Mr. Evidence: beyond the boundaries of the mind

Mr. Evidence

Modern medical science has made it possible to evolve the often ghettoizing concept of mental illness into a less stigmatized meaning. Where previously asylums were seen as a sort of oblivion for disturbing individuals, today we have structures that welcome, understand and guide wounded minds affected by various pathologies towards recovery, no longer relegated to the role of simple madness, but brought back to within a more comprehensive medical practice. No more mental hospitals, but institutions responsible for the reception and care of patients, such as the Mulholland Institute, the scenario in which we are welcomed with The Proof of Your Existence , first chapter of Mr. Evidence .

Inside the Audace series, the Bonellian format designed for the bookshop that has already presented us works such as Il Confine , Nero and K-11 , Mr. Evidence finds an ideal location. Creating a narrative context with a contemporary taste, in which different inspirations find the right crasis to give life to an evolutionary path of familiar narrative concepts, is not a simple narrative experiment, yet the experience of two narrative veterans like Fabio Guaglione and Adriano Barone seems to assume the role of perfect ferryman in this revolutionary movement. Mr. Evidence, right from the start, seems to want to grab the reader's attention by moving on multiple emotional levels, building a complex plot that promises great emotions.

Mr. Evidence : Sergio Bonelli Editore breaks the limits of the human mind

Mr. Evidence, is the mind a prison or a key? Beyond the confines of the mind The volumes of Mr. Evidence

Mr. Evidence, is the mind a prison or a key?

As said at the beginning, traditional narrative, slave to a certain mentality, has led to the creation of a monolithic view of mental illness. Historically associated with folkloric deviations in the dark ages, then becoming the subject of progressive analyzes during the evolution of medical science, the discovery of the complicated mechanics of the human mind has proved to be a real frontier, both for science and for fiction. As medicine revealed more and more mysteries of the functioning of the biological computer that we have in our skull, the scientific hypotheses on the incredible potential of the human mind, from the full-blown houses to the wildest hypotheses, led to the birth of a complex narrative corpus that saw in the relationship with our mind a wide range of experiences.



From the clinical analysis made famous by films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to more fantastic interpretations that have seen our mind become the source of incredible powers. From a more realistic approach to the wildest fantasies that have seen a multifaceted narrative spark in the unfathomable mysteries of the human mind, a narrative root that also arrives in the latest proposal from the Bonellian stable. Entrusted to the inspiration of two narrators with a strong personality like Barone and Guaglione, the human mind could not remain a monolithic structure, but was destined to become the driving force of a story that knows how to continuously expand, breaking the apparent limits within which the characters.

There could be no better starting point than a mental health centre. The Mulholland Institute is a precarious border, within which the characters of Mr. Evidence initially move, a limited and limiting space that allows not only to epidermally frame these apparently broken figures in the eyes of the reader, but which assumes the role of unifying element that fuels the origin story of a group of atypical and instantly appealing characters. This is due to a cure that was not purely scenographic, but that made the characters and the setting an emotional whole, as Fabio Guaglione specified during an interview:

A bit for my world of origin, i.e. the 'audiovisual, a bit for the DNA of the project, the acting component - but if we also want to direct - of Mr. Evidence is very important. So in the screenplay we added a series of indications that perhaps sometimes are not included in comic book scripts (and Adriano scolded me every time!) but served to make people understand the mood of the scene, the mood of the characters who – for an excellent illustrator like Fabrizio – would have translated into a vast range of nuances: from the posture of the back to the arching of the eyebrows. Then obviously, in the various phases of layout and pencils we supervised everything in a manic way: therefore the posture of Mr. Pain's back - upright, noble - is almost the opposite of that of Mr.Truth - insecure, hunched over. The backbone of the dialogues that Adriano talks about refers to an almost TV series format. So we often spoke with Fabrizio (Fabrizio Des Dorides, illustrator of the first volume, Editor's note) about how to make the characters "act", and we believe this gives the comic a certain identification. As if to say: they are not just drawn characters, they are really alive.

The difficulty in creating a linearity between characters and setting was not a simple step. The scenario of the asylum has its connotation crystallized in the collective imagination, thus leading readers to remain victims of this preconception in a certain sense.



Mr. Evidence therefore had the need to go beyond this limiting element, which saw an ideal starting point precisely in the definition of the various pathologies of the protagonists, as told by Adriano Barone:

In reality, the characters and their characteristics were born first, and only later was their backgrounds. There were several very long and articulated conversations between Fabio and I to understand, by doing retro-engineering, what the realistic bases of their conditions could be, which we then "stretched" (it is still an adventure and genre comic ) to define even more their abilities and their psychological and emotional "features". The idea was to have fragile protagonists, with even extreme (but narratively justified) characterizations, who were somehow mirrors of an increasingly detached, suffering, painful relationship with reality.

But Mr. Evidence is not just a story of mental illness.

Beyond the boundaries of the mind

The first volume of Mr. Evidence immediately shows the multifaceted nature of Bonelli's series. An intriguing and complex start, which saw a concurrence of different narrative mechanics (from thriller to medical drama), contributing to the genesis of a work that seems to be heading towards very different horizons. Complicit in a complex and rich operation of contextualization of the incipit of this story, Mr. Evidence represents an example of an accurate set up, i.e. of the construction of the dynamic moment of the story. A sort of pact with the reader, in which it is required to grant the narrators the certainty of not having to offer a trivial acceleration of events to create a story that has an annoying sense of deja vu, but rather a mutual trust between authors and readers, with the tacit agreement that this communion of intents heralds a story with strong and, above all, innovative tones.

It does not escape that the work carried out on the delineation of the personalities of the protagonists, the true fulcrum of a work like Mr. Evidence , is the result of careful and meticulous preparation . Although it is clear that the comic world of Barone and Guaglione is ready to evolve beyond the confines of the Mulholland Institute, the initial concentration of the story in the institute is an excellent and truthful system for bringing together characters who, slaves of their own problems, they would hardly get close. A mechanic that is not based merely on the medical aspect, taken for granted given the setting, but which makes the latter part of a deeper dynamic, which moves towards other suggestions, such as the psychological thriller. On the other hand, Guaglione does not deny how the narrative roots of Mr. Evidence were daughters of the search for a new concept:

The basic concept is by Fabio Resinaro, i.e. a crime series that had four dysfunctional individuals as protagonists who find their functionality in the investigation of particularly complex cases. A team of four borderline Sherlock Holmes, shall we say. We took this concept, we evolved the narrative horizon encroaching it into drama and spy (even if it is not yet evident in the first volume) and while we were working on it we said to ourselves that it would be a wonderful opportunity to give life to very contemporary characters, that is, characterized more by their psychological discomforts than by their strengths. In this sense, it is true that they are not traditional protagonists, but in a certain sense each of them embodies an archetypal weakness of the human soul. In short, they are freaks in whom we hope readers can recognize and reflect themselves.

The volumes of Mr Evidence

Proof of your existence



Frederick ,  Alexandra ,  Adam ,  Philipp , aka  Mr. Truth ,  Miss Nerve , Mr. None and Mr. Pain . Four individuals affected by "psychological anomalies" that lead them to see the world in a unique way. Admitted to the Mullholand Institute, these four minds afflicted by their pathologies will come to collaborate after, following a series of small signals, they begin to understand that there are secrets that are kept from them and that concern them directly. Forced to find a way to work together, Mr. Truth , Miss Nerve , Mr. None and Mr. Pain embark on an adventure that will take them beyond their fears in search of a truth that will radically change their lives.

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