WHY MAURETANIA?
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THE MAURETANIA COMIC
was created by artists Chris Reynolds and Paul Harvey to be a
publication with a special atmosphere and "feel" to the stories.
Here, from Escape magazine, Ed Pinsent discusses stories from Mauretania Comics, in particular those by Chris. "I regard Chris as an extraordinary talent in the field of comics, and one that should be cherished. His work is simply unique, impossible to classify as it seems almost entirely without precedent. He is also one of the most personal and mysterious artists of the small press. Recent interviews in ARK and HAIRY HI-FI provide clues to the workings of his mind better than I can hope to supply, and his replies in both cases indicate how much he's in control of , and in sympathy with, the remarkable forces that shape his stories." "Many of his favourite preoccupations are evident in MAURETANIA four and five; the love of landscapes, architecture and travel. He can spend entire sequences of panels simply looking at the beauty of the countryside, marvelling at its strangeness. Likewise he can effectively convey a real sense of the physicality of the buildings around you – entering indoors out of the natural light, that walls and space around the figure. Chris takes time to explore this central theme of Man in his Environment, passing on a genuine feel for location and placement, something that eludes so many comic artists. You always know where the characters are. "The characters know where they are, too; each of them seems motivated by a deep purpose which we never seem to penetrate, but are compelled to keep reading. Mysterious circumstances mingle with memories of past times; abstruse connections are formed. The mysteries deepen and are never explained, yet it makes sense on an intuitive and subconscious level. |
"This
is especially
true of the character Monitor, whose progress
is followed through three stories; from a slightly sinister persecution
complex episode, to his success in business with refrigeration units,
and his later exploits in the mining world. Other Reynolds obsessions
emerge: shop window displays, lettering on signs, the details of
curious electrical components. One particular triumph is the rendering
and description of the Alien mining equipment in MAURETANIA five, a
two-panel masterpiece of condensed information. "Chris' sparse writing style is perfect; it contribute a matter-of-fact tone that reacts so well against the puzzling and bizarre events. At times it achieves such a purity of minimalism that only one or two words are required to activate the panel – sometimes no words at all, his use of silent panels has all the quiet impact of understatement. This underlines how seamless is his synthesis of writing and art, into something that could only be a comic strip. The drawing appears very simple on the surface – so few lines, so many solid blacks. Yet it's carefully layered and constructed , and ( in the case of inanimate objects) entirely authentic, a distillation of real knowledge of perspective and space. The figures and faces are slightly underworked in comparison, but it helps to reinforce the sense of unity between man and environment. Each composition is beautiful, bordering on the abstract, reminiscent of many strains of modern painting and Golden Age comic art. There's also a strange elusive quality; the more you look into each panel the more the subject seems to recede from your intelligence. His drawings have a secret, invisible power – something that suffuses every story, in fact. You're left with the feeling that the actual pages you read are merely the frozen surface of a huge ocean, while a silent, black submarine is cruising beneath you. "If you want to see a mysterious genius at work, start reading now. Unequivocally recommended. " |
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