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Photo: Titan Comics
Ali, who stands on the ropes round after round and takes blows from his opponent.
Foreman who beats Ali exhaustingly without landing the decisive hit.
100,000 spectators in Kinshasa.
Then the eighth round, a tough combo against Foreman's head, who staggers and goes down.
The end of the fight, the victory for Ali.
"Rumble in the Jungle" is the name of this fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Kinshasa in 1974, which is considered to be one of the greatest fights in boxing history.
In Germany, too, many saw the fight, around a billion people around the world are said to have watched it, it was the largest sporting event in Africa to date.
The artistic processing is also diverse.
Reports, books, films - the fight has often been the topic.
Leon Gast, the director of the Oscar-winning documentary film "When We Were Kings", died on Monday.
In the film about the fight in Kinshasa, he processed hundreds of hours of footage and gave contemporary witnesses such as singer James Brown, author Norman Mailer and director Spike Lee their say
Now the fight is also available as a »graphic novel«.
It was designed by Jean-David Morvan, who has already produced 230 comics.
The book uses the experiences of the Iranian-French photographer Abbas Attar in Kinshasa as a red thread, including sexual adventures.
The focus is, of course, on Ali and his story, but also the characters of the time such as the promoter Don King, Zaire's dictator Mobutu or Ali opponent George Foreman are highlighted - in retrospect the reader does not necessarily learn much new, but the processing as a »graphic novel« lets you experience history in a new way.
Here you can look at some of the pages of the book:
Morvan used a long interview with the now deceased Abbas, who shot the real photos of the story right on the ring in Kinshasa, history books and videos as the basis for the conception of his story.
The comic book parts were drawn by Rafael Ortiz.
“I tried to choose the anecdotes well so that we could understand the progress of each character,” Morvan told SPIEGEL: “The concept is initially never to crop a photo or add text.
And above all not to redraw. "The relationship between text and image offers" endless possibilities to tell stories, "he says.
Ali, who ten years before the "Rumble in the Jungle" was stripped of all titles because of his conscientious objection and was no longer allowed to fight, won back then with a predominantly defensive strategy: "Ali had to win, he knew that he was not strong enough to to assert himself against Foreman, so he looked for another solution, "says author Morvan:" History will remember that he found the right one. "
"Muhammad Ali, Kinshasa 1974", published by "Titan Comics", author: Jean-David Morvan
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