Art Spiegelman and Denis Kitchen are showcased in a pair of new documentaries that celebrate the power of narrative comics to alter the world through picture, word and story.
I’ve been sitting on a copy of Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse (directed and produced by Molly Bernstein and Philip Dolan) for a few months, waiting impatiently for the first in a string of screenings before being able to shout my praise for how well it captures the artist and his humanity. Spiegelman, the agent of comics as a transformative, serious artform—who I’ve known for over 45 years—is superbly represented by the directors. There are joyful and solemn moments, interviews with family, friends, colleagues and scholars, and intimate conversations about his survivor parents’ near-death experiences in Auschwitz, his mother’s shocking suicide, and Spiegelman’s profound embrace of comics as expressive medium. Through it all, the wit and humor—alternating between light and dark—is compelling and enlivening. The film is a pleasure from beginning to perfect end, when with that knowing glimmer in his eyes, Art says: “See you in the funny papers.”
This is a must-see. If you miss it in theaters in April, it will be broadcast as part of “The American Masters” series on PBS.
Next, just in time for a renewed spate of back-to-school book bans, the film Oddly Compelling: The Denis Kitchen Story—a doc about the underground comics artist and publisher—is scheduled to be released if post-production funds can be raised on Kickstarter. Kitchen founded Kitchen Sink Press and, for more than 30 years, he published many pioneers of comics, including Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzman, Robert Crumb, Charles Burns, Al Capp, Milton Caniff, Howard Cruse, Trina Robbins, Mark Schultz, Art Spiegelman, Scott McCloud, Alan Moore, the groundbreaking Gay Comix series, and countless others. In 1989, Kitchen also formed the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund after comic store manager Michael Correa was convicted of possession and sale of so-called “obscene” material, which included a series published by Kitchen Sink Press.
Filmmakers Soren Christiansen and Ted Intorcio have captured hours of candid conversations with Kitchen, as well as fellow cartoonists and colleagues. The film also features rare archival footage of Crumb, Eisner and Kurtzman, and charts Kitchen’s career as indie cartoonist, provocateur and publisher.
He may be the least known of the underground legends, in part because he devoted a large amount of his career to publishing the work of others. He was there at the very beginning of the Underground Comix movement, an advocate for artists, free speech and underrepresented voices.
“The lion’s share of the Oddly Compelling documentary footage has been captured, although there are some elusive interviews we hope to secure,” said Christiansen. “Our goal is to raise enough to finish editing and production and prepare for the festival circuit. We estimate several months of work remain to finish shooting, edits, adding effects, animation of Kitchen creatures, and sound design.”
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