Tonight, by accident, I attended a talk by the Israeli artist Rutu Modan about her graphic novel Exit Wounds. I learned:
1. One day in 1914, Franz Kafka wrote in his diary, “Germany invaded Russia. Swimming lessons in the afternoon.”
2. Browsing at a flea market, she found an album of pictures of her dead father. Her family had given it away by mistake. When she told the seller about this, he raised the price from $4 to $150.
3. She wrote Exit Wounds in Hebrew but drew it in English. No kidding. She wrote the text in Hebrew and had it translated into English. The balloons where the words go were arranged to read from left to right. For a forthcoming Hebrew edition, she made mirror images of everything. There was just one problem: Cars were on the wrong side of the road. 150 panels (the hero is a taxi driver) have this problem. She has been forced to do some redrawing.
2. Browsing at a flea market, she found an album of pictures of her dead father. Her family had given it away by mistake. When she told the seller about this, he raised the price from $4 to $150.
That is some creepy, albeit fortuitous, coincidence.
How did you attend a talk by accident?
This talk was in the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. I went there to attend another talk.
“1. One day in 1914, Franz Kafka wrote in his diary,
Germany invaded Russia.
Swimming lessons in the afternoon.”
Franz Kafka’s diary entry is all haiku to me (text divided into a modern two-line-haiku format). A wonderful juxtaposition…
“2. Browsing at a flea market, she found an album of pictures of her dead father. Her family had given it away by mistake. When she told the seller about this, he raised the price from $4 to $150.”
And Rutu Modan’s experience with the flea market vendor could be fodder for senryu:
the lost heirloom found
at a flea fair…”mine,” I claim
and the price goes up
:^D
And then there is the primary “accidental tourist” haply experiencing synchronistic life as [cartoon] art:^D… How fun. A little senryu…
cartoon museum—
I’ve arrived for the event
on next week’s schedule
Very nice, losing-it. The last one should be like this:
cartoon museum –
I’ve arrived for the event
in the other room.