21: The Story of Roberto Clemente #[nn]

Wilfred Santiago's graphic novel pays tribute to baseball great Roberto Clemente with a cover as quietly powerful as its subject — a figure in the iconic number 21 jersey gazes into the distance against a warm amber sky, a stadium shadowed behind him. Santiago's bold, expressive linework gives the portrait a dignified stillness that feels entirely fitting for a life story told in comics form. Praised by Fox Sports' Rob Neyer as "brilliant and beautiful, challenging and lyrical," this 2014 Fantagraphics release makes a compelling case that sequential art is a natural home for baseball biography.