📑Review: Daytripper by Fábio Moon & Gabriel Bá

Synopsis:

“What are the most important days of your life?

Meet Brás de Oliva Domingos. The miracle child of a world-famous Brazilian writer, Brás spends his days penning other people's obituaries and his nights dreaming of becoming a successful author himself—writing the end of other people's stories, while his own has barely begun.

But on the day that life begins, would he even notice? Does it start at 21 when he meets the girl of his dreams? Or at 11, when he has his first kiss? Is it later in his life when his first son is born? Or earlier when he might have found his voice as a writer?

Each day in Brás's life is like a page from a book. Each one reveals the people and things who have made him who he is: his mother and father, his child and his best friend, his first love and the love of his life. And like all great stories, each day has a twist he'll never see coming...

In Daytripper, the Eisner Award-winning twin brothers Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá tell a magical, mysterious and moving story about life itself—a hauntingly lyrical journey that uses the quiet moments to ask the big questions. “

-From Goodreads

Rating: 🐲🐲🐲🐲/5

Review:

First of all, this book is about the stories that make up life. It is about beginning and endings.

Daytripper revels in the ordinary and beautiful, the sad and unexpected and offers a thought provoking glimpse at life. It highlights the small moments that we sometimes forget are the building blocks of those “bigger” moments in our life. It is moving without being contrived. Simple but beautiful.

In addition to the beauty of the stories, the art is stunning. At times, I felt it almost overpowered the dialogue or storyline. The colors and the illustrations themselves added to the dreamlike quality of the different issues/ chapters.

To truly discuss the book would require spoilers so instead I will opt here for some vague but honest feedback. But please feel free to discuss it with us on Instagram!

The story revolves around. Brás who is occupied writing obituaries and it is through this vantage that his own story unfolds. It is established early on that death is a part of life. Through the book’s constant return to various obituaries, we are able to gradually piece together some sort of philosophy about life and what it means to “live it”. I found that Moon and Bá present a simple meditation on what it means to be human and how life, death, and society all work together in some capacity to bring meaning to the purposes we may invent for ourselves.

While at times, I almost wished for more depth to the supporting cast, it makes sense that we feel a sense of self-absorption from the perspective of Brás. After all, no matter how selfless and caring we try to be, we all end up at the center of our own universe.

Overall, I found reading Daytripper to be an “experience”. The visuals played a huge part of moving the story forward in but also were able to create an ambience that further explored the themes presented. It showed, once again, that graphic novels were not just a realm for superheroes or the “funnies”.