So This Exists: Another Day of Life

It was while researching histories of Angola for my book The Benefit of Steel that I first encountered Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuściński and his memoir of Angola in 1975, Another Day of Life. I enjoyed that book immensely - it was the most welcoming book I read about Angola. Despite the subject matter surrounding the violence of the nation's independence, he wrote about people and places in such a way that I could easily grasp the situation.

I later learned that Mr. Kapuściński is a controversial figure in journalism. Although he took many photographs in his career of international reporting, apparently he took precious few notes. It seems much of what he wrote was concocted after the fact, so it's hard to know how much weight to place on any of the quotes in his stories. The debate on whether his work is non-fiction, fiction or a hybrid will no doubt continue.

I was stupefied to discover that in 2018 an animated movie was made of Another Day of Life. I try to keep informed about subjects concerning Angola, particularly in pop culture, so how did an entire movie get past me? An animated one, at that! It's quite an international production, apparently filmed in Cuba, Portugal & Angola by two directors (one Polish, one Spanish) and some form of participation between Belgium, France, Germany and Hungary. Fitting for the work international correspondent, I suppose.

Just as the debate surrounding Kapuściński's work has questioned how much was fact and how much fiction, the film version of Another Day of Life is an appealing blend of animation and live action. Even then, the animation was very clearly created through a rotoscoping process (said process invented by another Polish man - Max Fleischer). The Angola of 1975 doesn't exist any more, so recreating through animation seems an elegant solution. And, of course, people debate the truth in Kapuściński's works, so a sense of unreality will placate them.

The film certainly does not challenge Kapuściński; he's depicted in the film as very much the heroic journalist. His observations and decisions on what information to reveal about the situation in Angola is framed to make him a righteous man. But there was so much more going on in the original book than what the film could capture; the film is concerned mostly with him going to the frontlines in the war, but his descriptions of day-to-day life in Luanda were just as riveting to me.

Another Day of Life is quite an oddity - how many other journalistic works have been made into animated films? If you're interested in Kapuściński or Angola, obviously you'll want to see this. If you aren't certain, then I suggest reading the book Another Day of Life -- I think it will help you make up your mind.

RIP: David Anthony Kraft

Last week on May 19th, David Anthony Kraft passed away. He was a comic book writer who worked primarily for Marvel Comics in the 1970s and 80s.

My school and public libraries had copies of a 4-volume set he wrote - books about Spider-Man, Captain America, the Fantastic Four and the Hulk - which reprinted classic stories featuring those characters alongside Kraft's histories. In those days libraries carried precious few books about comic books, so those four were books I treasured.

Kraft is likely going to be best-remembered for his work on Defenders, particularly for the span of issues drawn by Keith Giffen (back in his faux Kirby days) which included an epic story with the Zodiac as its villains. It's an offbeat story - certainly following in the footsteps of Steve Gerber's work - and maybe the peak of Kraft's quality. His very goofy 'Defenders for a Day' was another memorable tale.

He also co-created Devil-Slayer, the character so nice, they created him thrice! I wrote about the oddity behind Devil-Slayer's many recreations here.

Kraft also ran the magazine Comics Interview, which ran lengthy interviews with major comic book personalities. They've become invaluable as a historical record and insight into comic book creators.

As a quick tribute for the Marvel Appendix, I wrote up a profile on a minor character from Kraft's Savage She-Hulk: Jill Stevens.

Rest in peace, Mr. Kraft.

RIP: Norman Lloyd

Norman Lloyd passed away last week having reached the astonishing age of 106!

He was one of the last great links to Hollywood's past as he had worked with Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin, three of cinema's greatest names. He also worked in stage and on radio - there's an interesting episode of the Listener's Playhouse called "No Program Tonight" which is a metatextual journey through a radio cast rebelling against their director's hackneyed script. And I suppose Star Trek fans will remember him best as Jean-Luc Picard's mentor Richard Galen.

He was an invaluable resource for information on Alfred Hitchcock because he worked with him as an actor and as a producer (the latter role on Alfred Hitchcock Presents). I was very pleased that he appeared on the DVD extras for Hitchcock's Saboteur to discuss his role in that film as the antagonist, and vividly explained how the movie's climactic fall from the Statue of Liberty was created. He also had a terrific anecdote about working with Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin's film Limelight.

He had a long and interesting career. Rest in peace Mr. Lloyd.