Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: Agent, graphic novel, Jim Ottaviani

Limits Of The Human Body OGN by Jim Ottaviani & Dale DeForest

Jim Ottaviani and Dale DeForest have sold their new nonfiction middle-grade graphic novel, Limits Of The Human Body, to First Second.

Published Sat, 15 Feb 2025 06:57:07 -0600

by Rich Johnston

Last updated Sat, 15 Feb 2025 09:21:54 -0600

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Limits of the Human Body by Jim Ottaviani and Dale DeForest is an upcoming nonfiction middle grade graphic novel about both the physiology and mental journey of athletes to push the limits of the performance of the human body. Calista Brill at First Second has bought world rights to Limits of the Human Body, for publication in 2026, and Shawna Gore will also edit.

He told Hour Detroit a couple of years ago that he was fascinated by Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge's attempt to run a marathon's distance in less than two hours. "We ended up staying up until 2:30, 3 in the morning — whenever it was over — just because it was so fascinating to watch. This man is beautiful when he runs. But he failed. … Two years later, he did it with slightly improved shoes, a new wedge of people breaking the wind in front of him, a better pace car
in front — all these crazy things, all these little adjustments that it takes to do something like this. And that's what got me thinking: What are the limits?" and that "Ottaviani also chronicles in the book the push to break the four-minute mile; the reasons why no sprinter will likely get all that close to a nine-second 100-meter dash ("The force you have to apply to the ground, and the amount of time that you have to lift back up, needs an impact that's so hard that it would start tearing apart your joints and your tendons," Ottaviani explains); and perspectives on how high we can jump, how much we can lift, and how participating in a team can alter performance. "I just got interested and started learning more about it."