Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg
I wouldn’t be lying if I said that Howard Chaykin changed my life. Although I knew him from before, the splendid Black Kiss, it was on American Flagg that he opened my mind to a world of possibilities. Graphically, he was by far ahead of everybody else in the time - he abused of newer graphic design schools in his comics. Conceptually, also. He had a ‘cast’ of ‘actors’ which would re-appear in all his stories. So Reuben Flagg was played by the same ‘actor’ that appeared on ‘Black Kiss’. It’s confusing, it’s genius. And the stories were incredibly mature, even for a graphic novel. Sex wasn’t treat as a big deal, and every character had shades of grey. The future described in American Flagg is incredibly chaotic, corrupt and exciting! (more…)
The Surprising Adventures of Baron Münchhausen
My father’s cousin, Eduardo, gave me this incredible book when I was six. It’s the big, complete edition, with all the adventures and formidable illustrations by Gustave Doré. The drawings were mesmerizing, bringing me closer to another great book, The Divine Comedy. And the stories were insanely funny, fantastic and incredible, becoming quickly the main inspiration on my pseudo-truths (stories I tell swearing they’re true, but any thinking monkey can tell they’re not). Plus the whole epic concept was one of the main ingredients of my character Peter Zarustica - along with Ian Fleming’s 007.