BackTel Aviv state of mind
What inspires Israel's most inventive graphic novelist Rutu Modan? Extreme events and the Hebrew language
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Comic-book artist, writer and illustrator Rutu Modan has been creating graphic novels and short stories often inspired by her observations of life around her. “David Grossman, a very important Israeli author, had once said that Israel is hell but it is heaven for writers. That is why she, in spite of all her problems, is still a very exciting place to live and work in," Israel-based Modan says.
“Sometimes, when life is tough, art tends to flourish. Tension and extreme events fuel the creativity of artists." This partly explains why 49-year-old Modan has never thought of leaving Israel seriously.
There are other more important reasons. “This is my home in many ways. First of all, there is the language. I am a writer. Not only do I speak, but I also write in Hebrew. I think in Hebrew. My stories and images originate from my understanding of the environment. I have to be connected to it to transform it into my art."
The graphic novel has a huge following in several nations. But not in Israel, which has failed to develop a culture of reading them. “It is perhaps the only nation where Superman and Tintin flopped," Modan says. This is shocking, considering that the Indian scenario isn’t half as bad— comic-book characters like Batman, Superman, Asterix and Tintin, among several others, have been huge for years. Names like Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Art Spiegelman and Marjane Satrapi are big, and not only in the minds of dedicated readers.
Israel’s cultural response to comics is demoralizing; yet, the artist-illustrator-writer has never been discouraged by the indifference. Instead, she has drawn her comics and also written them in Hebrew.
Exit Wounds, her debut, won the prestigious 2008 Eisner Award in the category of the Best Graphic Album–New. The Property, the second one, won the 2014 Eisner Award. An international phenomenon today, Modan might have held a regular job had she surrendered to the wishes of her parents, both doctors, who had opposed her choice of career. “My father tried to change my mind but was really disappointed when he couldn’t. He even applied to a medical school for me. My parents always said that I could be whatever I wanted to be. They didn’t take into consideration that I might wish to become an artist someday. One could say that art was simply not an option," she remembers.
She eventually joined the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. While in the third year, she took a course in comics. This proved to be a life-changing experience, and she fell in love with the medium. “Not much later, I went to the editor of a local newspaper and suggested that he could publish a regular comic strip. I consider myself fortunate that the editor agreed and gave me an opportunity. Since then, I never stopped making comics."
“The serial killer story was a complete invention," she says, “The others, well, you know the place where I live. If you are a person who wants peace and freedom of mind and speech, living in Israel does become very complicated and difficult." Is a political graphic novel on the cards? “I see my stories as political; maybe, not directly like comics journalism. But I believe that one can understand my political point of view through the fiction I write and draw. Honestly, I am more comfortable with fiction. I did try my hand at non-fiction once or twice, but I didn’t like the results as such."
Exit Wounds is the story of Koby Franco, a young taxi driver in Tel Aviv. Koby is leading a perfectly uneventful life until a female soldier approaches him and claims that his estranged father might have been a victim of suicide bombing. The two of them begin a hunt to find out whether the man is dead or alive. In The Property, Modan tells the story of Regina, who travels to modern-day Warsaw with her granddaughter Mica to reclaim the property that was lost during World War II. But several truths spill out of the cupboard of past secrets as the narrative’s journey proceeds. The Property was a particularly intrepid effort, which dealt with subjects like the Holocaust and Poland’s implications for the Israelis. But the quality shared by both the novels was the undercurrent of suspense.
Modan’s neat style of drawing has been compared to Hergé, the creator of Tintin. “I have heard many times that my clear lines are inspired by Hergé, but that is only partly true. I admire him, but have been mostly inspired by his storytelling than his drawing," she explains. “In fact, I have been mostly influenced by American cartoonists of the early 20th century, for instance, Winsor McCay and Crockett Johnson. Among those from recent times, cartoonists like Art Spiegelman, Daniel Clowes and innumerable others have made an impact."
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