Mauricio writes...
Story 207 - "Will Eisner, my Master"
Mauricio writes...
Story 207 - "Will Eisner, my Master"
homage to Will Eisner's Spirit.by Mauricio de Sousa
I woke up today feeling different, wondering about life but unable to think of what the future holds.
I couldn't sing or laugh, not even be touched by the beauty around me.
I thought that strange. This is not who I am!Actually, I am constantly bragging about having only a few minutes of being low during the year…
But today things got ugly. I dragged myself through morning and afternoon with no feelings, no enthusiasm, no plans, no will…
And when I thought about the reason why I was feeling that way, I couldn't remember anything…
The problems I recall having were not difficult to manage, and could be easily solved by making the right decisions or changes.
So, what was it that was bringing me to feelings of solitude, sadness and a lack of perspective?I have never felt this way …
having no idea of how to look for help, whether it be a doctor, or a friend… strange and inexplicable sensations…
Later that afternoon, a journalist called and asked me if I had heard of the death of the cartoonist Will Eisner.
It was a shock…
My idol, my guru, my dear friend Eisner, the one that taught me everything I know about cartoons, DEAD.
And I had just found out, right at that moment.
I could barely think about how to respond to the questions the journalist insisted on asking me.
Moments and unconnected answers later, the journalist apologized for giving me the news as he had, without concern for my emotions. and hung up.
He has no idea of what Eisner meant and still means to me.
It was just like I had lost another father.
An extremely loving father, who spread beautiful and lovely messages, framed into wonderful artwork and cartoons that I have treasured since I was a child.
These treasures were a blessing, not only for me, but thousands of other readers around the world.
Eisner is held as the greatest cartoonist of all times. No one could ever make it to his level, both in the art and in the message. There are none who meet his standards in terms of the perception of human soul.
I discovered his work when I was 10 years old, in the pages of a magazine called "Gibi Comics." I had a portfolio of sketches and drawings already and was thinking of creating my own stories. What I felt and saw while reading the adventures of "Spirit." his most popular cartoon "Hero," was what I knew I would never be able to do with the same degree of creativity.There were no adventures of "Spirit" scripts that were alike. Everything was original, surprising, wonderful; a window to a world of fantasy and creativity with no precedents in the cartoon's history, starting with the title, which was never written the same way. Every time the words, "The Spirit," were in the title of an adventure, it was like an allusive logo .... a scenario we would find in that serialized adventure that always "lasted" for seven pages.
This character, "The Spirit," was created at the same time as the most famous comics' superheroes but it was different in his concept of "hero": he was human, sometimes fragile, he often got hit by the big bad guys and he would sometimes feel attracted to voluptuous bad girls.
There were stories where Eisner would include the main character only in the last scene as a reference that it was a story of "The Spirit."
No author had ever had the guts to treat his "hero" with such respect for his human side.
There was something about the way the stories of "The Spirit" was published, in chapters that were a challenge for me. I wanted to read the complete story, and then read it over and over again, feel the rhythm, the atmosphere, search for new elements in the corners of his drawings, new techniques of light/dark (Eisner was a master on this too).It was then that I started to alter my comics' collection. I set aside the pages in which "The Spirit" would show up (I carefully cut them off). Then, I gathered 6 or 7 adventures of about 7 pages and sewed them together, with needle and thread, in a handcrafter album with a hard cover to protect them. Thus, I had a magazine only with the stories of Will Eisner. That was about 20 years prior to the date when his own stories started to be published in beautiful deluxe books, especially in Europe.
Today, when I get home, I am going to search through my drawer for those precious albums with stories I collected and sewed when I was a little boy. Some of them are still in pretty good shape. I will gently caress the green cart paper cover, read the titles of the adventures (I used to name them all) and remember my master, Will Eisner: our meetings in Brazil, our studio, in Florida at his house, the good moments we had with other artists and colleagues in congresses, shows and meetings…
I might as well shed some tears.
That was just what I needed to finally understand what was going on with me ...why I was prostrated the whole day:I had lost a father but didn't know.
Mauricio de Sousa
Brazil
January 4th,2005
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