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Daytripper by Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon

21 Pages 1675 Words 1557 Views

No aspect of one's life can bring more pleasure than their family and nothing can bring more pain. Collaboratively written and drawn by brothers Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon, "Daytripper" is a novel that effectively utilizes the graphic novel medium that shadows the journey of Oliva Domingo's as a father, a son, a friend, a writer and a lover through glances of minuscule but focal moments of his life. Each issue is a small fragment from different periods of Brás' life that is presented non-chronologically. The authors delivers a work of art that commemorates the unique experiences in life while reminding the reader that even a commonplace can be extraordinary. The complexity of ideas strewn throughout the novel allows the audience to interpret the story in wide array meanings. The humanity of Daytripper is found in the ways that the readers relate and how they are drawn to reflect and put themselves into Bra's shoes. Although the novel may focus on the deaths of one man, each death is an echo of his life. Through the collective sets of obituaries, it forces us to consider the value of our friendships and the purposes of our lives. Ba and Moon explores the importance of relationships and its effect the characters throughout Daytripper through the use of colors, selective lens focus and echoing. Moon and Ba effectively employs selective lens focus and color schemes to emphasize the effect of Bra's relationship with Olinda on his perception of life. Olinda is a manifestation of a goddess who finds meaning in the motivation of the action. He symbolizes what Bra's is not, a free-spirited person who is ever-present in the moment. In the frame of their seven-year-long relationship, it is sad to witness that the time where Olinda shouts "I hate you - you piece of shit  at Brás in the third panel of issue 3 is the moment that defines their relationship in Bra's eyes. This causes the moments that they shared prior and after this moment to no longer hold any significant. Seen through Bra's perspective, Moon's and Bá's decision to open the issue with this conflict is synonymous to fact that it is at the forefront of Bra's attention as well. This flashback later appears in greater detail and is evident that it is the point in time that defines Bra's. It leaves him unable to come to term with the value of love: "You think it's for good, for life, forever and for what?  (Page 59). Throughout the issue, Olinda is present in only ten panels. It is important to notice that her "presences  is still present in the other panels through her absence and it's effect on Bra's mental state. Through visual metaphors and panel layouts, Moon and Ba contracts Bra's emotional state through a series of four panels presented on t

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