, Internazionale, Origami (La Stampa), Helbling Languages, AGR Factory, Veneta Cucine, Coconino Press/Fandango, Tunué, BeccoGiallo. He is the author of three published graphic novels, different short stories, illustrations, graphic reportages and illustrated essays.