who’s afraid of Elon Musk?

Last year, British cartoonist Darryl Cunningham (the author of Putin’s Russia: The Rise of a Dictator, among other searing non-fiction books) wrote Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter, a biography of the controversial South African billionaire, who’s now set to co-lead President-elect Donald Trump’s new “Department of Government Efficiency.” While published by Delcourt in France, the book has struggled to land a publisher in the English-speaking world. Yesterday, Cunningham took to his Patreon page to share that publishers are apparently frightened about the potential legal repercussions of releasing the book:

I’m told that there was interest from various international publishers at the recent Frankfurt Book Fair, but there was concern over possible legal consequences. This shouldn’t be a problem as I was careful not to write anything that hadn’t already been published elsewhere and Delcourt’s lawyers examined every word and line for problems. Nevertheless, we live now in a climate of fear where the worst people have immense power, and because of this there’s going to be a tendency for individuals, institutions, businesses, and the state to run for cover. Big thanks to Delcourt for having the courage to publish the book.

Cunningham’s claims are somewhat surprising given there’ve been several books about Musk since his turn from “visionary” media darling to right-wing thought leader, including Walter Isaacson‘s 2023 biography (simply titled Elon Musk), Ben Mezrich‘s Breaking Twitter: Elon Musk and the Most Controversial Corporate Takeover in History (2023), and Kate Conger & Ryan Mac‘s Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter (published earlier this year). Isaacson’s book was criticized by Musk for inaccuracies, which he apologized for and corrected, as well as by Musk’s estranged daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson, but otherwise the books have prompted no legal action.

Cunningham signs off directing fans to where they can buy a copy of the French edition on his book about Musk, and by sharing three pages from the book (in English), which you can read at the link, or below.

For those in the UK who want a copy of the French edition you can order one from OK Comics in Leeds. Here are three pages from early in the book, showing the political and family environment that formed Elon Musk. Knowing what I know about the man, my conclusion is that it’s incredible that such a mediocre figure can amass such wealth, but it was ever thus.