Whenever someone asks me what comicbook
I would recommend to someone who has read little or no comics at all, I almost always
recommend Daytripper by the
Brazilian wonder twins Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá. Published by Vertigo, a
mature titles imprint of DC, Daytripper is available in one nifty volume that
remains perennially in print, collecting all ten issues of the limited series.
So one gets a complete story at once without needing any commitment to get succeeding
volumes. And if it turns out to be not their cup of tea, well I have yet to encounter
someone who was disappointed with this recommendation.
At the heart of Daytripper is Brás
de Oliva Domingos, a newspaper obituary writer living under the shadow of his
father who is a leading literary figure in Brazil. Each chapter highlights a
brief moment in Brás life and then always ends with his death punctuated by an
obituary that could’ve been written by Brás himself.
Brás unexpected death at the end of
the first issue along with the second installment jumping back to years earlier
with another snapshot of his life and then the issue ending at his death once again
baffled monthly readers back then. But by the third issue, readers knew what to
expect and continued to savor the glimpses of Brás life and that of his lovers,
family and friends knowing that his death looms at the last page.
During one of the latter
chapters, Brás was never seen and yet his presence was still greatly felt.
Those with the coldest of hearts will be the only ones left unmoved by this
portion of the book.
I can’t stress how essential this
graphic novel is. The lush art of Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá transports the
reader to numerous exotic locales while delivering a very human story that shoots straight to the core. It is
also remarkable how the two managed to maximize the serialized nature of the work
and yet retaining an elegant pace when read as a collected whole.
