An odyssey about one man’s thousand-year struggle to save the woman he loves, The Fountain follows Thomas as he feverishly travels through three distinct eras – as a 16th century conquistador battling a fierce Mayan army, a present-day scientist searching for a cure for his wife’s mortal disease, and a future explorer seeking to uncover the secrets of a dying star.
An incredible journey of love and loss across the centuries, an epic love story so grand that one medium cannot contain it, director Darren Aronofsky united with painter Kent Williams to create a beautiful and haunting graphic novel as an insider’s accompaniment to the director’s most ambitious movie. The graphic novel is a sister project to the film, using the same story as its seed, but stretched upon the limitless storytelling canvas of the comics medium. Earning Williams the Eisner nomination for Best Painter, The Fountain graphic novel provides an alternate interpretation wholly unique in what can be considered the ultimate „director’s cut“.
I love this page because it beautifully demonstrates what the comics medium is capable of. In the foreground are the two lovers, rendered with great care—fully modeled, three-dimensional, and in color. In the background, a battle rages. Yet although the figures in the background are far more numerous, louder, more violent, and more dynamic than the two protagonists, they are drawn as the simplest of line sketches, little more than rough suggestions. It is a perfect artistic expression of the mood of the scene: completely absorbed in each other, the lovers are oblivious to everything happening behind them. I don’t know whether Kent Williams invented this particular device—I could easily imagine someone like Bill Sienkiewicz having done something similar before him—but it is a stroke of genius nonetheless.
Ever since the original pages from this book came onto the market in 2006, I have followed their trail as they surfaced here and there—through dealers, collectors, and auctions. This particular page was always one of my favorites. Like the protagonist of the book itself, I followed its path through time and space. At times it would disappear from view for several years, only to resurface again, though not for sale. A few years later, in another place, it would finally be available—but I didn't have the money. And so it went: a constant back and forth, a never-ending chase. After a twenty-year odyssey, it finally found its way to me.
