Daytripper

Written by: Fabio Moon
Art by: Gabriel Ba
Publisher: Vertigo

Daytripper is a series about life that uses death as it's main device. In it we get the story of Bras de Olivia Domingos' life. The series, running for ten issues, shows us the ten most important days in Bras' life, and the catch is that he dies at the end of every one of them. This is a surprise at the end of issue one and gradually comes to be expected as the series moves on. The art by Ba is beautiful and compliments the story, the colours bring each issue the right feel and tone. Issue 2 is happier and set mostly on a beach, the colours there are brighter, light blues and yellow to reflect the themes of young love and hope. In issues 3 and 4 the colours are darker, especially 4 where things are all shades of dark blue and muted. The colour reflects the mood of the characters and whether they are having a good day or bad.

The change in the colour can be seen in the covers above( cover for number 2 is top right and number 3 bottom left). For issue 2 the cover is brighter and covers more of the page, this element shows the reader the tone of the issue. The cover of issue three, one that begins to deal with loss, showcases much darker and more onimous colours. These centered around the image of Bras smoking over packed boxes also add to this darker tone. The images themselves cover less of the page here, as there is more white background there is less to see as there will be less for Bras in the story. These elements of the paratext show the reader the change in tone for each issue. The cover for issue 1(top left above) has all the images emerging from Bras, this tells the reader he is the main character and that things included in the "bubble" behind him are most likely what they will be learning from this story. The white space here disassociates the story from others, we know we are going to focus on one character in this tale as only his past is being represented here.

Daytripper gives us one man's life through ten days. It is up to the reader to put it together and see who this character is. The issues jump around, moving forward and back in time giving Bras' life out of order. This comic presents a chance to look at one character over the years and find out what makes him tick.