Comments on: Cravan by Richardson and Geary http://madinkbeard.com/blog/archives/cravan-by-richardson-and-geary { Derik Badman's Writing on Comics (mostly) } Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:02:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: Portraits http://madinkbeard.com/blog/archives/cravan-by-richardson-and-geary/comment-page-1#comment-4941 Portraits Tue, 15 Aug 2006 05:41:01 +0000 http://madinkbeard.com/blog/archives/cravan-by-richardson-and-geary#comment-4941 Hi Derik, Great review. I have to disagree with you regarding Geary’s art - I found it hard to stop looking. Keep in mind that compressing a biography into 66 pages opens it up to a much wider audience. Although, you're right - the curious are left dissatisfied. All the best, John Hi Derik,

Great review. I have to disagree with you regarding Geary’s art - I found it hard to stop looking.

Keep in mind that compressing a biography into 66 pages opens it up to a much wider audience. Although, you’re right - the curious are left dissatisfied.

All the best,
John

]]> By: Emmanuel Pollaud-Dulian http://madinkbeard.com/blog/archives/cravan-by-richardson-and-geary/comment-page-1#comment-240 Emmanuel Pollaud-Dulian Wed, 22 Mar 2006 21:06:52 +0000 http://madinkbeard.com/blog/archives/cravan-by-richardson-and-geary#comment-240 Arthur Cravan was born Fabian Avenarius Lloyd in Lausanne on the 22d of may 1887. He died in Mexico in 1918. His life is now well documented and Mike Richardson is quite wrong when he writes that "much of what is generally accepted about him is anecdotal." Maria Lluisa Borras, for example, wrote an excellent biography, "Cravan, une stratégie du scandale" in 1996. Unfortunatrly it has not been translated in english. You can also learn more about Cravan by reading "You gotta live", by Bob Brown (1932), and "Becoming modern, the life of Mina Loy" by Carolyn Burke (1996). There is also a very nice comic book by french artist Philip Squarzoni, "Portrait inédit de Arthur Cravan" in 2002. Cravan never was Bernard Traven. It has been established that B. Traven was in fact the german anarchist Hermann Albert Otto Max Feige, born in 1882, a.k.a. Ret Marut. Traven died in 1969 and did not look at all like Cravan, who has been often photographed. Sincerely yours. Emmanuel Pollaud-Dulian. http://www.excentriques.com/cravan/index.html Arthur Cravan was born Fabian Avenarius Lloyd in Lausanne on the 22d of may 1887. He died in Mexico in 1918. His life is now well documented and Mike Richardson is quite wrong when he writes that “much of what is generally accepted about him is anecdotal.” Maria Lluisa Borras, for example, wrote an excellent biography, “Cravan, une stratégie du scandale” in 1996. Unfortunatrly it has not been translated in english. You can also learn more about Cravan by reading “You gotta live”, by Bob Brown (1932), and “Becoming modern, the life of Mina Loy” by Carolyn Burke (1996). There is also a very nice comic book by french artist Philip Squarzoni, “Portrait inédit de Arthur Cravan” in 2002.
Cravan never was Bernard Traven. It has been established that B. Traven was in fact the german anarchist Hermann Albert Otto Max Feige, born in 1882, a.k.a. Ret Marut. Traven died in 1969 and did not look at all like Cravan, who has been often photographed.
Sincerely yours.
Emmanuel Pollaud-Dulian.
http://www.excentriques.com/cravan/index.html

]]> By: mike richardson http://madinkbeard.com/blog/archives/cravan-by-richardson-and-geary/comment-page-1#comment-90 mike richardson Tue, 21 Feb 2006 05:32:40 +0000 http://madinkbeard.com/blog/archives/cravan-by-richardson-and-geary#comment-90 Derik, Thanks for looking at Cravan. Your criticisms are not off target, but I thought I'd reply to them. First of all, you are correct that the the number of pages had a big inpact on the manner in which we told the story. Not only were we forced to drop incidents from his life, we really didn't have the room to discuss the philosophy behind Cravan's many pseudonyms or his interest in the dada movement. Nor were we able to elaborate on his adventures moving from front to front during WWI, his career as a forger and thief, or so many other bits of his life. With our space limitations in mind, we tried to put enough info into the book to make the man intriguing enough that readers might take it upon themselves to look for additional material on their own. With regard to our speculation regarding Cravan as B. Traven, I'm not the first to make this connection. While it may be a stretch, it is a facinating conjecture when considering a number of odd connections between the two. It is also, as I mentioned in the book, exactly the type of speculation that Cravan himself would have encouraged. The fact is, Cravan spent so much effort obscuring the facts surrounding his own life that much of what is generally accepted about him is anecdotal. You are incorrect in your statement that placing him in New York somehow precludes the possibility of Cravan and B. Traven being the same man. I discovered a magazine article as far back as the seventies (while I was in college) suggesting that a man had died in New York City in '60 by the name of B. Traven and that some had claimed he was also Arthur Cravan. If you base your remark on the "confession" of Traven's "widow" years later, I would point out that she changed her story regarding Traven's identity and birthplace several times, The only fictionalized elements in the book were the story bookends with the reporter. It was suggested to me by the magazine article I mentioned and seemed a good way to get in and out of the story. In defense of Rick's art, he is an award winning artist who is best known for a series of critically acclaimed Victorian Murder Mysteries. I have access to the finest comic artists in the world. I have carried Cravan's story with me for years. When Rick came to mind as the potential artist of the book, there was no other artist I was willing to consider. The final questions you pose are related to style and the number of pages we had to work with. Sorry we didn't have more to work with. In the end, any mention of the book is welcome. Thanks so much for taking the time to read it. Best, Mike Richardson Derik,

Thanks for looking at Cravan. Your criticisms are not off target, but I thought I’d reply to them.

First of all, you are correct that the the number of pages had a big inpact on the manner in which we told the story. Not only were we forced to drop incidents from his life, we really didn’t have the room to discuss the philosophy behind Cravan’s many pseudonyms or his interest in the dada movement. Nor were we able to elaborate on his adventures moving from front to front during WWI, his career as a forger and thief, or so many other bits of his life. With our space limitations in mind, we tried to put enough info into the book to make the man intriguing enough that readers might take it upon themselves to look for additional material on their own.

With regard to our speculation regarding Cravan as B. Traven, I’m not the first to make this connection. While it may be a stretch, it is a facinating conjecture when considering a number of odd connections between the two. It is also, as I mentioned in the book, exactly the type of speculation that Cravan himself would have encouraged. The fact is, Cravan spent so much effort obscuring the facts surrounding his own life that much of what is generally accepted about him is anecdotal.

You are incorrect in your statement that placing him in New York somehow precludes the possibility of Cravan and B. Traven being the same man. I discovered a magazine article as far back as the seventies (while I was in college) suggesting that a man had died in New York City in ‘60 by the name of B. Traven and that some had claimed he was also Arthur Cravan. If you base your remark on the “confession” of Traven’s “widow” years later, I would point out that she changed her story regarding Traven’s identity and birthplace several times,

The only fictionalized elements in the book were the story bookends with the reporter. It was suggested to me by the magazine article I mentioned and seemed a good way to get in and out of the story.

In defense of Rick’s art, he is an award winning artist who is best known for a series of critically acclaimed Victorian Murder Mysteries. I have access to the finest comic artists in the world. I have carried Cravan’s story with me for years. When Rick came to mind as the potential artist of the book, there was no other artist I was willing to consider.

The final questions you pose are related to style and the number of pages we had to work with. Sorry we didn’t have more to work with.

In the end, any mention of the book is welcome. Thanks so much for taking the time to read it.

Best,

Mike Richardson

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