The Dying Draughtsman
by
Francisco Sousa Lobo
Sinopsis: Francisco Koppens has a dying profession, a dying religion, lives in a dying home and has dying thoughts. He is a Portuguese architectural draughtsman living in London who believes he is destined to commit suicide. He talks to his wife but she doesn’t answer back. He does erotic comics as a private compulsion, only to cover them with black ink at the end. He ends up with black monochromes which he then tears to bits. The sign of the monochrome as self censorship permeates Koppens’ life. He visits endless art exhibitions, only to be smitten by dread and doubt. We follow him from depression to psychosis, and then back to a sort of starting point.
The Dying Draughtsman could be described as a fictive construction built on real, personal events lived through the life of the author.
Francisco Sousa Lobo does comics, fine art and writing, and lives in London. The Dying Draughtsman is his first graphic novel.
Critical reception:
Chosen as part of the 10 best books of 2013 by Sara Figueiredo Costa, in the newspaper Expresso ...
Francisco Sousa Lobo's production is inclined towards forms of comics internal interrogation, especially in their narrative form. An excellent book - Pedro Moura in Ler BD
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If Duchamp de-contextualized and re-contextualized his works through the use of photography, Sousa Lobo does it now through comics - Gabriel Martins in Rua de Baixo
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Unpredictable and haunting, stimulating and engaging - Paul Gravett
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Perfect symbiosis between art and writing - André Coelho
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One of the best books of the year - David Campos
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I really like it, it reminds a part of the world of Sammy Harkham and a touch of Theo Ellsworth (for the story). - Nicolas Grivel
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One of Best Portuguese Comics 2013 by Pedro Moura in Paul Gravett site
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It seems that comics finally provide Koppens, and his creator Lobo, with the style and method to write that postponed suicide note, as the remarkable graphic novel The Dying Draughtsman - Paul Gravett in Art Review
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thanks again for The Dying Draughtsman! Not an easy read... a bit too close for comfort, as they say... but very well told. Marcel Ruijters
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Pero más allá de eso parece, sobre todo, una obra de autodescubrimiento a través de la ficción. Francisco, el protagonista, vive en una permanente insatisfacción. No entiende el arte de galería, no consigue avanzar en su cómic —cada página acaba siendo un bloque de viñetas en negro que tiene que romper y tirar—, su mujer no le habla desde hace diez años y en el trabajo están a punto de despedirle. El monólogo interior nos revela a un hombre extraño, religioso, con dificultades para socializar, nervioso y desconfiado. (...) Hay algo contemplativo que recuerda a ciertos mangas, y, de hecho, el mismo Sousa Lobo menciona una hipotética visita a una convención de Tsuge que no puede interpretarse más que como una inspiración. Ciertos recursos gráficos subrayan la pérdida de contacto con la realidad de Francisco, pero como parte de un tono gráfico tan neutro, todo se consigue de un modo muy sutil y orgánico. Hay un momento en el que nos damos cuenta de que no podemos estar seguros de que todo lo que hemos leído que otras personas le han dicho a Francisco sea cierto, porque, al verlo todo a través de él, es imposible separar su paranoia de la realidad; de hecho, la realidad no existe en este tebeo. En ese momento reevaluamos toda la lectura, y es entonces cuando este cómic alcanza su verdadera altura. Se trata de una reflexión sobre la mediocridad, las aspiraciones frustradas de artista y la locura como una etiqueta social. Lo que para todo el mundo es una alucinación, para Francisco es una sólida realidad. The Watcher and The Tower
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Design: Joana Pires 128p. 16,5x23 cm two colour - 500 copies - ISBN 978-9898363-22-0
Book released in Galerie Kamm, Berlin ... Auto-Critical Comix in Art Review ... Exhibition of originals in Treviso Comics Festival ...
Maybe you still can find it in Quimby's (Chicago), Gosh Comics (London), Orbital (London), Lambiek (Amsterdam), La Central (Spain), Neurotitan (Berlin) and Seite Books (Los Angeles).
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