The Real Thing – ft. Gur Benshemesh (Part 4)

Welcome back to the Real Thing and part four of our chat with Gur Benshemesh.  Today we talk about the tension of making frenemies of our enemies.  Details of Silence & Co. will be discussed during the interview and may spoil parts of the story for those who have not yet read the work.

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So, in the book, Agent—actually, that’s a question I should ask: what’s the full name of the FBI agent who’s trying to capture Alex?  I tried to go back and look for it, but I think I keep missing it.

[Laughs].  It’s Tom Fowler, but I think we only mention it at the very beginning of the book and never again.

Okay, so Alex has this tense relationship with Agent Fowler, but it’s also a very familiar one because they’ve known each other for years.  Ultimately, Fowler ends up helping Alexander.  Why?

Going back to nonfiction, in organized crime and espionage, the two sides are so close by necessity.  You can’t be this paragon of policing and never talk to anyone who’s slightly shady, because you won’t ever make out what’s going on.  To a certain extent, there’s a give-and-take relationship, and I think historically, police have respected criminals who are really good criminals—people who don’t hurt innocents necessarily, or are very hard to catch.  There’s that cat-and-mouse relationship that both sides know.  I think that level of respect and familiarity is something that you see again and again.  The Whitey Bulger cases are sort of the most famous example that are coming up now.

The Real Thing – ft. Gur Benshemesh (Part 3)

Welcome back to the Real Thing and part three of our chat with Gur Benshemesh.  Today we talk about the the drug business in South America, and the sexual appeal of smart women.  Details of Silence & Co. will be discussed during the interview and may spoil parts of the story for those who have not yet read the work.

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The bulk of the story takes place in Columbia and you do a great job showing how pervasive and institutionalized the drug market is there.  You show these street gangs kind of taking over the roles that big drug cartels once had.  Does that reflect the actual situation on the ground over there?

I really like South America.  I spent a fair amount of time there and visually, it’s an amazing place.  It’s got a really amazing energy there, and I thought the story benefited from tapping into that energy, and contrasting it to New York.

In terms of the gangs, when I was at USC, I did a very interesting general education course all about urban street gangs and it was taught by a fascinating professor who was this little, nerdy, college professor-looking guy.  He had spent six years for sociology purposes with the Mara Salvatrucha, which is the most hardcore Salvadorian street gang in L.A—crazy, crazy guys who drive-by’s and stuff.  It was one of the most fascinating terms I had in college and it left me with a long-term interest in this topic.

The Real Thing – ft. Gur Benshemesh (Part 2)

Welcome back to the Real Thing and part two of our chat with Gur Benshemesh.  Today we talk about the tension of having a moral compass in the mafia, and when killing your family may be the most sensible option.  Details of Silence & Co. will be discussed during the interview and may spoil parts of the story for those who have not yet read the work.

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When we meet Alexander Marazano, the protagonist of Silence & Co., he’s already pretty disillusioned by the work he does and yet he seems pretty committed to the work.  How do you explain that tension?

In terms of the character arc that I was trying to work with Alex, we meet him at a very interesting point.  He’s in his late twenties and he’s done the mob thing and the army thing and now he’s back [in the mob] and at the top of his game, but he’s starting to question it.  There is money, there is women, and there is power and there is big houses, but there’s always a cost to everything to being part of that world and maintaining that power.  He sees Vincent, his dad and this big mob boss, and Saul, his uncle and this rich and powerful mob figure, and he’s not sure whether he wants to follow in their footsteps and become the biggest and baddest name in the mafia, or whether it’s not for him and he wants to go off and find something on his own that isn’t a legacy from his family.

He sees that yes, there is power and money and it’s glamorous, but the day-to-day is simply not worth it.  That’s the discovery he makes, but every person has to make that decision for himself, right?  Donald Trump apparently still needs more money and more power and bigger hair and more hairspray.

The Real Thing – ft. Gur Benshemesh (Part 1)

Gur Benshemesh, a native Londoner who now lives in Amsterdam, started his career in screenwriting.  His short screenplay, Morgan Street Watch Company, received critical acclaim and won prizes at several film festivals, including the Colorado Film Awards, the New York Screenplay Contest, and the Oregon Film Festival.  Now he’s venturing into the comic book world.  His first graphic novel, Silence & Co., follows Alexander Marazano, a member of an Italian mobster family, as he makes his name as an internationally renowned hit man.  Along the way, he comes to terms with the nature of his work and his own moral compass.

This interview has been edited and abridged for purposes of length.  Details of Silence & Co. will be discussed during the interview and may spoil parts of the story for those who have not yet read the work.

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Silence & Co. is your first graphic novel, yet you got some pretty big names to collaborate with you on the project.  Ron Randall, who does the art, is a mainstay at both DC and Marvel, and your letterer John Workman and cover artist Steve Lieber have both won Eisner Awards.  How did you get them to work with you?

Funnily enough, these things are sort of one step at a time.  I got talking to a couple of guys who put me in touch with Ron; they thought he’d be a good creative match for the project.  He read the script and reacted very strongly to it; he’s kind of into that action-y, hit man, secret agent type thing.  He did some test pages for us and they just looked fantastic.  Once the art started coming through, Ron, I believe knows John Workman through some other work they did together and he sent him a couple pages and John was really, really excited about the book.  Again, it was just a dream—it worked surprisingly smoothly.  From what I understand, Ron is a studio mate at Periscope Studios with Steve Lieber, so we got him to do the cover, which I think came out fantastically.

Silence & Co. – Review

By: Gur Benshemesh (story), Ron Randall (art)

The Story: If you’re going to be a killer, at least let it be the work you love to do.

The Review: Ah…pulp fiction—the grandfather of comics.  We throw the term, “pulp,” around a lot in this biz, yet I don’t think we have a really precise definition of what it actually means.  For most of us, we recognize pulp by the feeling it evokes more than any salient characteristics.  It’s edgy, sensational, slightly exploitive; it appeals more to our id than our intellect.  Overall, it has a wildly independent, distant streak; it doesn’t quite care if you love it or not.

That makes Alexander Julius Marazano the ideal protagonist for Silence & Co., a piece of modern-day pulp.  You can’t really call Alex a hero in the traditional sense, nor can you even really call him an antihero.  Alex is a professional killer, plain and simple, who does what he does because he’s good at it and it makes good money.  While he does have his noble qualities, he tends to downplay them, preferring to see himself as he is.  “The killer with a conscience, eh?” another character remarks.

“Something like that,” he says.

“Not so much to actually stop killing, obviously.”

“I’ve made peace with what I am.”