‘Martin Scorsese’ GN (review)

Written and Illustrated by Amazing Améziane
Published by Titan Comics

I remember reviewing the Quentin Tarantino book by Amazing Améziane just a few months ago. It was interesting learning some of the facts and irritating at some other points. I didn’t like the way it was presented (with Tarantino as a bartender and narrator) so I was a little hesitant to pick this up at first.

It seemed like it was going to be much of the same as the Tarantino book: Martin Scorsese would be our narrator and he would be telling us his life story. I started to read it and I had realized that I fell for the writer and artist’s schtick once again. It was very much like the Tarantino book.

And because of that, I was unsure how much I would like it.

But I like Scorsese as a director so it couldn’t be all bad…could it?

“For as far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a filmmaker…” That is literally how the book starts out in a clever riff on the classic beginning of the film Goodfellas. I wasn’t  sure how the rest of the book was going to go, but I did enjoy that nod.

And the facts of the book are very interesting. It is so wild to hear how Scorsese grew up and how a lot of what he experienced made its way into the films he eventually created. We get to see his Italian American roots through his family and especially his parents (his mother was quite a character and ended up in a few of this films).

His upbringing and formative years are shown here and it shows how he evolved into the filmmaker that he eventually became. It shows his predilections and what he was interested in and how it correlates to the worlds that he created.

This book also delves into some personal details that a lot of people may not know about. He was very sick with asthma for example and as he got older it affected certain parts of his life. At one time, it started to look like he would not be able to direct Raging Bull because of how it was affecting him. There are so many details of the personal aspects of his life that I have to give points to Amazing Améziane. The research on these books are second to none and the information is presented so you can follow the timeline easily on how all of these events in Scorsese’s life unfolded.

Eventually, we get to see Scorsese start working on some of those famous film projects. We get to see how he got involved with filmmaking and how it led to those very first steps on film sets. We get to see him discover his craft, and how he made some artistic choices. We get to see him meet his collaborators for the first time, including Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. We get to see them making the legendary films that he made. We get to see his struggles and his firsthand passion for what he decided to do with it life. And it is very interesting for the most part for sure.

We also get to see a lot of the struggles that he faces making those films. We get to see some of the struggles that he had in his life. All of these things are very interesting and compelling especially of you like this filmmaker. The only problem is in a book like this is that there isn’t much of a narrative and the concluding everything is a bit flat. Also flat, is any sense of character development. The Martin Scorsese character is drawn and composed to look like a paper thin representative of the man himself and it is a little strange.

If you ever wondered what Martin Scorsese would be like in a comic book, well, here you go. It is an expansive look at the man who hates Marvel movies. But here we are. Who knows what will come next? A graphic novel about the life of Francis Ford Coppola? Oh, wait.

Either way, the storytelling is boring but the facts are amazing, and kept me interested enough.

I even learned a few things!

RATING: B