Photos Hudson Rodrigues
Illustration Propaganda
The ninth art of Marcelo D'Salete
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.Owner of a crowded gloomy and poetic aspect of subjectivities and mysteries, sometimes flirting with the German Expressionism, other times with the French Realism, Marcelo D'Salete, literally paints the seven (expression used to describe someone that does whatever he (she) wants). Teacher, investigator, graphic designer, illustrator, designer and scriptwriter of COMICS, he already had his comics published in expressive magazines of that type, as the Comics university student, the Slovak Stripburger, the Argentinian Suda Mery k! and the brazucas (a slang used to refer to Brazilian people) Front, Graffiti, Gentle Stories and +Soma.
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Beyond cinema, and going through names such as Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini and Takashi Miike, the designers Miguelanxo Prado, Neil Gaiman, Sam Keith, Katsuhiro Otomo and Lawrence Mutarelli are some of the references used by the artist to produce works such as the acclaimed publication Night Light. The book, released in 2008, was nominated as one of the 100 best comics of the decade by the Argentine site Comique (www.comiqueando.com.ar).
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A multifaceted artist’s production includes partnerships with the musician and writer Kiko Dinucci and children's books illustration of the sambista (man who plays samba) Martinho da Vila. Impossible to separate D'Salem’s productions of issues related to ethnic contemporary discussion. "I don’t only talk about this subject, but according to my history and accomplishments, it’s possible to see that black issues are recurring in my work."
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At an interview with the magazine Menelick 2 º ACT, the artist talks about his inspirations, future projects and how black is represented in comics tupiniquins (Indians).
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“Solving a page of comics is to solve a problem of form, content, time and narrative”
“Solving a page of comics is to solve a problem of form, content, time and narrative”
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How to balance artistic treatment and textual plot? My stories start from simple everyday facts. A newspapers note. Chats with friends. In general, such a fact hardly generates a good narrative. So I add new information and facts, to shape and insert more complexity to each character, environment, action and scene. From that point on the story becomes more effective. It all usually takes several weeks or months. Sometimes I can resolve the plot in one day. But in most of the stories I have to make numerous changes.
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It delights me lately to think about each scene. The way of making each of them important itself and inside the narrative context. In the work process, I have largely excluded the text of stories. It doesn’t mean that the text isn’t important, but it’s to explore the proper side of comics - create a universe with only images in sequence. It’s a difficult but rewarding work. Solving a page of comics is to solve a problem of form, content, time and narrative.
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Is there already recognition by society of the complexity and richness of the narratives of comics and their impact on popular culture?
Comics, as we know it nowadays (drawing and text graphically articulated and printed in newspapers or magazines), have existed for more than 100 years. On its most part of history, comics were the subject of a child or a narrow niche audience. Today a great part of authors want to expand the comics’ universe. The recognition of the books as a vehicle for rich narrative happens day by day. There are many comics and inspired on classics of literature, to schools. Parents buy these works to their children with a more positive view than what happened decades ago. It may help to make them more important, beyond simple entertainment. Anyway, outside the adjustments, the adult comics still need to claim their space.
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“My next book called Crossroad must be launched in 2011. I spent 3 years working on 5 stories”
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“My next book called Crossroad must be launched in 2011. I spent 3 years working on 5 stories”
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What comics were decisive, or inspiring, for you to enter the world of comics?
I started reading comics when I was young. It was a daily routine with my brother Mark. In general, I read what was most common in stores. As a teenager, at the designer course from Carlos Campos college, I was introduced to other authors. Short stories of Michelanxo Prado; Sandman by Neil Gaiman and Sam Keith; Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira and albums Lourenço Mutarelli. Since then my view of comics has changed. I realized that they could have more complexity, talk about real life in a profound and provocative way. At that time I was already familiar to design, practiced since childhood. Then I began thinking of scripts because I wanted to develop my own stories. I’ve drawn stories of Kiko Dinucci, samba singer and a great writer, addicted to movies just like me. Later, I learned a lot about how to tell stories watching movies and reading about cinema. When I started publishing the magazine Front, I already had many stories that I wanted to tell and a different way to accomplish this.
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How do you evaluate the migration process from comics to cinema? Do you also have a work in such a way? Do you want to see your stories on movies?
Nowadays, there is a great number of American comics for the screens. In general, producers take advantage of the fact that the characters are already known. It's almost guaranteed that you’ll sell your product and acquire audience. I confess that most of the time I consider strange out of context those movies about American comics. They are fun, but they don’t supply any purpose, they are only for entertainment. Movies based on comics that I consider good, that respect the movies’ language are: American Splendor, the Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (based on Harvey Pekar’s comics) and the unsettling Ichi the Killer, Takashi Miike's (based on mangá – Japanese comic books - of Hideo Yamamoto).
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Besides all that, there are other several successful experiences in animation: Akira, Tekkonkinkreet. Although I appreciate movies very much, I have no intention of taking my work to the screen. My goal is to have them as comics.
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“Although I appreciate movies very much, I have no intention of taking my work to the screen.
My goal is to have them as comics”
Do you think is still “labeled” Brazilian designers imagination inspired by black culture to create comics?
We live in an environment where few are black comics writers. Moreover, there is little discussion about black characters and themes in comics. Finally, the maturation of this discussion is still at the beginning. At cinema, theater or on television this conflict is most visible. Analyses of Joel Zito Araujo on television and John Carlos Rodrigues about cinema are important for deepening the subject. In the theater, decades ago, there was the experience of TEN (Teatro experimental do Negro) - EBT in English (Experimental Black Theater) - of Abdias do Nascimento and, more recently, the great group of black actors The Crispy.
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Now, in Brazil, there is an ongoing research of Nobu Shinen on black characters in comics. It promises to contribute lot to the maturing of the discussion. On the other hand, in production, out of the number of superficial works about this subject there are interesting works as The War of Palmares, Alvaro de Moya’s and Clovis Moura’s; the great Vira-lata, of Paulo Garfunkel and Libero Malavoglia; Maurício Pestana’s cartoons; the recent Chibata of Olinto Gadelha Neto and Hemeterio and some other works. Unfortunately I couldn’t remember all.
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Do the black heroes of comics help in raising awareness and humanization of young readers?
It is important to have black characters in various genres of comics, from children to adults. If you want to contribute to greater complexity of comics and reader’s maturity, this is urgent. Above all, it is necessary to overcome the old stereotypes of blacks only as uneducated servants, criminals, poor or homeless. We still work on these models. It has reinforced because in the past those who used to make and buy comics weren’t black, it means that non-black audiences understood it as being natural and common. Nowadays, a clear act of racism can’t go unnoticed.
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Are there new plans for the production of new ethnic-themed comics as we can see in Night Light?
Yes I intend to continue producing books on this subject. This isn’t my principal subject, but according to my history and accomplishments, you can see that black issues are recurring on my work. My next book, called Crossroads, must be launched in 2011. I spent 3 years working on 5 stories. Beyond that, I'm working on another project, a historical narrative, and it took me about 2 years to fix the script. I’ve just started working on sketches. Anyway it is a long-term work, but very pleasant when finished.
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Book: Night light
Author: Marcelo D´Salete
Publisher: Via Lettera
2008
Book: Big house & Slaves
Authors: Gilberto Freyre (original text), Estevão Pinto (comics adaptation) and Ivan Wasth Rodrigues (drawing)
Publisher: Ebal
2000
