SotA Anthology 2015-16
that shows the reader that
‘You’ has distinct personality
traits that embellish their own
separate characterisation,
complicating the resonance
between
them.
The
placement in the centre of
the page echoes the cover
and acts as a focal point for
the reader’s eye, and for
‘You’s characterisation to
revolve around. The large
amount of text skews the
image-text balance of the
page uncomfortably, but the
structure of the page aims
to keep it visually striking.
Next comes a double-page
splash (above), inspired by
Tom Gauld comics. Both
Calvino and Gauld portray
books and book stores as
fundamentally intimidating.
Comic stores, due to their
niche market status, share
some of this perception,
and have long been
considered rather hostile,
labyrinthine environments
to new or casual readers.
Here the index is spliced
between Calvino’s categories
(though ‘book’ is altered to
‘comic’) and others unique
to comics, acting as easter
egg references for general
comics readers, such as
the staple ‘gritty superhero
reboot’ and the ‘superfluous
issue #1.’ The comic shop
is deliberately exaggerated
in size to reflect Calvino’s
metaphor of the book
store as an unconquerable
fortress. The lack of
margins allows the image
to bleed up to the edges
of the page, suggesting
infinite, borderless space.
‘You’ is placed in several,
increasingly frantic positions
across the page - the path
made chronological in the
absence of panels by a
series of arrows searching
the enormous, distracting
shelves. Some of these
shelves are also indexed
with text boxes, one of which
is made of wavy lines and
lowercase font, to depict a
confidential whisper.
After this (see facing page,
top left) ‘you’ splinters
briefly into multiple selves:
a doctor, chef, a woman on
the bus. As their ‘YOU’ shirts
are mostly obscured, arrows
make their singular identity
clear. The page is split into
thirds, visually marked by
the varied panel shapes;
the first shows travel, the
second shows the ‘you’s
distracted in their various
jobs amongst escalating
peril, and the third stretches
in to one large panel, as
‘you’ returns home, resumes
one self, and begins to read.
The bottom panel converts
the novel’s text to presenttense imperatives, chopped
into small text boxes and
scattered over the page.