Werner Herzog, the director. Klaus Kinski, the actor. Together they made five feature films. These five films are, in my opinion, among the best in the history of cinema. But almost as interesting as the films themselves is the troubled working relationship between Herzog and Kinski, explored in Herzog's documentary, My Best Fiend. What is it that drove Herzog to work with the madman again and again? And what was it in Herzog that Kinksi needed, so much so that he continued to accept the roles Herzog offered him, despite his and Herzog's simultaneously hatched plans to murder one another?
These comics are not an attempt to answer those questions. What they are is a tribute to Herzog's fantastic documentary-- which everyone should go watch right now-- and a tribute to Herzog and Kinski themselves. Strange as it may sound, knowing about them has literally improved my life. Remember, everything in these comics is true. Or, even better, ecstatically true.
mein liebster feind.
he had spent himself
he burned away like a comet
afterwards he was
ashes.
we can go no further.
i am no more.
and yet we belonged together
we were ready to go down
together.
i see us back in the jungle
in a boat
the whole world
belongs to us.
but klaus seems to want
to fly away
shouldn't i have noticed
that it was his soul
that wanted to flutter away?
then i see him with a butterfly
softly,
delicately,
the little creature doesn't want to
leave him
and is so unafraid.
sometimes it seems to me
that klaus himself
turns into a butterfly
everything that weighed on us
is gone.
and
even though my mind
revolts against it
something deep inside
tells me this is the way
i'd like to keep him
in my memory.
--werner herzog.
return to comix home.
in the unlikely event that anyone involved with werner herzog filmproduktion should stumble across this site, i hope you do not take offense to it. it is but a loving amateur homage. i am not now making and never will make any profit from it.
