Mark Chiarello
Illustrator and Art & Design Director at DC Comics.
The Cultural Questionnaire.
What’s your favorite line from a movie?
In Casablanca, when Bogart is sitting all alone in the dark at Rick’s, right before he says that line about ‘Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world…’, he sort of grunts. I’ll take that grunt over any line in any movie ever. That’s Bogart channeling pure pain, pure emotion, without even saying a word.
Which movie do you love but would be embarrassed to talk about in a serious, intellectual conversation?
Ok, my favorite movie ever is The Pope of Greenwich Village. There, I’ve said it and I’m happy I did!
The tune of the moment?
How Soon is Now, by the Smiths. Man, I’ve always hated the Smiths, but that song has always killed.
Name a museum where you’d be happy to be locked in for the night?
The Imperial War Museum in London. I’d play “war” with all of the WW1 ghosts who must walk around there at night. It’d be fun to drive the tanks around at night, too.
The three books you’d take with you for a very, very, very long 100% environmentally friendly trip overseas?
I’ve been trying to finish a bio on Aaron Copland for forever, but haven’t been able to find the time. Maybe I can finish it on my trip overseas. Other than that, any good book on baseball would do.
You can give two “cultural items” (be it a book, a painting, a movie, a record or anything else), one to the person you like the most, one to the person that bores you the most. What would these two items be?
A copy of The Pope of Greenwich Village, which as we know, is the greatest movie of all time. I’d give it to both people, because it can make the blind see and the lame walk.
What painting would you steal if you could magically become invisible for a few hours?
Maybe The Gross Clinic by Eakins, Freedom from Fear by Norman Rockwell, one of the Slav Epic murals by Mucha or anything by Gustav Klimt,
Which artist, alive or not, in any given field, would you love to party with for a wild, wild night?
Norman Rockwell. That guy could party like a frat boy!
Filed In: Comics
September 19, 2011 at 5:00 pm