The Tokyo Drifter knows how to fix things

An edition about my October releases and how limitations can make great stories

HELLO AND WELCOME TO A NEW EDITION OF MY NEWSLETTER!

First, the spam: October continues and so the #Victober. I hope you are enjoying it. As you know, I will be uploading the drawings in my facebook, twitter, bluesky and Instagram accounts (links at the bottom) and selling them in my bigcartel store victorsantos.bigcartel.com
And if you want to see all my scanned drawings of this edition and the editions of previous years you can find them in my blog/site:
victorsantoscomics.blogspot.com/search/label/inktober

ON THE SHELVES!

October is a month of releases I have been involved with. My third Infinity GN (always as writer) Infinity: Aftermath is released internationally in Spanish and English, the satire about conspiracies Project Monarch GN I made with Mike Oeming finally -if I’m not wrong- will released this week after a little delay and the 9-pages noir story I illustrated with story by Tim Seeley for the MOTU anthology miniseries is compiled in a paperback.

Infinity: Aftermath
https://store.corvusbelli.com/en/books/graphic-novels/all/infinity-aftermath-limited-edition
Project Monarch Graphic novel
https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/3009-235/Project-Monarch-TPB
MOTU: Masterverse paperback
https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/3010-280/Masters-of-the-Universe-Masterverse-Volume-1-TPB

THE REASON WE TAKE SOME DECISIONS

Tokyo Drifter, a Japanese movie of the 60s directed by Seijun Suzuki, is one of my favorite movies ever and a big influence in my Polar graphic novels. Recently I got the UK blu ray restoration by Criterion Collection and watched it again, of course. Maybe you don’t know it, but along with the other Suzuki’s masterwork Branded to kill, this film has been a huge influence around the world, not only in Japan, not only in cinema. You can see the devotion to this cult story in video game creators like Suda51, directors like Tarantino, John Woo, Jim Jarmush or Wong-Kar Wai or manga authors like Jiro Taniguchi.

This story about a yakuza exiled from his clan in a way to protect his boss, initially a very obvious revision of Bushido codes translated to Yakuza world (but with a very sarcastic buried point of view) is visually astounding, and Suzuki’s use of composition and colors made it years advanced for others films of the same company, the legendary Nikkatsu. I never get tired of showing samples and frames of the movie visuals:

It’s very interesting to watch the comments and interviews of director Seijun Suzuki and his assistant Masami Kuzuu about how they created this influential and avant-garde movie because some of their decisions are not motivated by some artistic magic. This movie shows us how creation is usually the art of solving problems.

For example, although the movie is in color, the story opens with a black and white scene that culminates in a frame of a red gun popping up from the contrasted black and white background (years before the black and white/flat color games of Frank Miller in Sin City) but the true reason of this was to use a remain of black and white film of the studio storage. Or the main cause behind the stark sets are due to how Suzuki dealt with budget cutbacks.
One of the reasons to make the movie was precisely to promote the song “Tokyo drifter” and the director was obliged by the producer to use the song a good number of times (Tetsuya Watari, the protagonist, was also a singer). But Suzuki used this element at the service of the story, and everytime the song appears has a different sense, and even can be a scary element when this yakuza whistles it to warn his enemies about his presence.

When the experts ask Suzuki about some of the most controversial or experimental elements of the way he filmed, he usually answers: “I thought it would be entertaining for the viewers”. Maybe later, these experts will use words like “subtext” or “experimentation” but in the end, creators like Suzuki just wanted to finish a job while trying to be faithful to himself. And I think this is a good lesson for creators about caring about artistic aspirations or your legacy to the History, or breaking paradigms, or amaze these influential critics with this unexpected twist. I think the true geniuses are actually focused on making things the best they can, and later other people will search for the true reasons behind.

And that’s all! Recently I’ve signed contracts for two different assignments I can’t speak about yet, but I hope I’ll share it with you very soon, in a future Broken English edition.
Meanwhile, take care!
Victor

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