Nice review of Toppi and interesting comments about the historical context. Regarding Toppi's storytelling, I understand what you mean, but in the end I think it's a matter of personal taste. To me, all that lavish graphics work very well, not strictly for the plot, but for the mood, the feelings, the expression. Think about opera or musical: on one hand, you may say that the music is "distracting" from the plot, but on the other hand the music makes the story much more powerful and touching. With Toppi, I prefer not to rush into the story, but to taste every bit of it.
I would very much agree with one thing that was said, that his overall storytelling is second to his illustrations. Many times I found myself thinking, that's a beautiful page, but it doesn't work in terms of story. But it's still gorgeous.
I must say it is nice to hear you talk about something you like rather that something that annoys you. Thanks for the video, art is absolutely stunning.
Thanks! Yeah, my strategy is to cast a wide net and then the next thing they know you're accidentally watching a video about icelandic sculptors & italian illustrators. Hard to make a bad video about this guy when you have such incredible art as a backdrop. But yeah, more to come.
Toppi certainly breaks the traditional rules of sequential art, but he is the primary influence in rewriting those rules through his layout designs which were subsequently adapted by artists like Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz. He turns sequences into flows. As for his style being "distracting" from the story, you could not be more wrong. Toppi here is taking a cinematic approach in using his visuals to directly convey implicit, symbolic or allegorical aspects of the story in the same manner as Italian and German New Wave cinema. The rich imagery is integral to the stories Toppi tells, especially where the story veers into the surreal and the fantastic, where reality itself becomes plastic.
Really good analysis, I do fully agree with Toppi not being the best SEQUENTIAL storyteller. Very few dare to critique Toppi but, even though he is an amazing artist and extremely unique in his technique and character portrayal, he is not without flaws. After reading almost all of his work (often in the original language) I came to the conclusion that he is simply not a great writer. Being a one man show for his entire mature career he wrote and designed 99% of his work. With this premise Toppi created a body of work that is mainly short, non-serial stories of a few dozen pages, which inherently have limitations due to the amount of pages, and also because that was enough to tell the story he had to tell (the only serial character is indeed The Collector with 5 chapters). On top of that Toppi often uses the same story formula: historical backdrop, single character, scenarios where the mystical and reality merge, often meeting shamans and magicians, talking animals, divinities, setting up a backdrop for introspection, monologues and character reflection, minor plot twist at the end of the story, end. This is totally fine and really well executed but when you look at the complete portfolio of an artist that always applies the same methods to how a story is told you end up with repetition and predictability. You eventually tend to focus more on the art than the story itself; like you correctly pointed out. It's not by chance that his more popular works are The Collector and Sharaz-De (the latter not really written by him, as it's based on Arabian Nights) as the first allows for character development and the second is based on an actual book. Still this does not take away that he is one of the greatest European illustrators and comic artists to have lived.
@@federicobono6747For sure. But that happens with any translation. In general I noticed that the Italian used is quite old school and sometimes translates oddly to English, the meaning is still there but the nuance is lost. That makes it a little less fluid to read in English but nothing that takes you out of that story.
Sergio Toppi worked not only on his own stories but mostly in his career for other writers and storytellers. He wanted to breake the square rigid grid of comics talking with his own language created by years of hard working. Who is talking about politics does not really know anything about him and first of all about European comic culture. Another italian comic artist who brake the rules of sequencial art is Guido Crepax and some of the most recognized comic artists like Bill Sienkiewicz in Daredevil and Dave McKean are inspired by Sergio Toppi.
Wouldn't you agree that his art is a deconstruction of traditional sequential storytelling? Thus he's an originalist? I'm interested to know if there is anyone else in the same mould as Toppi.
He's definitely in his own lane. I can't think of any other artists like him. His work IS deconstructing imagery into the basics of line and ink and shape and panels. 100% agree - unique and original.
I disagree with the assesment of the story telling side of this. Toppi is one of the greatest in the field. The problems lie in the poor translations. I've read Toppi, Breccia, Pratt, Tardi and others in English and i'm always dissapointed. Somehow the Latin language doesn't work in English. As if all the 'detail' disappears. Toppi explained himself that he carefully constructed his stories and once done the artwork was done rapidly. A lot of the storytelling is in the drawing itself and Toppi chose his words carefully. I think there is also a cultureclash (a bit) going on here. American comics are radically different than Europeen.
Totally agree. I'm just looking at it as it's currently presented in this format in English. I was raised on American comics, because that's all I was exposed to (pre-internet). Once I discovered European comics and artists like Toppi my head exploded. For me someone like Toppi is all about the art. Reading a Toppi book is more like letting your eyes dance with his incredible line work.
"Before you think this a comment on the evils of colonialism and all that...". Yes that is exactly what this comic is about. Made by European comic artists in the 80s. Don't be so stuck up and dismissive of the fact European comic artists are all socialists and politically tuned in. I know it doesn't fit with your weird agenda about 'wokeness' but don't pretend the text is about anything other than an attack on the barbarism of colonialism. Much like Sharaz De.
