Memorabilia

by Sergio Ponchione

Overview

This is a fantastical graphic novel fan letter to some of the greatest American comic book creators.

This book collects five individual stories illuminating the art and lives of the all-time great comic book artists Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, Wallace Wood, Will Eisner, and Richard Corben. Ponchione blends biographical details about each artist with the characters and worlds they created, mixing fact with fiction as a testament to the remarkable imaginations of these masterful comics-makers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683961482
Publisher:	Fantagraphics Books
Publication date:	12/04/2018
Pages:	56
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.80(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

Sergio Ponchione is an internationally recognized cartoonist from Italy. He won the Gran Guinigi Award at the 2009 Lucca Comics Festival and the Attilio Micheluzzi Award at the 2012 Napoli Comicon. Since 2005, he has taught at the Cartoon School of Asti, his hometown.

Editorial Reviews

11/05/2018
In this slim collection of short sketches, Italian cartoonist Ponchione inks a visual tribute to the comic book artists who influenced him. He pays homage to the “trinity” worshipped by most American comics fans: Marvel and DC powerhouse Jack Kirby, Marvel visionary (and later objectivist recluse) Steve Ditko, and EC horror and Mad artist Wally Wood. He also genuflects toward graphic novel pioneer Will Eisner and horror artist Richard Corbin. Each sequence is drawn in a pastiche of the subject’s own art style: the Kirby tribute swarms with Kirby’s blobby monsters and intricate science-fiction machinery, while the Eisner chapter enters a building composed of gigantic letters, one of the signature conceits of Eisner’s comic The Spirit, to reveal tenement floors teeming with characters from his pithy, humanist stories. Each pastiche is beautifully drawn, as are the framing segments featuring Ponchione’s own clean, naturalistic style. But underneath the attractive art, there isn’t much to this hagiography. Ponchione explains that the concept is to “tell stories from some random thing or situation that reminds me of them,” a loose idea that doesn’t pay off in any surprising insights. This is an attractive but slight work from an exceptional artist. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"A touching and engaging experiment that makes great use of surrealism and metafiction."

Comic Book Resources

"[Memorabilia transports the reader] back to that special moment of picking a comic up at a newsstand and getting that rush of being exposed to the imagination of an artist."

The Comics Journal