Hot off the press – “Steve McQueen: Full-Throttle Cool”

For those who’ve wondered why it is that everything Steve McQueen drove, wore or touched sells at auctions for cubic money, the short answer is: He was “the king of cool.” For those who need a fuller explanation, pick up Steve McQueen: Full-Throttle Cool.

Written by award-winning author Dwight Jon Zimmerman, perhaps best know for his military nonfiction, and illustrated by comic-book artist and movie aficionado Greg Scott, this 96-page graphic-novel-style biography reads with the punch of a war monument and looks like the storyboard of a summer blockbuster.

McQueen once quipped, “I’m not sure whether I’m an actor who races or a racer who acts.” Perhaps, however, he should have substituted “action hero” for “racer.” Beginning with a stunt-pilot father who abandoned him just after he was born, McQueen’s life sounds like it belongs to an improbable fictional movie character of a man’s man.

Wrenched from a kindly uncle and abused by his stepfather, he soon got into trouble and was sent to reform school. After stints as a Merchant Marine, roughneck and lumberjack, McQueen became an honest-to-goodness hero in the Marine Corps, a successful movie actor and a serious racer on both two and four wheels, even competing at Sebring with a broken foot and coming in second only to Mario Andretti.

By the time you’ve finished enjoying this book, there will be little doubt in your mind why McQueen is the patron saint of motorsports, and everything associated with him ranks as holy relic.

Available through Motorbooks for $19.99