Making Comics by Pier Dola

Self-published on GlobalComix (free)

Summary

Three men hailing from different walks of life unite to create a comic book: Organic Metal. There’s Omar, the script writer, son of a rich Indian real estate speculator; André, the artist, Haitian underground comix adept; and Dommy, the colorist, fragile blondie with a bright future ahead. To each their own, as they all try to cope with their fears of one another while attempting to express their crafts.

Around the book

Making Comics was published in English on Dola’s GlobalComix page in October 2024. A Spanish version was made available a month later. Dola’s art is deeply inspired by the works of Francis Bacon, with its deformed, quasi-caricatural visages. He has published two books with Fantagraphics (From Granada to Cordoba and Corona Bible) and has had at least two entries in Spread Love Comix, an underground publication. 

On the book

As a primal response to the fear of death, Dola posits that men have built discriminatory systems to ensure their own survival. The fear of others was birthed from the fear of death. Rather than facing this existential fear, men would rather classify humanity into intangible, inescapable classes, from which the richest segments of society can profit off the work of the poorest segments of society. We became our own predator. 

But there is a way out of this dreadful cycle. Once we accept that we are all part of the same civilization, once we take down these barriers, we can finally start to trust one another and dispel the primal fear of death. 

That’s at least the virtuous and optimistic idea vehiculated behind the opening sequence of this book, Organic but Not Mental, the epilogue of a socialist tale, portraying two brothers coming to terms with their fears. 

Organic but Not Mental is the magnum opus of André and nobody will ever get to read it. Making Comics is the story of how this unknown graphic novel came to life, how the path of three radically different men came to cross, and of how we resolutely stay trapped in schemes that were set in our childhood.

André is the collateral victim of Haiti’s history. Once the slaves revolted and rid the country of the white colonizers, western countries vowed to occupy and constraint the country in various ways. André never knew his biological father, who was shot on sight by a foreign soldier. A few years later, her mother married a Spanish soldier, but sadly passed away in childbirth. André was then molested by his stepdad for five years, his little eternity in hell. 

This has left André with a vicious distrust against everyone, crippling anxiety, and thunderous anger within his head. He hates the rich who profit from the poor and he has deeply rooted trust issues with authority figures.

He found solace in the works of Francis Bacon, since he recognized himself in the torment of Bacon’s subjects. André took up painting, but being a perfectionist, he would often throw away his work. It never looked quite right. In his teenage years, he discovered Alan Moore and saw that comics could be more than simple adventures. It could mean something. With these two masters nourishing his imagination, André was able to pick up a brush and draw his anger away. 

During a chance meeting at a squat house party, he would first meet Ana, his future girlfriend. André being cold and distant with everyone, this was a poor first impression. However, when Ana came back on another occasion, she finally cracked André’s shell, for better or worse.

Ana also has her fair share of personal trauma, as she lost her brother in a car crash when she was just a child. The event left her with a hole in her life, something she could never come to term with. She quickly delved into psychology textbooks, which then informed her socialist worldviews. André initially wasn’t certain about working with Omar, a rich Indian man, but Ana encouraged him to take up this gig.

Omar owes his good fortune and most of his worldviews to Kay Reza, his father, a wealthy real estate mogul. Kay emigrated to the US from India and is the embodiment of the American dream. For him, there was nothing more natural and justified than to evict tenants and make the poor miserable. The rich deserve to get richer and the poor deserve to be abused. 

With this upbringing, nothing could ever be out of reach for Omar Reza. So when he learned about Rob Liefeld, a very famous (and allegedly rich) comic book artist, Omar instantly thought he could make it in the comic book world as a writer. How hard can it be? He also elected to start a Youtube channel project where he would interview comic book artists. In two words, Omar is a fame chaser, despite the best counsel of his younger brother, Rezart.

With a vapid dream lodged in his mind, Omar took on DeviantArt to contact an artist and a colorist, a team to make his project come true. He hoped it would eventually lead to a movie deal. Imagine!

Dommy, short for Dominique, is a French cartoonist. He’s the second child of a clothing designer mom and an architect dad. When they divorced in his childhood, the experience left him with a deep sense of insecurity. It did not get any better in public school, where he was mocked on the daily. 

Everyone threatened him and he had no way to fight back, until one day he discovered the work of Riss, a well-reputed Charlie Hebdo caricaturist. Perhaps he could pick up the pen and finally get back at all those bullies. His dad was also an artist of sorts, so it seemed natural to pursue the path of a cartoonist. 

He soon enrolled in a prestigious Angoulême art school and started collaborating with Dukkuty, an underground comix artist, on projects such as My Shitty Pony. Their working relationship was good on the surface, but Dommy would always loathe being around this convicted pedophile. 

So when he was given the chance to work with Omar on his little project, it was like an escape exit had just appeared before him. He jumped right in.

After Omar shared his script with his newly found team, they met on Zoom to discuss it and trade ideas. Or so he thought. André proceeded to tear a hole in his shitty b-movie action flick script. Omar, unused to criticism, since everyone around him would always fold to his every whim, starts defending his work like a whining child. 

Omar is not willing to give away power. He makes André understand that he’s only there to draw, not get creative with the script. A master-slave relationship, a rich-poor relationship. It was from this point that André would begin aggressively loathing Omar for what he metaphorically represents. The hate is mutual for Omar.

Instead of working on the book, André goes to the local bookstore to sneer at commercial publications such as manga and the graphic novels section. His internal monologue is one of deep resentment against Omar, up until he finds books written by Alan Moore. While reading these books, he has the distinct feeling his work won’t actually ever amount to anything great. He’s probably not destined for great things like Omar is. 

Dommy is not without fault. While trying to watch a movie with Dukkuty, he has denigrating thoughts against both Omar and André, even up to the point of racism. Since he’s insecure and not used to confrontation, that’s as far as it’ll get for him. 

Ana understands André’s anger and agrees that the script is horrible. She suggests they turn it into a socialist tale where the moral would be that we have to trust each other in order to go beyond our primal fears. André likes the idea, whether the idea is the new script direction or confronting Omar in his face.

Which he does the next time the team meets over Zoom. André quickly pivots the meeting into his new story. Seeing opposition, he then suggests he’ll just work on this new idea alone. Omar is so enraged by this behavior, by the fact that his “slave” escaped, that he threatens to sue him and calls him the n-word, hard R.

Naturally, André is quite upset at this turn of events. But he quickly takes control over himself, as he is probably used to this kind of abuse, and starts working on his project. Omar, being the top dog he thinks he is, calls his brother and wants to contact a lawyer, but he’s quickly berated by his father for the lack of success he has in his life. Dommy writes a sympathetic email to André and promises to never work with Omar again. 

Unfortunately for André, while he would achieve his manuscript, his life would end in a dramatic downward spiral. André being a perfectionist and having anger issues, he always felt violently dissatisfied with his work output. It never felt quite right. His manuscript was finished, but it still felt hollow. 

Ana suffered through André’s abusive behavior, but finally decided enough was enough and broke up with him not long before he finally finished his book. She also stopped paying the bills to their apartments, and since André was always unwilling to find stable employment, he was soon evicted. 

Access to his apartment was blocked, he never could get a hold of his work, and soon enough a cleanup crew found his manuscript and threw it away. While walking in the street, he was the victim of racial profiling, beat up by cops and jailed. He would spend the rest of his life homeless and with a debilitating cough. 

Omar always had a second chance at anything. Being a member of a rich family has its perks, like never having to truly learn any lessons from your failed ventures. He would end up a decently successful comic writer and animation director. 

Echoing the beliefs of his father, he would become infamous for a controversial Paw Patrol episode where a cop would kill a citizen in the George Floyd fashion, with the moral of the story being to respect authority. Long ago, he also published the book he was working on with André and Dommy, and it’s the most cliché thing you can think of. The villain is also clearly André, while the hero is blonde Dommy. Omar is insecure about his Indian origins, even if he doesn’t outright admit to it.

Omar has an incredibly racist daughter that constantly berates him with particularly offensive racist slurs. As a young kid, Omar never took those insults personally, he let them slide, something his brother always hated about him. Even after all these years, he distinctly remembers André and still feels anger and resentment towards him. Some wounds never heal if we don’t let them.

As for Dommy, he too found success, perhaps more so than Omar. Contrary to Dukkuty, who quickly dwindled into irrelevance once Dommy left him to his own devices. Dommy and Dukkuty would meet one last time at a French comic book festival, where Dommy was the main guest at the Dargaud booth. 

Dukkuty came up to him to beg for a job. Dommy didn’t give him anything, there was no way in hell he would work again with this convicted pedophile. The reunion turned sour when Dommy noticed Dukkuty staring intently at his young daughter. After this awkward event, Dommy went right back to signing his fan’s copies of his book. He had a career, a beautiful wife and child, what’s the point of dwelling on ghosts from the past? It is strongly suggested that Dukkuty ends up assaulting his daughter.

One key aspect of this book is the idea that our upbringing will dictate how we act out our adult lives.

André, after having been molested for several years, being raised in poverty and unable to trust authority figures (may it be people or institutions), is unable to work together with Omar.

André fears Omar, he is the embodiment of the primal fear of death. Through Omar, André ascertains the discriminatory structures artificially built by men, the vast gulf between his poverty and Omar’s rich upbringing, and the arbitrary authority figure. Since he fears all those concepts, he also fears and hates Omar.

On the other side of the Zoom meeting, Omar also hates André for what he embodies: he is poor, has no formal education, and is not afraid to oppose authority. Omar’s father taught him to loathe the poor and to bend others to his will, something he will value for his entire life. Omar sees himself as the master and André as the slave.

Early on in his life, Omar was also instilled with the distinct idea that anything he set out to do could be accomplished. It’s fairly easy to think this when you have rich, powerful parents. Omar is an entrepreneur, but also a poser. He sees other artists not as potential allies or friends, but as tools to use to further his career, his potential stardom. Though he eventually understood that passion is the key to a successful project, not just money.

Dommy has been left with deep insecurities once his parents divorced. He’s generally unable to stand up for himself or for others. The worst he can do is think ill of someone else. It was true in school, where he was unable to fend off the bullies; in work with Dukkuty, as he always kept his criticism of Dukkuty’s lifestyle or of André’s brash behavior to himself; even in his years as a comic book celebrity, as he still was unable to confront Dukkuty when he started fantasizing about Dommy’s daughter.

Additionally, let’s not forget that Dommy has had two artistic parents who were also quite wealthy. Thus, it was easy for Dommy to entertain the life of an artist when barriers such as encouragement and income didn’t block him at all. He was enrolled in the best art school and had the best tools to work with. In a sense, Dommy is priviledged.

While at first glance we may feel that Omar and Dommy won big at the game of life, it is far from so. Omar is still incredibly resentful at André for his defiance of his authority and Dommy is still unable to defend himself or his loved ones. Both can hide behind their careers to avoid having to deal with these issues.

André doesn’t have this luxury. As a homeless minority, he is at the mercy of societal pressures. Everyone steps on him, spits on him, ignores him. He now belongs to the lowest class of society. Unable to focus, he let anger and anxiety wreak havoc on his sanity. And yet, his unpublished graphic novel resonates with a dream where men trust one another instead of harming one another. 

It’s very hard to go beyond our fears and trust each other. No character in this book truly does that. But one must imagine what their lives would be if they had. If Omar was not such a control freak, he could have let André contribute his ideas. If André was not so confrontational, Omar would probably have been more open about his feedback. If Dommy stood up for himself, he would have parted ways with Dukkuty sooner. But those scenarios would only occur if every character came to terms with their traumatic past and stopped seeing others as insurmountable threats to either avoid or destroy.

Making Comics is available to read for free: https://globalcomix.com/c/making-comics-1/chapters/en/1/1