Vita Obscura

by Simon Schwartz

Based on the statement of Art Spiegelman that the future of comics lie in their past, Vita Obscura finds its influences in the early American Sunday newspaper comics sections of the 1910s and 1920s. In each episode Simon Schwartz pays homage to an unknown, eccentric but, nonetheless true biography: The reader is introduced to the hobo and only emperor of the USA, Joshua Norton, the diverse doppelganger of the son of Ivan the Terrible, the blind musical genius Moondog, as well as the horrible monster Pulgasari. And who removed the brain of Albert Einstein?

Appropriate to its curriculum vitae, this series of comics always reinvents itself--whether as a collage, charcoal sketch or as a relief.

Genres: Comics

72 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Simon Schwartz was born in Erfurt in 1982 and grew up in the Kruezburg neighborhood of Berlin. In 2004, he relocated to Hamburg to study illustration at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. Five years later, he had completed his debut graphic novel.

Reviews

[Julie Rylie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reloading my Simon Schwartz current obsession...

This book was even better than the last one...

This one was about people that got forgotten in history... super interesting, intriguing stories with always different graphics to illustrate it.

Another work of art!

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun and interesting collection of cartoons done in the style of half-page comics from the old Sunday comic sections of newspapers with short biographies and vignettes of obscure and minor figures in history. Each comic had a unique artistic style.

One of my favorites was Eight Bizarre Causes of Death of Burmese leaders. One was beaten to death by a farmer after he stole a cucumber--and was thereafter known as the Cucumber King. Another was gored by a water buffalo during a military exercise. Two died after being respectively stomped and sat on by elephants. One chose to drink poison rather than be stabbed to death, one was strangled by a lasso with which he tried to capture an elephant, and another was accidently beheaded by his servant as they both chased an elephant spirit. The last died laughing himself to death after a Venetian on a business trip informed him that Venice was a free city-state without a king. It ends with a cutout to make your own killer elephant to play with.

[Sergio Frosini · Rating 5 out of 5]

ok, col mio tedesco capisco una parola su cinque quando va bene, ma questa serie di tavole, ognuna dedicata ad un qualche personaggio storico più o meno noto, più o meno curioso, con la sua varietà di stili, con l'originalità della paginazione si gode tantissimo anche balbettando