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‘Gianni Foltini’
Pen Before Ink #3, Joseph Reynolds 2002 :o
Page 1, 5 Panels:
Panel 1: (This panel takes the width of the page.) It’s a view of the Grand Canal in Venice. All types of boats are moving about: gondolas, water taxis, cargo movers, rowboats, fishing boats, etc. Get a book on Venice.
CAP: Sometimes, I find lovely things.
Panel 2: (This panel takes the width of the page and is about half the page tall.) We are in a much smaller canal looking out into the traffic of the Grand Canal in the background. On our left and right are nondescript buildings. In the water coming towards us is Gianni in a very small wooden boat with a tiny outboard motor. Gianni is in his late 60’s. He has a full head of grey hair. He is wearing heavy work clothes.
CAP: I have quite a collection at home: jewelry, coins, swords, glass…
Panel 3: (Panels 3, 4, and 5 are about 1/3 page tall and make up the bottom row.) A bit closer on Gianni; he’s lazily looking up at nothing.
CAP: …photos, letters, other personal effects.
Panel 4: The little boat has passed us and is proceeding up the small canal. We are almost looking down into the boat but can still see where the canal takes a turn in the distance. GIANNI FOLTINI is printed on the back of his coat.
CAP: I have to laugh every time I hear tourists commenting on our beautiful blue-green waters.
Panel 5: Same view, Gianni is a little further up the canal leaving a subtle churning in the water.
CAP: It must be from those little blue discs people use in their toilets...
Page 2, 5 Panels: (similar layout to Page 1.)
Panel 1: Gianni is mooring his little boat along the edge of a stone sidewalk. Next to him is a large piece of steel sticking out of the water vertically and perpendicular to the sidewalk. It rises just about as high as the sidewalk (3 feet/1meter). We are eye level with the top edge of the steel retaining wall (cofferdam) and can’t quite see over it.
No dialog.
Panel 2: We’re above the sidewalk looking down on Gianni’s back who is looking down into a section of canal that has been drained of water. To the left we can see the steel retaining wall and the front of Gianni’s boat. The bottom of the canal is a grey sludge with two men in rubber suits and everyday hats holding a large hose. One is about 40, the other 20. It’s Italy, both smoke. On the opposite side of the empty canal large hoses disappear over another retaining wall. On the other side of THAT is a barge with a pump and backhoe built onto it floating on the water. (The cofferdam is made up of vertical ‘sleeves’ of steel no more than an inch thick that interlock.)
CAP: …we find those every once in a while too.
Panel 3: We’re looking up at Gianni from the empty canal as he is looking down at us with his hands in his pockets. Simple 3-4 story houses in the background.
CAP: When my grandfather started the business royalty from other countries still came to Venice.
Panel 4: A shot of four men in their late 20’s on a barge (OLD fashioned pump, no backhoe) in heavy work clothes. Three of them are each pulling up a line from the water and the forth is holding a long pole with a hook on the end. They are all crammed close together.
CAP: A Duke from England disappeared one night after a heated argument with one member of our royal family. Everyone thought he left the city disgusted.
Panel 5: We’re looking down past the four heads of the men on the barge. They’ve pulled up a decomposed and swollen body in a 19th century tuxedo. The stomach has burst open and a large pile of gold coins spilled onto the deck of the barge.
CAP: My grandfather found him a few weeks later the day my father was born, but they failed to mention anything of the gold to the police. I don’t know what the argument was about, but I suppose they made the Duke put his money where his mouth was.
Page 3, 6 Panels:
Panel 1: Gianni’s grandfather in an empty canal shoveling a bit of sludge.
CAP: From that point on my grandfather had a responsibility to the city. Although no one knew it, he began to know everything about everyone from what they ‘deposited’ in the canals.
Panel 2: Gianni’s grandfather reaching down to pick something up.
CAP: The canals wanted to tell him its secrets. He began to find the most unusual things.
Panel 3: Inside of a bedroom. Gianni’s grandfather is kneeling down in front of a large trunk at the foot of a large bed. We are standing near the headboard and can’t see into the trunk. With one hand he is holding the trunk open and with the other he is depositing a small, ornate wooden box.
No dialog.
Panel 4: Inside of a kitchen. At the table are Gianni’s grandfather (now in his mid 30’s) and his father (about 12). They are sitting on opposite sides and the man is gently pointing at the boy.
CAP: My grandfather knew that my father didn’t feel the same way from the canals as he did. He told him that when he came of age he would give him the gold coins so that he could pursue what he wished to pursue.
Panel 5: View from inside a store looking out through the large window past glass shelves of beautifully
delicate blown glass figures, horses, angels, and vases to a teenage boy looking in.
CAP: My father wished to pursue glass.
Panel 6: Gianni’s father is standing at the edge of a canal (with water in it!) holding a NOT so beautifully
delicate glass horse. He is beaming at it at arm’s length. He’s in his very early 20’s and perhaps wearing a
tank top-ish looking shirt. It gets hot next to the glass ovens.
CAP: The day my father finished his first piece he cast it into the water as an offering to the generosity the canals showed our family.
Page 4, 6 Panels:
Panel 1: Edge of the water with bubbles rising to the surface.
CAP: Perhaps the canals were offended. As it turns out he was not a very good glassmaker.
Panel 2: Gianni’s father next to an oven rolling at end of a pipe a ball of molten glass.
CAP: After that, misfortune flowed from the canals. Most of the gold was spent on the glass shop and materials. The rest was soon used up just to buy food.
Panel 3: Gianni’s father in his 30’s sitting at a table with a miniature torch in one hand and a thin glass rod
in the other adding small details to a glass horse. In the background are shelves filled with not so great
imitations of the pieces that were in the store window.
CAP: My father still produced glass all the time. It had to be exported and sold as ‘Venetian Glass’ in America. Compared to other glassmakers on the same street the work was too obviously inferior.
Panel 4: Gianni’s grandfather now in his 50’s is scrambling from a canal onto a sidewalk as one of the
retaining walls in the background gives way to a wall of water.
CAP: My grandfather began to suffer as well. He was no longer finding beautiful things; instead he was only finding disease and occasional mishaps.
Panel 5: A view of two boats heavily laden with furniture and the three generations of Foltini.
Grandfather:50’s, father: 30’s, Gianni: 10.
CAP: We had to sell the house and move the family into the glass shop. I had no choice but to leave school and work with my grandfather on the canals.
Panel 6: A happy view of Gianni and his grandfather on a barge.
CAP: I soon learned what I needed to learn. My grandfather told me that since our good fortune sank, the city started to sink as well. The ancient piers in sections of the city were decaying.
Page 5, Panels:
Panel 1: Gianni’s father standing at the edge of the water. Same view as Page 3, Panel 6. He is holding nothing this time. He’s not looking too good.
CAP: My father committed suicide soon after we moved.
Panel 2: Same view as Page 4, Panel 1. Edge of the water with bubbles rising to the surface.
CAP: After that, things began to get better. Perhaps the canals weren’t happy with my father’s original offering. They wanted HIM…
Panel 3: Young Gianni at a hand bilge pump.
CAP: …and now they had me as well. They were happy.
Panel 4: Gianni smiling blatantly at two women passing by and his grandfather with his finger to his
lips.
CAP: I soon began to know things about the city that I shouldn’t have known.
Panel 5: Same view as Page 2, Panel 3. We’re looking up at Gianni from the empty canal as he is looking down at us with his hands in his pockets. Simple 3-4 story houses in the background. Back to present day.
He’s smiling.
CAP: Business was good, the city stopped sinking, and I began to find lovely things.
Panel 6: Same view.
VOICE 1 (o.p.): Hey Dad! Look at this.
Page 6, 4 Panels:
Panel 1: (Large panel taking half the page again.) Back to the view from Page 2, Panel 2. We’re above the
sidewalk looking down on Gianni’s back who is looking down into a section of canal that has been drained
of water. To the left we can see the steel retaining wall and the front of Gianni’s boat. The two men are
now digging through the sludge.
No dialog.
Panel 2: (Panels 2, 3, and 4 make up the bottom row.) View of Gianni walking through the glass shop. On the shelves are hundreds of his father’s glass pieces as well as some of his own things: swords, old framed pictures, paintings, old shoes, old suits and lace dresses. We are looking at him from behind and he is holding something we can’t see.
No dialog.
Panel 3: Gianni from behind again now in a narrow hall with more stuff on the walls.
No dialog.
Panel 4: Same view as Page 3, Panel 3. Inside of a (different) bedroom. Gianni is kneeling down in front of a large trunk at the foot of a large bed. We are standing near the headboard and can’t see into the trunk. With one hand he is holding the trunk open and with the other he is depositing a NOT so beautifully delicate glass horse.
Joseph Reynolds, 2002
Quick reference:
http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/galleries/blg-v_index.htm
http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/maintaining_venices_canals.htm
Pictures:
http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/galleries/venice_photos/canal_maintenance_vert.jpg
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