The Ballad of Doctor Richardson

AUTHOR: Pope, Paul

ARTIST: Paul Pope (illustrator)

PUBLISHER: Horse Press

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1994

Publication History

The Ballad of Doctor Richardson was self-published by its creator Paul Pope in late 1993, though the original edition has a 1994 copyright. The year before, Pope had started his own publishing imprint, Horse Press, from his working base in Columbus, Ohio, with the exclusive intention of releasing his work free from outside influence. Pope had released his debut solo project, Sin Titulo (1993), under the Horse Press imprint.

In addition to publishing The Ballad of Doctor Richardson, Pope wrote, penciled, inked, and lettered the work, collaborating only with editor Robin Snyder. Though the workgarnered a respectable amount of critical attention in the year it was published, including a 1995 Eisner Award nomination in the category of “Best New Graphic Novel,” it remained out of print for five years.

In 1998, Pope rereleased the title, again through Horse Press, in a “Fifth Year Edition.” Among the changes in the second edition was a new cover, endorsement blurbs from Will Eisner and Dave McKean, a sketch of Pope on the inside of the back cover by artist Batton Lash, and additional material by Pope, including commentary on some of his inspiration for the book and a page of reflections on the book.

Plot

The Ballad of Doctor Richardson follows a middle-aged art history professor through one extraordinary and life-changing night in a slightly futuristic city. As the story opens, Dr. Jefferson Richardson is administering an end-of-term Renaissance art history exam. Following the exam, he retreats to the university’s faculty lounge, where he overhears several of the department faculty members disparaging him. They comment that his recent manuscript has been rejected by another publisher, most likely because of his radical and unpopular views and his refusal to accept editorial alterations. They further iterate that Richardson has not published or presented in nearly a decade and that his credibility is nearly exhausted. Richardson listens in, unbeknownst to all his colleagues, save for the sympathetic Anne, who tells him in private that he could easily be published if he would align himself with the perspective of the academic majority. He responds that to do so would be tantamount to killing himself.

Returning to an empty home, save for his cat James, Richardson broods on his professional failures and loneliness. He reflects on his passions for poetry, music, and his own indelible ideas, but regrets that he has little to show for his life. Deciding to clear his head, Richardson goes walking through the snow-covered city, passing through crowds of faceless people. He makes his way to the subway, stopping before getting on a train to listen to a busking trumpeter.

On the train, Richardson is approached by Noel, one of his former students, whom he has forgotten, who dropped out four years earlier. She awkwardly tries to explain that she was inspired by his opinions on artists who rejected tradition in favor of rendering the real, and shows him a small print of one of Caravaggio’s paintings, one of the few things she always carries with her. Richardson accepts Noel’s invitation to dinner at the last moment, and the two leave the underground together.

Over dinner, Noel tells Richardson about her experiments in music and about an instrument she has built to be capable of playing the chaotic sounds she hears in her own mind. Richardson is inspired and impressed by her passion and drive, and the two are beginning to connect when several of Noel’s friends arrive to drag her away to the Vanguard, the bar where they all work. Realizing Noel has left behind her Caravaggio print, Richardson follows them at a distance to the Vanguard, only to be refused entry.

Undeterred, Richardson sneaks through a bathroom window, only to find that Noel has already left. At this point, Richardson meets the subway busker again, who he learns is King Kush, the front man for the house band at the Vanguard. Kush recognizes the Caravaggio print and immediately identifies Richardson, hinting that Noel may have feelings for the professor. Using T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1915) as a metaphor, Richardson asserts that he does not want to let fear stop him from trying to forge a bond with Noel.

Kush directs Richardson to Café Armageddon, where he looks for Noel in a dressing room. Richardson hides, eavesdropping as Noel reclaims a Les Paul guitar of hers, speaks lovingly to the instrument, and plays a beautiful tune. Noel catches Richardson spying but seems unfazed. She leads him to the main floor and asks him to wait while she explains to Taro, her apparent former boyfriend, that she is taking back her Les Paul. After a short but nervous wait, Richardson follows Taro and Noel outside and finds them struggling over the guitar. Richardson jumps to Noel’s aid, and the two manage to drive Taro away.

In the dark snowy night, Richardson bares his soul to Noel, saying that he could probably go the rest of his life without knowing her, but he does not care to try. The two return to the Vanguard, listen to King Kush play, and at the story’s end make their way to Noel’s spartan apartment, where they have their first embrace. In an epilogue, the story cuts to King Kush in his home, transcribing a piece he has composed for the lovers, to which he has given the same title as the book.

Characters

•Dr. Jefferson Richardson, the titular character of the book, is a middle-aged academic whose career is declining because of his unpopular views on Italian Renaissance art. He finds himself depressed after the latest rejection of his book and mourns that he has no one with whom to share life. Richardson is stirred from his torpor after reconnecting with Noel and finds his loneliness quelled with the discovery of someone with passions equal to his own.

•Noel is an attractive young woman who dropped out of university to pursue a musical career after coming to view the academic system as a homogenizing factory environment. While still a student, however, she studied briefly under Richardson and became infatuated with him. She has recently left her boyfriend, Taro, and his band, Huron, to build an instrument with the versatility necessary to play the music she hears in her mind. Noel encounters Richardson again, four years after being his student, and the two form a profound bond.

•King Kush is a trumpeter who fronts his own band, the King Kush Experience, the regular headliner at the Vanguard bar. He also moonlights as a subway busker, returning there often for sentimental reasons. Kush is seemingly close enough to Noel to know about her love for Richardson and is instrumental in bringing the couple together.

•Taro, a.k.a. Huron, is Noel’s former boyfriend and the front man for the band Huron. He advertises himself as a Native American, although in truth, he has no such heritage. Taro is portrayed as petty and egotistical, displaying bitterness over his breakup with Noel and insecurity over being exposed as ethnically inauthentic. In the story’s climax, Taro gets into an altercation with Noel and Richardson after refusing to return Noel’s Les Paul guitar. Eventually, he relinquishes both the instrument and his imagined claim on his former girlfriend.

Artistic Style

In the back of The Ballad of Doctor Richardson, Pope notes that the book was produced using an 18 x 24 inch hot press Bristol board, FW opaque acrylic inks, Morilla and Winsor Newton brushes, Design artgum, and Gaebel graphic Design tools. The edition was published as an undersized volume, measuring 6.5 x 9 inches rather than the usual 6.5 x 10 inches. This contrasts sharply with Pope’s first self-published book, Sin Titulo, which measured 8 x 10.5 inches. For The Balladof Doctor Richardson, Pope utilized only black acrylic inks, giving the book a somewhat grainy, black-and-white appearance. The small size of the book, combined with Pope’s heavy use of ink, which often melds foreground and background, gives the book a hushed and intimate feel that supports the story’s romantic themes.

In the collected edition of his later work, 100%, Pope comments that he finds inking to be the most satisfying aspect of making comics. This observation offers insight into The Ballad of Doctor Richardson’s style, although Pope’s early effort lacks the refinement that he later developed. Pope’s indulgence in ink sometimes contrasts with his tendency to render his characters’ faces in thin, sharp lines with few shadows and little shading. The result is an occasional contradiction of styles, in which a character looks somewhat out of place in the surrounding panel. In the story’s key emotional moments, however, Pope lights scenes intricately, merging his distinct line work with abundant soft brushstrokes.

Overall, The Ballad of Doctor Richardson seems to be an effort to merge European techniques with a neonoir sensibility in the heavy use of black. However, Pope’s tendency to overink at times leaves the work looking crude and unpolished, which indicates the book was published early in Pope’s career. Generally, the piece can be regarded as an effort by the young artist to cultivate a working method for his craft and hone his raw talent.

Themes

Primarily, The Ballad of Doctor Richardson is a romance, but it is infused throughout with various treatises on themes such as age and youth, poetry, art history, both self-imposed and socially imposed ostracism, artistic freedom and artists’ goals, and desire. Beyond Richardson’s occupation as a professor of art history and Noel’s as a musician, the book reveals, through dialogue and narration, the importance both characters place on art, whether it be their own or someone else’s. Richardson feels that poetry and art are his lifeblood, and he values them over personal relationships and professional advancement. Noel seems to feel the same way, expressing disdain for music that places image above artistic expression. However, both wrestle with loneliness, an emotion that could be blamed on their respective artistic devotions. This struggle, and the question of whether or not it must exist, is a key theme in the novel, as both Noel and Richardson come to realize that perhaps they can have both art and love.

The book also addresses the notion of release from both fears and inhibitions. Both the central characters of the story have repressed themselves to their detriment: Noel by stifling her years-long ardor for Richardson, and Richardson by limiting himself through propriety and passivity. In Richardson’s positivist affirmation of pursuing the possible and embracing opportunity, and in the story’s climactic confession by both characters of their feelings for each other, The Balladof Doctor Richardson delivers a message about the dual passions of art and love.

Impact

In the year following its publication, The Ballad of Doctor Richardson gained a degree of positive critical attention but little press attention. The book was nominated for a 1995 Eisner Award, making it Pope’s first “hit.” In crafting the work, Pope was clearly influenced by the European comics of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, and he mixed these sensibilities with influences from American pop artists such as Jack Kirby and Roy Crane. The narrative and thematic contents were influenced by Arthur Rimbaud’s poem “The Triumph of Hunger” and Eliot’s poem “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock,” the art of the northern Renaissance, specifically that of Caravaggio, and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

However, The Ballad of Doctor Richardson has had little lasting impact on anything besides Pope’s career. Until thepublication of The Ballad of Doctor Richardson, Pope’s work had mainly gone unnoticed in the Western world; most of his work was produced for Japanese manga publisher Kodansha. The praise garnered by The Ballad of Doctor Richardson may have opened more publishing avenues for Pope in the United States. Even this claim is debatable, though, as Pope began his pop science-fiction series THB (1994-1995) in the year following the first publication of The Ballad of Doctor Richardson, and of the two, THB is more widely known. The book may be of most interest to fans of Pope’s later work, as it speaks volumes about the evolution of the artist’s skill and style. As it stands, The Ballad of Doctor Richardson has faded into obscurity, and as Pope has announced no plans to publish another edition, the book will likely remain little known.

Further Reading

Malès, Marc. Different Ugliness, Different Madness (2005).

Pope, Paul. 100% (2002-2003).

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Sin Titulo (1993).

Thompson, Craig. Blankets (2003).

Bibliography

Attaboy. “Paul Pope: Ball in Play.” Hi-Fructose Magazine 7 (2008): 54-61.

Pope, Paul. 100%. New York: DC Comics, 2005.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Paul Pope Interview, Part 1.” Interview by Ray Mescallado. The Comics Journal 191 (November, 1996): 98-118.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Pulphope: The Art of Paul Pope. Richmond, Va.: AdHouse Books, 2007.