Blue In Green
Ram V., writer; Anand R.K., artist; John Pearson, color artist; Aditya Bidikar, letterer; Tom Muller, designer
Image Comics, 2020
As a jazz musician and critic I admit that a graphic novel about a jazz musician that takes its title from a Miles Davis/Bill Evans composition and its cover design from classic Blue Note Records album covers is already at least halfway there for me. But there is a lot more going on here than name-checking classic jazz. It's a story about the price paid for career sucess in jazz music, and the obsessive drive it requires.
Erik Dieter has had moderate success (at best) as a saxophonist. As the story opens we see him teaching a Saturday morning class at a small New York music college. His routine is interrupted by receiving news of the death of his estranged mother. He comes home for the funeral, feeling pursued by ghosts from his childhood. In her old house he encounters a mysterious figure, so dreamlike he does not believe his eyes--and a photograph of a saxophonist he does not recognize. But he must have been important to his mother.
His obsessive search for the saxophonist's identity leads him down a dark, lonely path to discover surprises about his family history, as well as fresh musical inspiration. But it comes at a terrible cost, as a sort of family curse comes to claim him.
Supernatural aspects aside, Ram V.'s story has a lot to say about families and the choices artists make in pursuit of their art. Anand R.K. (with the help of John Pearson's colors) provides evocative impressionistic art, reminiscent of the great Bill Sienkiewicz. Altogether a striking piece of work.
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