“Well, they dragged him from the wreckage of the Palais in bits, they tried to stick together all the bits that would fit”
This certainly sounds depressing, doesn’t it? I guess when you’re dealing with Mr. van Gogh, that can’t be helped. Vincent van Gogh: Sadness Will Last Forever (which is clearly on the cover, right, because the indicia claims the book is named without the “Vincent”) is published by Mad Cave Studios and comes in at 118 pages. It’s written by Francesco Barilli and drawn by Roberta Sacchi, who’s known as Sakka, while it’s translated by Lucy Lenzi, lettered by Giulia Gabrielli, and edited by Stefano A. Cresti. 
It was published in Italy in 2019, but it’s new to me!
Barilli chooses an unusual way to do a biography: he uses different paintings from different times in van Gogh’s life and builds very short vignettes around them, culminating each chapter with a representation of the painting. It’s a clever way to do it — as Barilli writes in the afterword, many van Gogh biographies exist and the man himself wrote an autobiography, so trying to do a “normal” one is silly. Barilli instead gives van Gogh a representation of his “madness” — it’s unclear what, exactly, ailed him — as a crow, with whom he carries on a conversation about these important moments in his life. This way, we can get some insight into the paintings themselves — Barilli notes where he makes things up, but a great deal of the book comes from letters van Gogh wrote, so Barilli probably isn’t too far off with what van Gogh thought — and how the flowed from his life experiences. It’s a harrowing experience, as van Gogh was clearly battling some demons, so his view of the world is necessarily a bit jaundiced, and of course, he ended up where he did, so it’s not going to be a happy ending.
As this is not a strict biography, the short chapters allow us to catch glimpses of how van Gogh sees the world and those in it. 
He was named after his dead brother, which can’t be good for anyone’s psyche, and in the first chapter, with him as a child by his brother’s grave, and in the chapter where we learn his father died, we get a bit of information about the complicated relationship he had with his parents, specifically his dad. He befriends a prostitute and paints her, and that chapter is wedged between the first and third, both of which are the ones about his father, as his family would not approve of the relationship, and van Gogh chooses to let her go rather than risk losing the money his brother sends to him to support him. His argument with Paul Gauguin is the fulcrum of the book, as after it, van Gogh definitely seems a bit more unmoored from the world and it’s easier to believe he would take his own life. Barilli does a good job with van Gogh’s “madness,” as van Gogh is never beyond help and crazed to the point of incoherence (at least not in this comic), but it’s clear he is out of step with the world and does not have the skills to handle it. He feels trapped by the world and can’t figure out a way out of it except by the most extreme way. Barilli doesn’t neglect the mundane parts of van Gogh’s life — wherever you see an artist, you’ll find someone paying for them because they can’t be bothered to get a real job — but it’s unclear how much van Gogh’s despair over not being able to make a living as a painter weighs on him. Like most great painters, van Gogh was too far ahead of his time, and Barilli implies that this bothers him without coming out a saying it. It’s also interesting that Barilli seems to imply that van Gogh thinks his painting has separated him from living his life to the fullest. It’s an interesting way to see it, as most artists would say that because they interact with the world so much, they’re more connected to the real world than chumps like art dealers like his brother. 
Barilli has van Gogh express a different opinion, and it’s kind of neat. It adds a nice dimension to the work.
Sakka does really cool work on the art. She has a loose, scratchy style that reflects van Gogh’s state of mind quite well. Her Vincent looks almost like a hobo, with poorly-combed hair and threadbare clothing, and I’m curious if van Gogh actually looked and dressed like that and if he did, was he doing it to present a “stereotypical artist” to the world? His self-portraits look like he’s much more put together than Sakka makes him, so I’m not sure if van Gogh actually looked that way or if Sakka is trying to present him as a “stereotypical artist”? She does a really nice job shifting between the “real” world and van Gogh’s fantasy world, as there doesn’t seem to be much distinction between the two, and it’s neat to see the paintings bleed a bit into the van Gogh’s everyday life. His madness seeps into the world, and Sakka does a really nice job making it look “normal,” except when things get very weird, as when van Gogh tells his brother about his fight with Gauguin, which takes on a bizarre, phantasmagorical nightmare that swirls over the pages. She does a really nice job with van Gogh’s despair, as he grows more and more detached from the world. She also does a nice job reproducing van Gogh’s paintings without simply copying them. She makes it less like the actual paintings and a bit more impressionistic and also more similar to the style of the rest of the book. Here’s “The Potato Eaters,” both the painting and how Sakka draws it:
Sakka does a very neat job with the art, and the book looks … mostly great. You’ll notice something that might not bug you, but bugs me a lot, and that’s the lettering. It’s in a highly stylized cursive font, and while it looks fancy, there are moments when it’s very hard to read. It’s not all difficult to read, but every once in a while, some of the letters look too similar to each other and it becomes confusing. It’s also occasionally small, which makes it harder to read, too. I know the creators want to be unusual and nifty, and I get it, but it really is hard to read far too often. I wish it were better!
Anyway, this is a pretty neat comic. It’s not great, but it is an interesting way to present moments in van Gogh’s life. It has cool art, certainly, and I like the fact that Barilli simply tries to get into van Gogh’s mind but not the more mundane aspects of his life. It’s not completely successful, but it’s still pretty keen!
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
