I have to Live with this Guy!
Blake
Bell
TwoMorrows
Publishing 2002
What
is it really like to be a top comic creator ? More to the point, what is the life
of a comic artist really like and what is it like to be their partner ? This is
a surprisingly honest and penetrating look into the normally private world of the lives of a group of
incredibly creative artists.
Through
comprehensive interviews Bell has got under the skin of the partners and wives
of Will Eisner, Alan Moore, Stan Lee, Joe Kubert, Harvey Kurtzman, John Romita,
Gene Colan, Dan DeCarlo, Dick Ayers, Archie Goodwin, Ric Estrada, Dave Sim,
Howard Cruse, Dave Cooper, and others to give us the goods. Each chapter
combines Bell’s carefully researched biographic writing style, good interview
materials and is comprehensively illustrated with rare photos, images and, of
course, comics, many of which come from the artists own collections and are unusual
help document the development of their own unique style.
The
impressive thing about “I have to Live with this Guy!” is the way in which it
explores the importance of emotional co-operation. Rather than simply defining
one person as the “artist” and the other as their partner, Bell has tried to
express the way in which the unique emotional union of the couples helped
create the lives through which their works could be produced. This is what
makes this book unique among biographies of comic book artists, Bell has tried
to delve into the emotional lives of these couples and look at them from a
different way and I think this makes this book stand out. It is not a series of
“puff” pieces either, the partners are incredibly honest, sometimes brutally
so, this is warts and all stuff, folks. Bell has also tried to offer a
diversity of couples including couples where the woman is the artist and a gay
couple as well.
Along
the way we get all sorts of insight into the creative process, the life-story
of some comic book creators and their partners, the difficulties and ups and
downs of the artistic life and, of course, lots of anecdotes, memories and
recollections you won’t find anywhere else !!