Just imagine it: 500 years ago, in an age marked by war, plague, inequality, and religious coercion, people across Europe dreamt of a society built around sharing, peace, and freedom of conscience. That’s the very setting and framework for By Water: The Felix Manz Story, a new graphic novel by Jason Landsel and Sankha Banerjee from Plough Publishing House.
The story (the first of three such GNs) focuses primarily around a group radicals who were ready to die for their seemingly idyllic vision. With people executed by the thousands — often by water, fire, and sword — across both Catholic and Protestant states alike, the story is a compelling, often underexplored slice of history that the creative shines a brilliant and thoughtful light upon. And it’s an especially timely tale, too, with young people to this very day still standing up for truth against the corrupt political and religious leaders.
Before By Water debuts next week (March 21), I was lucky enough to ask Landsel a few questions about this project, including how they researched history, balancing fact and fiction, and his other favorite historical comics and other works.
Courtesy of Plough Publishing House.
AIPT: To start, By Water feels like a project that has been hundreds of years in the making, what drew you to this real-life story for this project?
Jason Landsel: It certainly has taken a few years to get to this point. It involved intensive research, travel to Europe documenting the many locations included in the trilogy, visiting numerous museums and archives in Europe and the USA, and then writing and storyboarding the book for the artist. I have always been interested in medieval and the 16th-century reformation, so when the concept of this project was pitched to me, I was happy to take it on. I also have a personal connection to this particular history, my wife is a direct descendant of these brave and radical reformers, and we wanted to bring their story alive to our family and readers today.
AIPT: For history buffs, how much of this story is fiction, and how much is real-life details down to the characters?
JL: The primary characters are completely factual and well-documented and we tried to convey an accurate depiction of their personalities and language. In the artwork, we also portray the architecture and layout of Zürich in the 1520s as best we could. It was also important to me to include art and cultural elements from the time. We did create a fictional character to represent the peasant rebel movement, but there again – the conversations and incidents she and her people are involved in are based on fact.
Courtesy of Plough Publishing House.
AIPT: The idea of a group of people desiring to build an alternative society sounds like a great idea given the state of the world these days, do you make thematic connections to today in this trilogy?
JL: Very much so. I think one of the main reasons for sharing and preserving history is that we can learn and be inspired by it. In By Water, our main character, Felix Manz is inspired as a young student by reading Thomas Moore’s ‘Utopia’, the works of Desiderius Erasmus and other thinkers, he begins to wonder if things could really be different. That starts Felix on a journey of working and struggling to create a new and free society in his time. I believe that desire for something new and alive lies in every person to some degree and should inspire us to continue the good work.
AIPT: For anyone who hates history, is By Water something they can also get into?
JL: Absolutely. The overlying theme of By Water is courage, conviction, and daring to stand up to the lies and injustice in the world, and I think we can each connect to that. And while not many might have an initial interest in European 16th-century political and religious conflict or associate it with the specific issues they fought over at that time – the bravery of Felix Manz and his young, radical comrades in standing up to political and religious corruption and being willing to deal the consequences of that should inspire us.
Courtesy of Plough Publishing House.
AIPT: Sankha Banerjee’s is gorgeous, was there a panel or page that went beyond your expectations?
JL: Sankha did a terrific job and it was a great collaboration in developing the spreads, sharing concepts and ideas back and forth to create the final artwork. There are many favorites, but a couple pages that come to mind is the opening 2-page spread where we tried to set the stage for the chaos and confusion of Europe at the time in a very Hieronymus Bosch sort of way. And then the opening sequence of Felix Manz as a young boy on the streets of Zürich leading his mystical underwater encounter with the headless patron saints of the city – one of whom he must have been named after.
AIPT: I know there are a few great historical comics like Bronze Age, do you have any favorites you’d recommend?
JL: Wow, there are so many. A few books that inspired me personally in working on this project are: Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang, The March trilogy by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell, Maus by Art Spiegelman, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Berlin by Jason Lutes, Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle , Palestine by Joe Sacco, Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio by Derf Backderf, The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui, Belonging by Nora Krug – and many others.
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