Welcome back, crime novel fans!
Back in January, Netflix released their stunning first season of
Babylon Berlin, a new series adapted from the novels written by Volker Kutscher. Kutscher's series is immensely popular among crime drama fans, and so it should come as no surprise to anyone in love with the genre that TV was not the only planned adaptation of his work.
Tomorrow, Titan Comics releases the graphic novel of
Babylon Berlin, adapted and illustrated by the multitalented Arne Jysch. In my
previous article about
Babylon Berlin, I promised that an interview with the man himself was soon forthcoming. If you want to stay clear of spoilers then, by all means, click away now. Mr. Jysch's thoughtful introspections on the source material will still be here waiting for you when you're done digesting.
Everyone else, settle in and keep reading:
To start, I just wanted to say that the graphic novel is so much fun. I love this brand of crime fiction, and the black and white illustration, and heavy contrast, really lends toward the era in which the story is told. On that note, I was doing some reading about the upcoming Netflix series, also based on this novel, and I have read a few claims that the real star of the story--in terms of their rendition is 1929 Berlin itself. With cinematography I often think something like that comes more naturally, maybe not in terms of recreating, but in terms of getting that across to the audience. What, if any, challenge was there for you in taking those themes from that era and translating it to your own writing for the graphic novel?
Jysch: Of course, the city of Berlin and it's citzens in the 1920s IS the star of the story. The novel series by Volker Kutscher (already six books to date) manages to mix the vibrant social and political surroundings of the time with an entertaining crime plot. That's what Kutscher does so well. The stories and characters help to open a window to the past, the reader is able to get an impression how it must have felt to live in that fascinating short time of the first ever republic on german ground. The story is cleverly set in 1929 when the new middleclass wanted to live their lives excessively after the war and the great inflation. But it takes place BEFORE the recession, when it became more obvious that the right wing nationalists gained more political influence.
Back then, the German Capital was the third largest city in the world with a population of almost 4 million. People danced away their problems in countless pleasure venues and dancehalls, drugs became more available. The novel "Der nasse Fisch" (which is the original title, translated as "The wet fish" - that's how an unsolved murder case was called by the police) already does a good job in capturing the mood of the time, so I could concentrate on doing the visual interpretation and the main challenge was to compress all the information and the storyline from a 500 page novel to a 200 page graphic version without loosing the heart of the Idea.
When I was writing the adaptation and starting the visual research I plunged into the world of Weimar Berlin as deep as I could with studying picture books - there are a lot! - visiting exhibitions like the Berlin historical police collection and museum apartments which are originally furnished like in the early twentieth century. I sat in cars of the era and carefully listened to the lyrics of 1920s music.
I was wondering how much do I have to show, how much details are necessary to give the reader that time travelling feel. Whenever possible I used poses and bodylanguage of the 1920s to get across the right feel of the time, maybe on a subliminal level. How they held ther cigarettes? How did they take their hats off and carried it when it wasn't on their heads? I was trying to portray iconic silhouettes of the people and was looking for distinctive little things that are different from the present.
All of it together created this slightly exaggerated Interpretation of the era and I found it amazing how less lines are necessary in a rendering, once you hit the correct basic shapes of a haircut, hat, folds in a three piece suit, traffic light ... or whatever makes the atmosphere of a scene. And then the rest is done by the imagination of the viewer.
What was it about Kutscher's original work that made you think, "Yes, I need to recreate this in the form of a graphic novel"; What gave you that vision?
Jysch: In fact, when the original novel came out in 2008, I already had outlined a little exposé about a crime story in the 1920s Berlin by myself. It was more inspired by Imgard Keuns Novel "Das kunstseidene Mädchen" and the life of scandalous dancer Anita Berber. I actually intended to turn it into a movie, but when I heard a review of "Der nasse Fisch" (The original title of "Babylon Berlin) on a radio show. I thought: alright, now, somebody has done it! The novel is so perfectly executed in not only telling a suspenseful investigation plot but unfolding a painstakingly researched dipicting of Berlin in 1929 with all the genre elements which reminded me of my favorite crime noirish movies. Kutscher dares to show some sex and crime and spectacular action scenes that spices up the narrative and make it feel classic and modern at the same time. When I read the novel it already unfolded a movie in my mind. I soon made contact to Volker Kutscher and it turned out that Volker is a comic lover. First I had to finish my first graphic Novel "Wave and Smile" which was published in 2012. Kutscher really liked it and there was a lot of talking and meeting which helped shape the Idea and the approach of a possible adaptation of his novel. Although I was hoping that he is able to write the comic script himself he had neither the exerience nor the time to do it, so I started writing it myself in 2013 but let Kutscher check my drafts when ever possible, so that I stayed true to his vision.
One of the things I love about graphic novels is their ability to take a lot of the descriptive exposition from a novel and translate it into pictures through each scene that really support the arcs of a given story; the act of showing and telling, but without sound. That said, when collaborating for a graphic novel, or this one in particular, what is that process like--determining what portions of a particular scene from the novel needs to be illustrated in order to really capture not only the story you're trying to convey, but as a frame-by-frame support for the accompanying dialogue and narrative?
Jysch: The thing that Kutscher said to me when I started the adaptation was: Take your favorite scenes and built your version around it. And that's what I basically did. I disassembled the whole book down to it's dramatic skeleton and than [sic], like a jigsaw, "fleshed out" the story again with viewer parts. I analyzed every scene in aspects of "how can I convey it visually" or enhance it in an interesting way of showing instead of telling. Unfortunately, when you are dealing with an investigation crime plot you have to give a lot of information to the reader and I limited myself to 200 pages for economical reasons. So my first choice of changing something from the novel was to introduce a first-person narration by the main character because I felt it's a more natural way of giving the reader the needed information. This style of hearing the thoughts not only is a tribute to the noir crime classics but provides the possibility of juxtaposing text and Image to create a third meaning. For example, I can show him smiling while we hear that he feels very uncomfortable in the situation or when he tries to recap all the given information in a scene (which can become rather boring) I show him getting deeper in a street labyrinth with some dark figure on his track. Whenever possible I used some visual enhancements to show the Idea. So that's why there are newspaper pages, letters, collages of documents and flashbacks in black slihouettes. I really enjoy to find the right angle and point of view to capture the feel of the given moment. The excitment is drawn a lot from contrast as well, which is not much possible in a written novel. For example: When Gereon Rath, the protagonist in one particular scene witnesses a lot of violence done to a crook by his chief in the vice division I show Rath smoothly cleaning his hat from dust at the same time.
As a segway from the previous question, what, if any, aspects of the novel were passed over or didn't translate as well that you wish you could have included but either didn't have space for or couldn't find a way to make it seamlessly work within the graphic novel format?
Jysch: One entertaining part of Volker Kutschers way of telling a story is to vary the point of view of the narration. In some chapters of the original novel the reader doesn't know which perspective he actually is about to hear. We only later have the chance to learn whoms perspective that was. I tried to transfer that idea, but had to figure out that it's difficult to accomplish in a visual medium without confusing the audience. For instance, the original novel starts with some mysterious person taking a poisened suicide pill to keep a secret while beeing tortured. I did some sketches for that scene but had to cut it from the final version because it doesn't seem to work. I couldn't achieve enough emotional involvement with the character, which is somehow crucial at the beginning of the story. Another sequence that was cut from the final version of the graphic novel is the backstory of the train waggons in which the Sorokin Gold is hidden. It was a nice six page scene with a rendezvous between Rath and the russian countess. But I had a tough deadline to deliver the final drawings and since it would have been a long scene which doesnt really contributes to the story, and furthermore placed after the actual showdown, it was omitted.
Finally, even though we won't get to view the series until the end of January on Netflix, I was wondering if you could tell me what sets the graphic novel apart from not only the source material but also the upcoming series? What will readers of your work get from it that they won't necessarily get from either the novel or the upcoming series?
I watched all of the 16 episodes of the TV show. And The most obvious difference in the versions is that where I had to compress it to the essence of the story they had to expand it to a broader view and invented some more storylines. So the original novel, in the end, is somewhere inbetween.
My version is more personal, closer to the emotions of the main character Gereon Rath. I don't want to spoil too much but is has to do with the relationship to his Father and how Rath is deperately trying to become a member of the popular homicide division.
Another little difference is my tribute to the revolutionary novelties of the internationally respected Berlin homicide division of the time. This is connected to one real life personality: Superintendant Inspector Ernst Gennat who is a legend and nicknamed "Buddha" because of his heavy appearance. He invented a lot of the modern forensic procedures and file archives. I expanded his role a little bit, he is neither as present in the original novel nor in the TV series.
When I heard that there will be a large TV Series just when I started drawing the first draft, the information gave me the inspiration for a certain artistic decision which became one of the main benefits of the graphic novel. Usually my drawings are a sort of storyboards for the movie in the mind of the reader, but since I knew there would be an extensive movie version I concentrated on not only telling the story by the scenes, the "acting" and camera angles itself but primarily by the style of the drawings. I tried to immerse the reader by a style that borrows a lot by contemporary 1920s artworks and Illustrations. The kind of shadings, for example, is strongly inspired by the watercolor painting of artist Jeanne Mammen, who created a lot of iconic imagery of the roaring Berlin nightlife. This is something hard to achieve with moviemaking.
-A big thank you to Arne Jysch for taking time to answer my questions about his adaptation of Babylon Berlin, and to all of you for reading! Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Get your copy of Babylon Berlin: The Graphic Novel tomorrow from Titan Comics.