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(Seeking for) THE TRUE STORY BEHIND BIG NUMBERS´S FALL OUT ...    (Clique AQUI e leia a versão em Português - different images)

                           [by Ashley Wood, from Submedia magazine #1, 1999, page 77-78]

[…] One of the situations Sienkiewicz found difficult to break off was his role in "Big Numbers", the ambitious project started with Alan Moore. There problems have become legend, but many of the stories are simply false. To prove the point, pages from issue three, which never came out, are printed elsewhere in this magazine. "Logistically, it was a nightmare. Alan's writing is so brilliant that the art is at service to the story, it's requisite. [even though Alan didn't ask that, it simply is, and so it was encompassing and literally like biting off more than I could chew. It was daunting. I was trying to achieve this hyper-realism, and there were as many as 45 people involved as models. As it went on, things would change. The boy, the son of the architect, went through growth spurts, and would change height, getting tall and lanky, between shots."

Sienkiewicz was battling depression and missing deadlines, so much so that Sienkiewicz hired an assistant, to help with the overwhelming workload on the project.

The highly touted "Big Numbers" ended at issue number two. It was another bad moment of a difficult time. "I felt awful, I felt I let Kevin down, I let myself down, I let Alan down.

Much later, I called Alan and basically apologized, not far what I went through, which was real life, but far how, in jeopardizing the project and all. Alan was very generous, a total gentleman. There is no acrimony with anyone, except those who were responsible far spreading the rumors.

" The publicly-visible troubles on "Big Numbers" led to a point in Sienkiewicz's lite where something had to change or he might have found himself back in Pennsylvania with his old buddies.

"I realized that a kind of level of taking responsibility far one's own life was needed," he says. "My mother had just died, my relationship with my girlfriend at the time was on the rocks, I had no compass. It was not fun."

So back in the insular world of comics, while Sienkiewicz was off finding peace of mind, tales abounded that he had left because of an ego problem or that he was on cocaine and had entered a rehab clinic. It is a testament to how important his contribution was to the industry that he was lifted to the level of an urban legend. Lots of artists come and go, but few are rumored about to the extent that Sienkiewicz was by his peers. I ask him to address some of these.

"I heard the rumors. I heard I was in rehab, doing a lot of cocaine. That I had an affair with Alan Moore's wife." He leans forward conspiratorially. "The truth is I actually had an affair with Alan."

"Nice to see you have a sense of humor about this stuff," I laugh.

"What cracked me up about that was because I know the impact I have had." He says, "Not to sound egotistical, but I know what my work meant to Ashley, Dave (McKean), Simon. They let me know what it means, and that's nice. I realize a lot of the other stuff that was said when I had gotten out was to explain why, but nothing so Betty Ford clinic happened. I had worked really hard on my creative side, but as a person I was really unaware. So dealing with lots of strife... I think I just went into hibernation trying to work on intense therapy to find out why I was the way I was, and what I could do if things were not going the way I wanted them to. So the truth of what I was doing in that time period was trying other things creatively, getting into new avenues. They were really painful years of introspection and hard work. I'd always been defined as a person by my comics, but I realized that there was another whole part of me that was strictly formless and without recognition."

He pauses. "Probably simply put, I dragged myself kicking and screaming into a modicum of maturity, of growing up. Of not being only 'Bill Sienkiewicz, innovative comic book bad boy'. That shit gets old real fast."

"No drugs. No fights or affairs ?"

"Drugs, no. Fights and affairs, yes. However, much of that only served to show who the real friends were. Those who called, people who were there." […]  

(PS:I´ve called Bill recently and he informed me  <i wanted it known that any comments i supposedly made about al that were printed on your site were made several years ago, at the time of the whole mess with big numbers, and that i no longer have anything to say about al columbia other than i wish him and his family well. i don't wish to discuss him, and i haven't in years. i'd like to keep it that way. > - JCN

Al Columbia

Al Columbia started his career in comics at the age of nineteen, when he was hired to assist Bill Sienkiewicz. Together, they created 'Big Numbers', which Al eventually took over. In 1992, however, the pressure of continuing this real-world, realistically painted comics series became too much for him. Al Columbia vanished, destroying the fourth issue of 'Big Numbers' he was working on, and nothing was heard from him until 1994. He then made 'The Biologic Show', published by Fantagraphics, in which he broke away from the realistic, Sienkiewicz-inspired style, developing a more grotesque, caricatural style of his own. From 1995 on, Al Columbia experimented, contributing stories such as 'Pim and Francie' to the anthologies 'Zero Zero' and 'Blab!', introducing the character of frightened little Seymour Sunshine.

In The Comics Journal Message Board, in a message edited by Robert Young in June 07, 2000), it had been “announced” that

“Well according to Kevin Eastman in TCJ #202 (and perhaps corroborated by Paul Jenkins?), Columbia ripped Eastman off for about $20,000 and then either destroyed or simply hijacked the original art for Big Numbers #4.

 Adding to suspicion is the fact that Columbia wrote a subsequent letter to the Journal accusing Eastman of lying, yet signed it "Al Columbia, Somewhere on The East Coast".

Still, among indy comics folk, it's Frank Cho and Ted Rall who are routinely marched out as pariahs, while the same people casually look the other way as regards Columbia's potentially more egregious ethical lapses.

Apparently for no other reason than because his work is so well-liked. “

  At the same Board, in June 10, 2000,  Al Columbia had stated:

“This will be the only definitive statement I ever make regarding 'Big Numbers'.

  I recall it being a lot of fun, actually. I got to fuck a lot of girls, spend money and be driven around London in a white Rolls-Royce Limousine (twice!). These are only a few of the luxurious benefits provided by Kevin Eastman, much to his credit and kindness. It is true that Kevin has a big heart--no sarcasm there.

I suppose at the very least I should apologize publicly to him for withholding and finally destroying the artwork he paid me to do. True, he never purchased it 'to own' and legally he had no claim to it, but still....ethically speaking, I should have handed it over to him to use at his discretion, according to our contract.

 I cannot blame him or Paul Jenkins (they are indistinguishable in my mind at this point in terms of their stance on all this) for bad-mouthing me all these years. I have even been entertained by some their more imaginative accounts of what happened.

The simple truth is a truth much worse than rumor. At the risk of ruining the mystique surrounding the whole affair I will recount how I remember things to have occurred...as briefly and as clearly as possible. I was paid $9,200.00 to complete issue number four of Big Numbers. A lot of times Paul Jenkins was good enough to pay me as I went along, without even seeing the pages. I actually came to like Paul after a while. I felt bad for all the responsibility and pressure that was taking it's toll on him. I remember he was often sweating and that his eyes were always popping out of their sockets like they would in a funny cartoon. He had a lot on his shoulders. He was a hard worker. Indeed, Paul's tireless efforts on his own behalf should certainly be applauded.

 However, my opinion that Paul may be a snake in the grass is beside the point and inconsequential to what happened. He actually treated me like a little brother. A very lovable English chap was he.

 Okay, don't tell anybody, but the truth be told, I didn't even finish the issue--but was paid for it anyway. The reason I tore up the pages was so  that I wouldn't have to admit that I had only completed about half the  issue when I quit despite having cashed all those checks. I loved Kevin's money, I really did.

You see, I never had any intention of staying with the project but merely attatched myself to it in order to gain (through Eastman's money) a certain prominence, at which time I would quit in the manner that we have all heard about. This way, with no visible proof of the artwork, it would always shine as a masterpiece in people's minds and imagination. I would be reviled by some and made a sort of hero by others who can understand or sympathize with 'artistic integrity' and all that punk rock bullshit.

 Yes, I am a boy with horns. There is not a single thing I say or do that is not designed with a specific outcome in mind. Any and all rumors about myself were generated and manufactured by me and me alone. Please allow me to introduce myself...  >

     ...THE “BIG NUMBERS AFFAIR” TODAY

                                                                  by José Carlos Neves

   It´s absolutely notorious my true , almost obsessive fascination for BIG NUMBERS, this would-be magnum opus by Alan Moore and Bill Sienkiewicz which, if concluded easily would pave it´s way up to the pantheon of the Great  Culture Luminaries of all times. Epiphanically it would assume it´s deserved place at the side of it´s “pairs” like James Joyce “Ullysses”, Marcel Proust “La reserche des Temps Perdu” among others.

   About  the genesis and “whys” of this my passion, I have had the opportunity already to write here at my site, as well as at others digital and printted platforms.

   Fed out by this exegethic artistic-cultural interest for BIG NUMBERS, I have been conducting already for almost an year, a very long, insightfull Interview with it´s“second craftsman”, from Pensylvannia, Bill Sienkiewicz – forever lamenting, of course,  my impossibility of inquire the “first one” also about his intended exegethic journey .

   Bill, as any other good and demanded professional, continues strugling with deadlines and other  problems,  therefore the delay in post that so long-awaited Inteview.

   But in this  interim we can appreciate some of his comments of the controversial subject of his “departure from the project” and so on.

   In a recent e-mail, he surprisingly (for me at least) had stated what I do reproduce below, alongside my own “lobby”´mail I am sending to all Alan Moore´s Editors, Partners and Friends, like Mr. Scott Dunbier (ABComics) , George Khoury “The Extraordinery Works of AM”) , William Christensen (Avatar) , Chris Staros (Top Shelf), JH Willians III and Todd Klein (Promethea´s fame),  Spaniard Jose Villarrubia “The Mirror of Love” and “Voice of Fire” new designer), Daniel Chichester,  Rich Starkings,  Mark Askwitt, Gary Spencer Millidge (Abiogenesis), Smoky Man  (www.ultrazine.com ),among others:

<My Dear Friend,

 As you do know, I am almost a "fanatical" concerning  that "would be magnum-opus" by Alan Moore (with my friend Bill Sienkiewicz) BIG NUMBERS.

 I just can not accept that this wonderful, insightfull work will never see the light of day..

  So, I have asked Bill recently about it ( I am conducting for 8 months already a very long, candid and insightfull Interview on him; am sure some replies will rise a lot of controversy...). And this is a quote of  his reply to me:

 < From:"Bill Sienkiewicz"

 ...i must say, all this  talk of mandelbrot and  alan makes me really want to find out if he'd be willing to finish the series now, with me. it would be daunting,  for sure...

    i'm older and wiser, and would approach the entirety of the book and series very differently than i did at the  time. for one thing , i would work differently with models.>

So, is there any way that you could make this reach Alan

It would be great, really!

 Bill is very very interested in (re) contact Alan

 Please, my friend, for the Sake of COMICS history, help us in this true endeavour and labor of love for the  genre.

Slaint

José Carlos Neves

(from Brazil)

"Come On Down", from TABOO # 1, and "MR. MAJESTIC" (Click On to enlarge), two other  great works by Alan Moore related with  human relationships and Matemathics, respectively.

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