Last On His Feet - Jack Johnson and the Battle of the Century

On the morning of 4 July 1910, thousands of boxing fans stormed a newly built stadium in Reno, Nevada, to witness an epic showdown. Jack Johnson, the world's first Black heavyweight champion-and most infamous athlete in the world because of his race-was paired against Jim Jeffries, a former heavyweight champion then heralded as the "great white hope". It was the height of the Jim Crow era and spectators were eager for Jeffries to restore the racial hierarchy that Johnson had pummelled with his quick fists.

Transporting readers directly into the ring, artist Youssef Daoudi and poet Adrian Matejka intersperse dramatic boxing action with vivid flashbacks to reveal how Johnson, the self-educated son of formerly enslaved parents, reached the pinnacle of sport-all while facing down a racist justice system. Through a combination of breathtaking illustrations and striking verse, Last on His Feet honours a contentious civil rights figure who has for more than a century been denied his proper due.

About the author

Youssef Daoudi, a comic artist, writer and illustrator, is the author of Monk!. Previously, he was an art director for multinational advertising firms.Adrian Matejka is the author of The Big Smoke, which won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. He teaches creative writing at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Product details

• Authors: Youssef Daoudi, Adrian Matejka
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 02.06.2025
• EAN: 9781324096139
• ISBN: 978-1-324-09613-9
• Dimensions: 180 mm x 239 mm x 25 mm
• Weight: 884 g
• Subjects: Fiction > Comic, cartoon, humour, satire; History, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Sports, COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS / Literary, SPORTS & RECREATION / Boxing, Biography: sport, Boxing, Graphic Novels: Literary & Memoirs, Graphic Novels: True Stories & Non-Fiction, COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS / Nonfiction / History, Graphic novel / Comic book / Manga: styles / traditions