An artist’s pursuit can be difficult. You work, and struggle, and work, and starve, all for what usually amounts to little more than fuel for the ego. It’s bullshit. So why not cut out all of the difficult stuff and jump to the front of the line? Find an agent, write your first book, get famous. In that order. It’s the Fante Bukowski way!
“Fante Bukowski” is a handsome little softcover, collecting a strip that Noah Van Sciver began serializing on his Tumblr back in the Spring of 2014. If I’m not mistaken, the story began as a sketchbook comic; something for the cartoonist to work on in between other things. As a result, the art has a sort of hurried way about it that lends itself well to the story. Like the motel-dwelling writer we’re reading about, the pages are a little messy. Half-erased pencils are visible in some panels and colors seem to step over their holding lines. The lettering is done right on the board, an Van Sciver doesn’t try to hide his paste-up corrections. I don’t say any of this to give the impression that this is a haphazardly assembled comic, because that isn’t the case at all. The look is deliberate, and there was clearly care that went into these pages, but Van Sciver wasn’t overly precious about any of it.
The story focuses on the titular Fante Bukowski as he sets upon becoming a world famous writer. He knows he wants the recognition, and he has an idea of what he will do with his fame, but in the end has no idea how to make any of that happen. In his pursuit of success, he will emulate every aspect of the struggling writer’s life he’s ever read and romanticized. Much like his adopted name, Fante Bukowski has created an amalgamation of what he believes life should be like for him. At all of 23 years old, the not-quite-a-writer has already found his way to the bitterness of a middle-aged, highly fictionalized, Charles Bukowski. Also like ol’ Charles, he has an affinity for cheap wine and sad conversations in dingy taverns.
But what of John Fante, the other half of the young writer’s new identity? This is where it’d all begin, isn’t it? I mean, Fante Bukowski claims that Charles Bukowski changed his life, but it was John Fante who had a profound impact on (the actual) Bukowski. So, in a weird looping bit of feedback, Fante Bukowski has modeled his actual life on a character that John Fante wrote as a fantasy version of himself, but only after it was filtered through, and reinterpreted by, Charles Bukowski.
Whew, this is getting more convoluted than a Hawkman origin story!
The simplest way to describe what’s happening here is to call it ‘roman à clef.’ This is basically when a writer takes a bit of truth from their own life and wraps it in a plausible fantasy. This is precisely what both Bukowski and Fante did to create their most infamous works, as well as their own personas. John Fante’s reoccurring character Arturo Bandini was loosely based on his own life, but ultimately lived in a way that the writer only ever experienced through the writing process. Likewise, Bukowski had Henry Chinaski, a character that could be used to make the writer’s own flaws exponentially larger than they actually were. And now, in this story, Fante Bukowski was created by Kelly Perkins. But unlike his heroes, Perkins seems to desire actually living out the debaucherous, messy life he’s read so much about. Be it through stupidity or delusion, Perkins has come to take books like “Ask the Dust,” or “Ham on Rye” as actual, biographic tales of tortured young writers. As a result of not being able to see where the fiction begins, Perkins reinvents himself as the thing he thinks he needs to be in order to find success.
One of the elements that Van Sciver has infused Bukowski with is this uncanny blindness to inspiration. Despite his desperation to write, the guy would not know a story idea if it hit him in the mouth. Be it through hitchhiking, taking in a stray, or witnessing the death of his only friend, Bukowski seems oblivious to any experience worth retelling, and only finds inspiration in his anger towards jocks and his father. If he wasn’t so absorbed by his desire to become someone he’d rather be, Bukowski might actually realize that he’s lead a halfway interesting existence.
Now, what does any of this have to say about Van Sciver himself? From having a familiarity with the cartoonist’s auto-bio work, I know that, like Fante Bukowski, he dealt with a fair bit of rejection from editors early in his career. He’s discussed mailing out stacks of mini comics to publishers and other artists in an attempt to gain some sort of recognition. He’s also made reference to not liking his work from that time in his life, so maybe Bukowski is a way for the artist to examine the naive determination that he, and so many others, have experienced. I mean, we’ve all known a Fante Bukowski at some point, haven’t we? Or, worse yet, some of us have actually been him.
“Fante Bukowski” was released as part of a slate of Van Sciver publications that hit stands last year. It’s a deceptively nuanced story, one that could easily be enjoyed for what is on the surface. But, given a little close examination and a familiarity with our hero’s namesakes, you’ll discover a deep well of self-examination and commentary on the creative pursuit. Van Sciver is currently serializing a sequel to “Fante Bukowski,” which will presumably see publication in the near future.
