This is the first time that the tale — which is told through the eyes of Cobain’s imaginary childhood friend, Boddah — will be told in English.
“Who Killed Kurt Cobain?” will be written and illustrated by French artist Nicolas Otero. He says tha tthe French and English versions of the story are very different books.
“Le Roman de Boddah” was “a good base to build my own story, but there’s nothing comparable between the two books now,” Otero told The Post’s Comic Riffs. “I rewrote so many things, broke the narrative structure, made some strong choices and put so much of myself in it.”
Otero said that drawing a tale that’s based so largely on music was difficult. He notes that artistically, it can be hard to describe a sound or a vibration without resorting to such clichéd images as musical notes. Instead, Otero aimed to “transcribe the incredible energy of the music.”
“The power of their sound — the inherent violence and rage that was floating in the air during their sets — I just try to put this chaos into images … I hope I did that,” said Otero, referencing “the sweating bodies, long hair everywhere, free and disillusioned youth that produced the rage and frustration for a two-hour live show.”
Otero said he is not a devoted Cobain fan. He still occasionally listens to Nirvana’s music, and saw the band in concert. But not being a Nirvana devotee, he said, helped him maintain artistic distance when rendering some of Cobain’s darkest moments.
“I loved their music, and I still love it,” Otero said. “But Kurt wasn’t a role model or an icon for me. That’s why I wasn’t afraid to break down barriers, showing him at his lowest or under the influence of drugs — pathetic sometimes, manipulated, always on the edge of his emotions.
“Not being a fan allowed me maybe to delve deeper into his mind, follow my instincts, and put all [the] blood and guts into this sad but beautiful story.”