So I did this comic book La Grande Crociata, but, by the bones of Charlemagne, why a brazilian like me is meddling with medieval stuff, the crusades and all that chain mail? That’s something I ask myself sometimes and one of the reasons is that I think every piece of History is commom heritage and we all are connected. Reading Tzvetan Todorov’s The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other I realized how much of Columbus’ impetus were fueled by some kind of religious mission, as if his voyages were crusades.
Yes, it can be be that for Columbus it was like putting in his Linkedin “look, I’m a Hell of a christian”, so the monarchs and the Church would look and “hey, you’re hired!”, but it seems that he was in fact a little cuckoo, with more layers to his genocidal marauder persona.
When the Portuguese caravels approached the land later called “Brazil”, the first thing that indigenous peoples saw was the big cross in the sail - a symbol connected with the Military Order of Christ and the Knights Templar. As a brazilian, I think in some ways I am, like everybody else in the american continent, a little consequence of this events, of chapters of History that are linked to the Crusades, the Al-Andalus, the Reconquista, the negleted History of native american and african peoples and all episodes before and after those cycles - it is an endless list of connections and we all are part of it.
But before this kind of reflection, as a kid I get a medieval fever thanks to some books we had at home, part of an old collection in the “History for kids” style. It had a short book about the “discovery” and colonization of Brazil - presenting the europeans as brave explorers, that kind of bullshit, disgusting, really - and the books that grabbed my attention were one about Marco Polo, other about Joan of Arc and The Hundred Years’ War, and another about the Crusades. Not that those books were high level History, they were short and simple, but well written and with precise, serious illustrations.
Short after this initial journey through the so called Dark Ages, my mom probably saw something was going on in my tiny little head and gave me a life changing, pivotal, giant edition of the great…
PRINCE VALIANT
Yes, Hal Foster’s colossal master work!
Far bigger than any comic I had, the opening of such volume was like being sucked into the book, a total trip in the adventures of the prince of Thule - today our hero would be norwegian!
The edition had as intro an interview with Hal Foster talking about the research to do this work, the decisions he made, like the option for absence of balloons or the decision to portrait light instead of heavy armours in the comic - even the iconic Valiant’s hair had a practical function, so when he takes off his helmet, it is not necessary to draw a type of padding that protected the head from direct contact with the helmet. Obviously is not that Foster was lazy, is just that such step would interfere in the narrative pacing.
Beyond such impact, what remained deep in my head is how Foster took a theme, the Middle Ages, and then he twisted and compressed time and space, facts and legends, to tell a unique tale. More than this, he put together Arthurian elements, traces from the fallen Roman Empire, the Hunnic invasions, some supernatural and fantasy flavors here and there, all together not only to have fun and entertain, but to talk about things that were happening at his time, like the World War II - Prince Valiant was created by Foster in 1937 and two years later the things got ugly.
Prince Valiant is a huge influence to me not only because the drawing is amazing, but also because it shows how one artist can pursue an obsession like a specific time period and grab all kinds of elements to make an unique universe to express something relevant and to reflect about current events.
Another important point is Valiant as a human character, yes, with a lot of heroic moments, but as an immature young man. He is irascible, sometimes arrogant, he makes mistakes, he faces defeats and the story has humor too, but with a constant sadness, some gloomy undertones - it has a lot of tragic, heart breaking moments. I remember some chapters when Sir Gawain, the always joyful friend of Valiant, is depressed, lost in a vortex of drinking and gaming. This phase is so well written, illustrated and it’s narrated with such care that always makes me think about it as something based on some personal experience to Foster, maybe involving a close friend.
Are you at Cagliari? I’ll be at the Giocomix next saturday at 18h to babble and answer vaguely about La Grande Crociata and to do some book signing/drawing.