Fats Waller - a Graphic Novel Review

"I want the tenderness of a woman. I want to get drunk without alcohol. I want to write a hundred musicals, a thousand songs and a tragedy. "
This said jazz legend Fats Waller once against that other jazz celebrity Earl Hines.

The graphic novella 'Fats Waller' is about the tragic life of one of the most influential jazz musicians who lived in an uncertain and depressing time. Normally these are the ingredients that you would rather leave on the shelf were it not that Waller's music had been so cheerful. But there comes no music out of  paper. Yet scenarist Carlos Sampayo writes a fascinating story by choosing to give an impression of the man and the time in which he lived. Not only did Fats need cheerful music, but almost everyone at the time. If it was not because you had lost all your money in the stock market crash of 1929, it was because there was political and social unrest or war. The ordinary man in the street had records of him, the cardinal even loved his 'sinful' music, Nazis and their sympathizers philosophized about how it was possible that a black man could have such a great musical talent and whether it could be possible that Jews were musically superior to the Aryan race.

Sampayo treats only the most important elements in the life of Fats Waller and alternates them with fragments from the life of fictitious figures who are at turning points in history. This gives us a good insight into the impact that Waller made with his music. Sampayo has done so well that I forgive him for not having described Waller's death well enough.

The drawings of Igort are somewhat on the artistic side. It takes some getting used to, but if I look at them more closely I can discover here and there some expressionist elements that vaguely remind me of the paintings of Modigliani. What I find very appropriate since the expressionist era ran from 1905 to 1940 and Fats Waller lived from 1904 to 1943.

Fats Waller has never been lucky in love, he has never been able to get drunk without alcohol, he has not written a hundred musicals, not a thousand songs and no tragedy. But he has made 500 compositions, 360 recorded pieces and an unknown number of musicals. Still very impressive. I do not know any other musician who has accomplished that.