L’intervista di Filippo Marzo con Ann Nocenti, pubblicata ieri, ha determinato questo SPECIALE WORK IN PROGRESS, dedicato a 4 pagine estratte dal n. 1 dell’albo USA di Ruby Falls (costituito dallo script di Ann, e dal layout e dalle tavole inchiostrate dalla disegnatrice italiana Flavia Biondi).
Buona visione
Mario Benenati, curatore di Fumettomania Web Magazine
Introduzione
Al momento dell’intervista ad Ann Nocenti, metà aprile, visto l’approssimarsi della pubblicazione in italiano di Ruby Falls (che sarebbe dovuta avvenire il 30 aprile e che, invece, dovrebbe essere a giugno), abbiamo chiesto ad Ann Nocenti se poteva fornirci lo script di qualche pagina di questo fumetto e, dopo qualche giorno, abbiamo ricevuto lo script delle pagine 4-7 del numero 1 dell’albo USA di Ruby Falls.
Abbiamo poi contattato la disegnatrice italiana Flavia Biondi, la quale ci ha inviato i file con il suo lavoro sulle stesse pagine.
Vi presentiamo questo Work in Progress relativo alle pagine 4-7 del numero 1 dell’albo USA di Ruby Falls.
Nell’intervista pubblicata ieri abbiamo chiesto ad Ann Nocenti:
… potresti anche parlarci del tuo ultimo lavoro dal titolo “Ruby Falls” fumetto disegnato dall’artista italiana Flavia Biondi? (Berger Books, Dark Horse, in Italia Bao Publishing, NdR)
Ann Nocenti: Ho scritto di supereroi per la maggior parte della mia carriera, ho scritto di uomini forti come Punisher, Daredevil e Wolverine e quelli meno forti come Spiderman e Batman. E desideravo cambiare genere e scrivere qualcosa che fosse oltre alle storie di supereroi, allora Karen Berger, la leggendaria creatrice della Vertigo, mi ha chiesto di realizzare due fumetti: The Seeds, con i disegni di David Aja e Ruby Falls, con Flavia Biondi appunto. Ed è stata la prima volta che ho avuto l’opportunità di fare una storia non correlata ai supereroi.
…
Flavia ha uno stile più gentile di cui mi sono completamente innamorata. Ad esempio, la protagonista Lana, sua madre, incrocia sempre le braccia ed è stato come un gesto molto sottile, per dire che… questa donna…è presuntuosa.. è cinica, …
Flavia ha sviluppato uno stile di racconto per ogni personaggio e questa è stata una delle cose per le quali ho adorato lavorare con lei, ed eccoli qui!
WORK IN PROGRESS Ruby Falls
RUBY FALLS Book One of Four – 22 pages
“A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory.” ― Mark Twain
BOOK ONE – TRACES
Flavia: all panel and page breakdowns, and all visual ideas, just suggestions, please layout this story however you wish. All dialog will be re-written for whatever you draw.
Script: Page 4
Panel 1
MAIN STREET, RUBY FALLS.
The focus is on TWO SHOPS that are key to our story. Lana’s Irish father BLAKE, in his 50s, runs the BUTCHER shop, “BLAKE & Sons.” He is divorced from Lana’s Italian mother GRETA, (40s), who runs RUBY’s bar. Ruby’s is a former speakeasy, and it still has an old “social club” stencil on the window. Greta lives alone in her mother CLARA’s apartment above the bar, and runs the bar her grandparents started during Prohibition. There is an alleyway between the Butcher shop and Ruby’s bar, with LAUNDRY LINES that crisscross as if Lana’s divorced parents were still connected by frayed threads. Establish Greta’s WHITE SLIP is on the laundry line. This white slip has a story.
There are some other 100-year-old aspects on this street, such as a vintage EYEGLASSES sign (One of our themes is eyes watching. At any time EYES can be peeking out windows.) that is now an ART GALLERY. There is a beautiful old building with a BOOKSTORE that will be the first place to go out of business. There is a SALE sign in the window. The old stores look unchanged since 1920s, businesses that hang on despite signs of gentrification on the rest of the street. They are “characters” in our story and stand like men and women of faded glory, right alongside the sharp, trendy stores for the young.
The FEATHERS that fell on pages 2-3 could flow onto these pages from a PIGEON COOP on a ROOFTOP, to show the whimsy of life and how everything is connected in this small town.
Greta’s dog QUEENIE is tied to a MAILBOX in front of Ruby’s bar. The dog spends some of its time chewing on its leash. (It will eventually break free.)
All these town details don’t have to be in this panel, but could be spread out and revealed slowly on these pages, but the feeling of the ballet of the street is ever-present, with small things like the cat playing with laundry or kids running in the street overlapping the main action.
LANA walks past the BUTCHER SHOP just as her FATHER, BLAKE, flings a bucket of blood red water into the gutter. It splashes on Lana. Queenie, excited by the smell of blood, strains on her leash.
Lana: Daddy watch out!
Panel 2
Blake laughs when he sees that he has splashed his daughter Lana.
Blake: Sorry Lana!
Lana: You got blood on me. That’s funny to you?
Lana: You saw me walking here.
Panel 3
Lana kisses her father, trying to hold her body as far away from his bloody butcher’s apron as possible.
Blake: I didn’t, I swear.
Blake: Kiss your father.
Lana: Gross.
Panel 4
Blake points at the ART GALLERY.
Blake: See that place? She sold a painting today. For more than I make in a year.
Lana: So? That’s good for business. People who buy art might eat meat.
Blake: She said her best customers are in China.
Layout e Chine: Page 4
Script: Page 5
Panel 1
Above Lana and Blake, a CAT bats at the WHITE SLIP on the laundry line that stretches between Ruby’s Bar and Blake’s meat market.
Lana: Yeah, it’s called a website, Dad. On-line sales. You could ship meat.
Blake: Across the ocean? They got their own pigs over there.
Panel 2
On Blake and Lana. The love between father and daughter runs deep, they are affectionate.
Blake: You know what I need to sell more meat? A pretty girl behind the counter.
Lana: Dad…
Panel 3
A CLOTHESPIN and SOCK falls to the street behind Blake and Lana.
Blake: I know, I know. Growing up with a butcher turned you into a vegetable.
Lana: It’s vegan, Dad.
Panel 4
Blake and Lana look up at the cat playing with the slip on the clothesline, knocking off clothespins. The meat shop’s sign, BLAKE & SONS is in this shot.
Blake: You’ve always got a job with me.
Lana: Blake and SONS?
Panel 5
Behind Blake and Lana, a young African-American business man, JAMES, dressed well, stops to mail a letter, but the dog BARKS and he hesitates to go near the box.
Blake: Your grandfather wasn’t exactly progressive. I’d trash that family history and make it Blake and DAUGHTER, for you.
Layout e Chine: Page 5
Script: Page 6
Panel 1
JAMES approaches Blake and Lana, holding the letter.
James (off panel): Excuse me.
James: Something has to be done about that dog.
Panel 2
The dog sits, looking innocent.
Blake: What about the dog?
James: It won’t let me mail a letter.
Blake: Queenie watches the street for us, just as the Queenie before her and the Queenie before that.
Panel 3
Blake gives James a “you gotta be kidding” look and slips the letter in the mailbox.
James: All your dogs are named Queenie?
Blake: You got a problem with tradition?
James: I’m new in town. I’ve got a virtual store in the new Drone Mall.
Blake: Of course you do.
Panel 4
Lana walks away, amused by her father, as her Blake continues to argue with James.
Blake: Is it a meat market? If you sell meat in this town, you got a black eye coming.
James: No, it’s an artisanal.
Blake: A what?
James: Drone delivered artisanal products.
Blake: Say that again, in English.
Layout e Chine: Page 6
Script: Page 7
Panel 1
Lana approaches RUBY FALLS SENIOR CARE, the senior-living home where CLARA, Lana’s grandmother lives. A few OLD PEOPLE sit on chairs outside on the stoop.
Panel 2
SALLY, an old lady, sits on the stoop KNITTING a “thing” that will grow longer and more complex over each issue, and as she seems to be adding more arms and legs to it. It will turn out to be a sweater for Queenie, the dog.
Knitter Sally: Morning, Lana. Your grandmother spit out her cereal this morning.
Lana: That’s a pretty scarf, Sally.
Knitter Sally: She threw her bowl. She’s out of control.
Panel 3
Lana enters Ruby Falls Senior Care. The hallway and rooms are plain and depressing. A few more OLD PEOPLE haunt the hallways like shadows, staring at signs for “Senior Activities.” JIGSAW PUZZLE PIECES are scattered down hallway floor, an old man, a RESIDENT, sweeps them up.
Knitter Sally (off panel): It’s not a scarf.
Panel 4
Lana enters the room where her grandmother CLARA lives, a resident in her late-70s. The walls of Clara’s room are a patchwork of NOTES pinned to walls, the bed and floor is littered with pulp crime PAPERBACKS, and more jigsaw PUZZLE PIECES. There are a few stumpy, half-dead PLANTS in the windowsill. Lana looks at the mess as she hugs her grandmother. There is a chair by the windows (where Clara will sit while Lana films her on page 8)
Lana: Hi Grandma. What’s with all the crime books on the floor? They so scary you fling them away?
Lana: Want me to help you clean up?
Panel 5
On Clara:
Clara: Don’t be ridiculous. How will I find anything?
Layout e Chine: Page 7
BIOGRAFIA/BIOGRAPHY
Flavia Biondi nasce a Castelfiorentino (FI) nel 1988.
Dopo la laurea triennale presso l’Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna in Fumetto e Illustrazione fonda, assieme ad altri colleghi, l’etichetta di fumetto indipendente Manticora Autoproduzioni con cui collabora alla realizzazione di numerose antologie.
Con la Casa Editrice Renbooks pubblica Barba di Perle (2012), L’orgoglio di Leone (2014) e L’importante è finire (2015), tre grapich novel a tematica LGBT. Per i tipi di Bao Publishing, pubblica il grapich novel La Generazione (2015) e La Giusta Mezura (2017). Nel 2019 esce per BergerBooks la mini serie Ruby Falls di cui è disegnatrice sui testi di Ann Nocenti.
NOTE EXTRA
Ruby Falls
Pubblicato in Italia da Bao Publishing acquistabile digitando questo link.
Autori: Ann Nocenti, Flavia Biondi
Colore o B/N: Colore
Data di pubblicazione: 30/04/2020, rinviata a giugno.
Disponibile in digitale: Sì
Formato e rilegatura: Cartonato 17 X 26
Pagine: 112
Costo: 18,00€