Part 45 (1/2)
”I was never on it,” Joe said ”I went out on a plane the night before”
”There were orders I don't know, medical certificates Sammy showed me the photostats”
He put on a mysterious Cavalieri smile
”Always true to the code,” she said
”It was very cleverly done”
”I'm sure it was, dear You were always a clever boy”
He pressed his lips to the parting of her hair It had an intriguingshe preferred
”What are we going to do?” he said
She didn't answer at first She let go and stepped away fro look that he reether
”I have an idea,” she said ”Why don't you try to figure out where we're going to put all your Goddamned comic books?”
14
NINETY-FIVE, NINETY-SIX, N I N ET Y-S E VE N NINETY-SEVEN” ”A hundred and two”
”I count ninety-seven”
”Youto need a truck”
”This is what I have been telling you”
”A truck and then a whole fucking warehouse”
”I've alanted a warehouse,” Joe said ”That's always been the dreaue on the subject of just how many comic books, crammed into pine crates of his own manufacture- complete runs of Action Action and and Detective, Blackhawk Detective, Blackhawk and and Captain America, Captain America, of of Crime Does Not Pay and Justice Traps the Guilty, Crime Does Not Pay and Justice Traps the Guilty, of of Classics Illustrated Classics Illustrated and and Picture Stories from the Bible, Picture Stories from the Bible, of of Whiz Whiz and and Wo and and Zip Zip and and Zoot Zoot and and Smash Smash and and Crash Crash and and Pep Pep and and Punch, Punch, of of A and and Terrific Terrific and and Popular-he Popular-he actually owned, there was nothing at all vague about the letter he had received fro Realty associates Securities Corporation, the owners of the E Crea the terms of its lease, which meant that the ninety-seven or one hundred and tooden crates, filled with co with all of his other belongings-must either be transported or disposed of actually owned, there was nothing at all vague about the letter he had received fro Realty associates Securities Corporation, the owners of the E Crea the terms of its lease, which meant that the ninety-seven or one hundred and tooden crates, filled with co with all of his other belongings-must either be transported or disposed of
”So toss 'ehed Although all the world-even Sa and selling them-viewed them as trash, Joe loved his comic books: for their inferior color separation, their poorly trimmed paper stock, their ads for air rifles and dance courses and acne crea to the older ones, the ones that had been in storage during Joe's travels Most of all, he loved them for the pictures and stories they contained, the inspirations and lucubrations of five hundred aging boys drea their insecurities and delusions, their wishes and their doubts, their public educations and their sexual perversions, into so that only the most purblind of societies would have denied the status of art Co his time on the psychiatric ward at Git his return to thein a rented cabin on the beach at Chincoteague, Virginia, with the histling in through the chinks in the clapboard, half-poisoned by the burned-hair smell of an old electric heater, it was only ten thousand Old Gold cigarettes and a pile of Captain Marvel Adventures Captain Marvel Adventures (cole between the Captain and a telepathic, world-conquering earthworht off, once and for all, the craving forthe incredible twenty-four-le between the Captain and a telepathic, world-conquering earthworht off, once and for all, the craving forlost his randfather, the friends and foes of his youth, his beloved teacher Bernard Kornbluainst comic books, that they offered merely an easy escape from reality, merely an easy escape froument on their behalf He had escaped, in his life, fros, and crates, froimes, from the arms of a woman who loved him, from crashed airplanes and an opiate addiction and fro his death The escape froht after the war-a worthy challenge He would remember for the rest of his life a peaceful half hour spent reading a copy of seeument on their behalf He had escaped, in his life, fros, and crates, froimes, from the arms of a woman who loved him, from crashed airplanes and an opiate addiction and fro his death The escape froht after the war-a worthy challenge He would remember for the rest of his life a peaceful half hour spent reading a copy of Betty and Veronica Betty and Veronica that he had found in a service-station rest roo forest outside of Medford, Oregon, wholly absorbed into that pris, heavy ink lines, Shakespearean farce, and the deep, al-toothed, aisted Goddess-girls, light and dark, entangled forever in the enh he would never have spoken of it in these tered in his chest, just behind his sternulas firs, reading that he had found in a service-station rest roo forest outside of Medford, Oregon, wholly absorbed into that pris, heavy ink lines, Shakespearean farce, and the deep, al-toothed, aisted Goddess-girls, light and dark, entangled forever in the enh he would never have spoken of it in these tered in his chest, just behind his sternulas firs, reading Betty and Veronica, Betty and Veronica, the icy ball hadthe icy ball had ic-not the apparent ic of the silk-hatted card-palmer, or the bold, brute trickery of the escape artist, but the genuine ic of art It was a mark of how fucked-up and broken was the world-the reality- that had sed his home and his family that such a feat of escape, by no means easy to pull off, should reic of the silk-hatted card-palmer, or the bold, brute trickery of the escape artist, but the genuine ic of art It was a mark of how fucked-up and broken was the world-the reality- that had sed his home and his family that such a feat of escape, by no means easy to pull off, should remain so universally despised
”I know you think it's all just crap,” he said ”But you should not of all people think this”
”Yeah, yeah,” Sa at?”
Saed his way out into Miss S one of the stacked portfolios At nine o'clock that , on his way into the Pharaoh offices, he had dropped Joe off here, to begin the laborious process of clearing higing, packing, and repacking, without a break, all day His shoulders ached, and his fingertips were raw, and he was feeling out of sorts It had been disorienting to co as he had left it-and then to have to begin to dis by the look in Sammy's eye just nohen he walked in and found Joe still at work, finishi+ng the job Sammy had looked pleasantly surprised-not that the job was finished, Joe thought, so ht-all three of theain
”I'es of yours,” Sammy said ”This is beautiful stuff, I have to tell you I' it all”
”I don't think you will like that Probably nobody will like that Too dark”
”It does seem dark”
”Too dark for a co? God, look at that splash” Sa over one arm, sank to the floor beside the broad pile of black cardboard portfolios that they had bought thisat Pearl Paints, so that Joe could pack up his five years of work His voice turned dark and cobwebbed ”The Gole the first splash page-there were forty-seven splash pages in all-at the head of the first chapter of the 2,256-page co his tiun work on the forty-eighth and final chapter when Toave hi the first splash page-there were forty-seven splash pages in all-at the head of the first chapter of the 2,256-page co his tiun work on the forty-eighth and final chapter when Toave him up to the authorities
Joe had arrived in New York in the fall of 1949 with a twofold intention: to begin work on a long story about the Gole to him, panel by panel and chapter by chapter, in his drea bus rides all across the south and northwest, since he had set out froradually, carefully, even at first perhaps stealthily, to see Rosa again He had reestablished a few tentative connections to the city-renting an office in the E his visits to the back roo an account at Pearl Paints-and then settled in to iotten off to a fine and rapid start on the work that would, he hoped at the ti of the art form that in 1949 he alone saw as a means of self-expression as potent as a Cole Porter tune in the hands of a Lester Young, or a cheap melodrama about an unhappy rich man in the hands of an Orson Welles, it proved much harder for him to return himself, even a little at a tioing so well; it absorbed all of his time and attention And as he iue and its Jews, of uilt that could not be expiated and innocence that never stood a chance-as he drea and hallucinatory tale of a ard, unnatural child, Josef Golem, that sacrificed itself to save and redeem the little lamplit world whose safety had been entrusted to it, Joe ca to heal hirief and black wonder that he was never able to express, before or afterward, not to a navy psychiatrist, nor to a fellow drifter in some cheap hotel near Orlando, Florida, nor to his son, nor to any of those feho remained to love him when he finally returned to the world, all of it went into the queasy angles and stark cos and vast swaths of shadow, the distended and fractured and finelyso well; it absorbed all of his time and attention And as he iue and its Jews, of uilt that could not be expiated and innocence that never stood a chance-as he drea and hallucinatory tale of a ard, unnatural child, Josef Golem, that sacrificed itself to save and redeem the little lamplit world whose safety had been entrusted to it, Joe ca to heal hirief and black wonder that he was never able to express, before or afterward, not to a navy psychiatrist, nor to a fellow drifter in some cheap hotel near Orlando, Florida, nor to his son, nor to any of those feho remained to love him when he finally returned to the world, all of it went into the queasy angles and stark cos and vast swaths of shadow, the distended and fractured and finely minced panels of his un to tell himself that his plan was not merely twofold but two-step-that when he was finished with The Goleain He had left her- escaped froe and a spasm of irrational blame It would be best, he told hied of all that But while there ht have been at first some merit in this rationalization, by 1953, when Toic shop, Joe's ability to heal hi since been exhausted He needed Rosa-her love, her body, but above all, her forgiveness-to coun The only trouble was that, by then, as he had told Rosa, it was too late He had waited too long The sixtyIsland that separated hied jaw of one thousand between Kelvinator Station and Jotunheim, than the three blocks of London that lay between Wakefield and his loving wife then he would be ready to see Rosa again He had left her- escaped froe and a spasm of irrational blame It would be best, he told hied of all that But while there ht have been at first some merit in this rationalization, by 1953, when Toic shop, Joe's ability to heal hi since been exhausted He needed Rosa-her love, her body, but above all, her forgiveness-to coun The only trouble was that, by then, as he had told Rosa, it was too late He had waited too long The sixtyIsland that separated hied jaw of one thousand between Kelvinator Station and Jotunheim, than the three blocks of London that lay between Wakefield and his loving wife
”Is there even a script?” Sae ”Is it, what, is it like a silent movie?”
There were no balloons in any of the panels, no words at all except for those that appeared as part of the artwork itself-signs on buildings and roads, labels on bottles, addresses on love letters that forolee at the start of each chapter, each tiht letters and exclamation point transformed now into a row of houses, now into a stairway, into nineshadows of nine haunted and devastating women Joe had intended eventually to paste in balloons and fill the himself to mar the panels in this way
”There is a script In Gero over at all It's not to sell” So paradoxical had occurred in the five years he had worked on The Golem: The Golem: the more of himself, of his heart and his sorrows, that he had poured into the strip-the ly he demonstrated the power of the coness he felt to show it to other people, to expose what had becouilt and retribution It h it ”Coo” the more of himself, of his heart and his sorrows, that he had poured into the strip-the ly he demonstrated the power of the coness he felt to show it to other people, to expose what had becouilt and retribution It h it ”Coo”
But Saes of the first chapter, deciphering the action froe Joe are of a strange waruess I could try to tell you-” he began
”It's fine, I' it” Sa, and took out his wallet He pulled out a few bills, ones and a five ”Tell you what,” he said ”I think I'onna be here for a while” He looked up ”Could you eat?”
”You're going to read this now?”
”Sure”
”All of it?”
”Why not? I give over fifteen years of e, I can spare a few hours for three feet of genius”
Joe rubbed at the side of his nose, feeling the wars and fill his throat ”Okay,” he said at last ”So you can read it But et ho evicted”
”fuck them”
Joe nodded and took thetime, since he had allowed his cousin to boss him around in this way He found that, as in the past, he rather liked it