DOTTER OF HER FATHER’S EYES by MARY&BRYAN TALBOT – SPECIALE “LE DONNE NEL FUMETTO”

2018/02/08

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Banner dello speciale “Le Donne nel fumetto”

SPECIALE “LE DONNE NEL FUMETTO”
– VENTITREESIMA PUNTATA –

Bozza del Sommario del n. 21 della rivista Fumettomania

Continua, anche se in ritardo di 2 settimane (dovuti agli impegni con i progetti culturali avviati nelle scuole della mia città), la parte seconda dello SPECIALE “LE DONNE NEL FUMETTO” con la sezione WORKSHOP, nella quale grandi artisti nazionali ed internazionali ci racconterranno la creazione di alcune loro pagine a fumetti, dallo script alla pagina finale da stampare
Gli artisti saranno: Mary&Bryan Talbot (con tre diverse opere), John Bolton, Frederic Bremaud, Max Bertolini e Debora Carità. A questa sezione è collegata anche un precedente articolo pubblicato il 14 aprile 2017, dedicato all’artista americano Bryant Bridgewaters ed alla sua graphic novel: Red Bella.

Buona lettura
Mario Benenati, direttore culturale del web magazine Fumettomania

La notizia che i coniugi Talbot (Mary e Bryan), avevano vinto nel gennaio del 2013 il Book Cost Award, sezione Biografia, con la loro nuova opera DOTTER OF HER FATHER’S EYES, non mi colse di sorpresa. Conoscevo ed apprezzavo (e continuo ad apprezzare) il lavoro di Talbot fin dal 1990; Bryan è un autore che da oltre quarant’anni pubblica delle bellissime opere a fumetti mai banali, anzi in alcuni casi pioneristiche (Luther Arkwright, su tutte). Non conoscevo, invece, l’attività della moglie Mary, scrittrice di saggi sui media e sulle loro influenze. Quando però ho visto in anteprima alcune delle tavole di questa graphic novel (che ricordo a tutti è ancora incredibilmente inedita in Italia), che poi ha potuto sfogliare tra febbraio e maggio dello stesso anno, ho potuto ammirare la bellezza di una narrazione dura, toccante, ricca di particolari, e le tavole sempre straordinarie ed inusuali di Bryan.

Riporto il testo del lancio della G.N.:

<<Part personal history, part biography, Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes contrasts two coming of age narratives: that of Lucia, the daughter of James Joyce, and that of author Mary Talbot, daughter of the eminent Joycean scholar James S Atherton. Social expectations and gender politics, thwarted ambitions and personal tragedy are played out against two contrasting historical backgrounds, poignantly evoked by the atmospheric visual storytelling of award winning comic artist and graphic novel pioneer Bryan Talbot. Produced through an intense collaboration seldom seen between writers and artists, Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes is intelligent, funny and sad – a fine addition to the evolving genre of graphic memoir.
Mary adds, “I think what’s been most distinctive about this project is that I haven’t just completed a script and then passed it over to an artist. We’ve been able to work on the book together, with an intensive and ongoing creative interaction that’s usually missing from writer/artist collaborations.”>>

Sul blog della scrittrice ( https://www.mary-talbot.co.uk/graphic-novels/dotter-of-her-fathers-eyes/ ) è possibile leggere tutte le informazioni sulla graphic novel, compresa una ricchissima rassegna stampa.

Iniziamo il workshop con 3 tavole del graphic novel “DOTTER OF HER FATHER’S EYES” durante la loro fase di lavorazione:

Dotter of her Father’s Eyes presents two coming-of-age stories, my own and that of Lucia Joyce (daughter of the modernist writer, James Joyce). They take place at different points in the twentieth century and, by intertwining them, I explore aspects of social history: gender politics and social expectations, shifting notions about ‘acceptable’ behaviour for women. The two stories are framed by a present-day sequence, so that the graphic novel has three distinct strands altogether. In order to keep these separate threads clearly distinct for the reader, even at a glance, we colour-coded them.

WORKSHOP by Mary&Bryan TALBOT

PAG. 4

This page has the first transition, from present day to my remembered past. As you can see from the script page, I was already using a basic colour-coding when I was writing (it helped me to keep track of the time periods in the text). For this page, Bryan kept very close to my script except in the last panel, where he improved the character focus. He did this by introducing the small girl watching – the young me as the viewing subject.

The two sections for this page were drawn on separate sheets. Bryan drew the present-day section in a clear ink line technique with technical pens. He drew the past section on textured watercolour paper with a soft B pencil and a sepia watercolour wash. Then he put them together on computer, adding the flat colour and text. As finishing touches, he intensified the sepia tone and added a pale yellow tinge to the paper overall. Some of the other sepia pages have touches of spot colour brightening them.

script-pg4 del Graphic Novel "DOTTER OF HER FATHER’S EYES" di Mary&Bryan Talbot

Page4-inks del Graphic Novel "DOTTER OF HER FATHER’S EYES" di Mary&Bryan Talbot

Page4watercolour del Graphic Novel "DOTTER OF HER FATHER’S EYES" di Mary&Bryan Talbot

Page4 del Graphic Novel "DOTTER OF HER FATHER’S EYES" di Mary&Bryan Talbot

PAG. 26

This page is from an early Joyce sequence. Two images aren’t in the script. The map idea for the first panel and the Trieste scene in the last evolved in the course of discussion. All the Joyce pages were inked with a dip pen, the variation of the thickness of the line giving them an old illustration feel. Bryan did them on smooth Bristol board so that the blue wash would have a different, less smooth, texture than the sepia wash. Using no other colours, the blue shades also give a suitable melancholic feel to these pages. On computer the map image was dropped in behind the walking figures, then the directional arrow drawn over it. With the addition of the text, adjustment of the blue tint and final pale yellow tinge to the paper, the page was completed.

script-pg26 del Graphic Novel "DOTTER OF HER FATHER’S EYES" di Mary&Bryan Talbot

Page26-inks del Graphic Novel "DOTTER OF HER FATHER’S EYES" di Mary&Bryan Talbot

Page26 del Graphic Novel "DOTTER OF HER FATHER’S EYES" di Mary&Bryan Talbot

PAG. 83

There’s a mass of biographical material available on James Joyce and his family, but there isn’t that much directly about Lucia, apart from a recent biography by Carol Shloss. It was quite hard maintaining focus on Lucia, not getting sidetracked by her dysfunctional family. I also had decisions about how much to include on Lucia’s mental illness, incarcerations and treatments. Eventually I decided to represent them over just a few pages, as a single cataclysmic event.

Lucia’s tragic story must have been really getting to me, because I actually dreamed this image! What astonished me was that Bryan could draw it, on the basis of my two-line description (and a certain amount of arm waving). As you can see, he drew the face behind bars just the once. It’s cloned and reduced repeatedly behind the grotesque dancing figure, the spiral added to enhance the swirling effect of this spectacular page.