Stigmata

Last time, I read Day of the Magicians, published by Humanoids, which was a complex story about love, duty and responsibility. It was so good that I decided to read another European book. So, this week I read STIGMATA, written by Lorenzo Mattotti and Claudio Piersanti, illustrated by Lorenzo Mattotti, published by Fantagraphics.

Stigmata is about a man who can only be described as lost. After 40 years, he is drifting through life in an alcoholic haze. He only works enough to buy food and more alcohol. One morning he wakes to see he has developed stigmata. He doesn’t understand the stigmata, nor the people who view him as a healer and sign from God. He neither wants, nor can accept, the attention that the stigmata bring. Eventually, he tries to escape his world by joining a gypsy carnival, and finds love. But he learns that sometimes you cannot escape yourself.

The story is broken into three parts. The opening sequence introduces us to the man and we see the squalor of his life. The second sequence shows the man finding love amongst the gypsies before his past starts to destroy him. Finally, the third sequence is an impressionistic display about the man finding redemption and coming to terms with the events in his life. While this sounds like something you’ve read before, Mattotti’s art is like nothing you have ever seen. It drives the book as much as the story does.

This is one of the most visually stunning books I have read in a long, long time. Mattotti is one of the greatest Italian artists ever. His style is like nothing on the American shelves. When he uses color it is as bold and striking as anything you have ever seen. But when he works in black and white it becomes something even greater.

The art actually threatens to overwhelm the story because it is so good. But, Mattotti and Piersanti have written a story that plays to Mattotti strengths. Mattotti tames his wild lines for the quiet moments just enough to exaggerate the characters. They seem to flow between the panels on the page. And when the story gets violent, the art becomes darker and angrier with it. The third act is simply incredible as Mattotti forces the reader to think about not only words but also the pictures.

The only comparison I can think of for Mattotti’s art in Stigmata is Gerald Scarfe, the artist who drew the sleeve art of Pink Floyd’s The Wall. His lines spin and weave around the page in almost wild abandon. There are images that shouldn’t work but do. There are wild perspectives that hold your attention for minutes on end. There are swirls in which forms and shapes seem to grow from nothing. The art is highly expressionistic and at times it seems like you are looking at emotions given life on the page instead of the people who inhabit this world.

Stigmata is not just a good story, it is an incredible work of art. While I enjoyed the story, it was the art that I kept looking at. There are few artists that can push the comic book medium and create something as stunning as this. If you like seeing how art can be used to push comics, then this is the book for you.

- David Lee