"We'll be heroes or martyrs…"
Few personalities of the 20th century have had such a polarising effect or can look back on such an eventful and contradictory life as the former Cuban revolutionary and head of state, Fidel Castro. Reinhard Kleist portrays the Máximo Líder's world-changing life with intense energy: from the young Fidel's first attempt to incite a workers' uprising on his father's finca, to his victorious revolution against the Batista regime, the CIA's failed Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, right up to the decades of deprivation and the persecution of political dissenters who, in increasing opposition to Castro's ideals, appeared to stand for a more just society.
Few personalities of the 20th century have had such a polarising effect or can look back on such an eventful and contradictory life as the former Cuban revolutionary and head of state, Fidel Castro. Reinhard Kleist portrays the Máximo Líder's world-changing life with intense energy: from the young Fidel's first attempt to incite a workers' uprising on his father's finca, to his victorious revolution against the Batista regime, the CIA's failed Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, right up to the decades of deprivation and the persecution of political dissenters who, in increasing opposition to Castro's ideals, appeared to stand for a more just society.
Reinhard Kleist
Reinhard Kleist, born in 1970 in Hürth, Cologne, has worked and lived as an illustrator and comic book artist in Berlin since 1996. He made his international breakthrough in 2006 with the biographical comic book Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness, which was awarded the renowned Max and Moritz Prize and nominated for both the Eisner and Harvey Awards. With The Boxer in 2013, Kleist became the first cartoonist to receive the German Youth Literature Prize. In 2017, Kleist once again tackled one of music’s great storytellers in Nick Cave: Mercy on Me, which was simultaneously released in many languages. In 2018, Kleist was honoured for his work with the Max and Moritz Prize for Best German-Language Comic Book Artist. In 2021, Kleist tackled another extraordinary boxing champion, Emile Griffith, in the comic book Knock Out! His critically acclaimed graphic biography of David Bowie forms two parts: Starman: Bowie’s Stardust Years (SelfMadeHero, 2023) and LOW: Bowie’s Berlin Years (SelfMadeHero, 2025).
Reviews
"Inevitably Castro dominates, and Kleist does a fine job of rendering the self-belief that both fuelled him and led this avowed lover of freedom into brutal crackdowns."
— The Guardian