Marvin

Born in 1967, Ian David Marsden spent his formative years in Zurich, Switzerland. He later worked and lived in places all over the world, now residing in the Pic Saint Loup region of the south of France with his wife and three daughters, who are his pride and joy, and an ever-growing cast of pets.

"Mar­vin, a graph­ic nov­el adapt­ed and illus­trat­ed by Ian David Mars­den based on The Way I Was by Mar­vin Ham­lisch, tells the sto­ry of Ham­lisch, a famous film com­pos­er, through a Jew­ish lens. A large por­tion of the graph­ic nov­el fol­lows Mar­v­in’s par­ents in flash­backs as they escape Nazi Ger­many to come to Amer­i­ca, where Mar­vin him­self is born. Explor­ing his par­ents’ sto­ry allows for a greater under­stand­ing of his Jew­ish her­itage and what his par­ents had to do to sur­vive Nazi Germany. The book shines when it show­cas­es Mar­v­in’s suc­cess­es. Once he starts to make it as a com­pos­er, he nar­rates the sto­ries behind some of his biggest tri­umphs, such as his break­out score for ​“The Swim­mer,” and his Gold­en Globe Win­ning song for ​“Kotch.” The graph­ic nov­el illus­trates his writ­ing process, often uti­liz­ing some of the skills he learned from his edu­ca­tion at Jul­liard, detailed at the begin­ning of the book. Mars­den includes celebri­ty cameos and behind the scenes looks at Hol­ly­wood which add sparkle and recog­ni­tion to the story. Mars­den’s art style invites in all graph­ic nov­el read­ers. The car­toon­ish yet vivid faces of the char­ac­ters are warm and friend­ly, and make Mar­v­in’s sto­ry feel famil­iar and acces­si­ble. Mar­vin is a fun read for any film fan who wants to learn about musi­cal scores, iron­i­cal­ly one of the medi­um’s most unsung aspects."