Daytripper #10 – Review

By: Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba (creators), Dave Stewart (colors) & Sean Konot (letters)

The Story: Daytripper comes to an end.  Is it going to tie things up with a bow or leave us with questions to ponder?

What’s Good: I thought this series wrapped up perfectly.  Some people might have wanted an explanation to the series that was along the lines of parallel universes, but this series was never about that.  It is about family and children and how habits and traditions are passed down through the generations. It is about everyday activities.   But mostly, it is just simply about life and the moments in all of our lives that write the book of “who we are”.

All of this series has been shown through the eyes of Bras and has touched on his important moments: the birth of his child, meeting his sweetheart, the publication of his book and this issue shows the end of his life and how he has become his father in some ways (the good ways) and how he treasures the relationship with his son and grandchildren.  It shows the circle of life in a way that I really appreciate as a parent.

The art is just so spot on.  It has been consistent throughout the series.  All of the bodies and faces are 100% believable.  I don’t think I saw a bad panel in the entire 10 issues.  There was never a scene where you think, “What the hell?  Is his back broken or something?”  On top of that, they have nailed the familial resemblances of the characters and the aging of those characters.  This is just a great, great issue and series.

Daytripper #9 – Review

By: Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba (creators), Dave Stewart (colors) & Sean Konot (letters)

The Story: We finally get some answers to what is going on with Bras and why he keeps dying at the end of each issue.

What’s Good: For a change, Bras doesn’t die at the end of this issue.  I had kinda assumed that Ba & Moon wouldn’t make the entire series about scenes from the guy’s life and then have him die at the end.  Even though all of those issues ranged from good to spectacular, I was wondering what the bigger point was, but then each successive issue would come out without any hint that it would be tied together.  I was frankly getting a little worried (which is silly given how incredible the first 8 issues of this limited series have been).

I won’t say that this issue makes it “clear” because it is very metaphysicial and if you wanted this series tied up with a neat bow on the top, I think you’ll be disappointed after issue #10 next month.  But, we do start to get some clarity on what this series is about.

Not surprisingly, it is about life and the human condition.  In life, Bras works as an obituary writer who tries to do a good job.  He isn’t happy just writing up a date of birth and summary of family members and jobs held, he really tries to capture the essence of what made that person special and who they were.  I think what we are getting here at the end of Daytripper is that Bras is dead and has been dead for the entire series and before his spirit can move on, he has the opportunity to re-experience the poignant moments from his life and that is what we have seen in issue #1-8.  He dies at the end of each issue because he is, in fact, dead and nothing can change that.  In a way, he is kind of writing his own obituary or the book of his own life.  Imagine if after you died, your whole life was basically laid out before you and you were asked to edit it down into a 300-page book to tell the story of your life.  It’s kinda like that.

Daytripper #8 – Review

By: Gabriel Ba & Fabio Moon (creators), oddly this issue has no credits or indicia

The Story: What if a family member leaves on a routine trip and you never see them again?

What’s Good: The Brazilian brothers found a way to mix this issue up without really straying from the same basic story that we’ve had since the first issue.  Throughout the series, our main character, Bras, has died at the end of every issue after we see a story from a day or so in his life.  Part of the reason this issue is so powerful is because Bras doesn’t make a single appearance in the entire issue; we see the story completely through the eyes of his wife and young child who are going about their days while Daddy is traveling on business.

What the creators do so well is capture the exact emotions of what being a parent and having a traveling spouse is like.  “We” all like to talk about how comics have much more mature themes than they used to have because they’re more violent or have more sexual situations, but this issue of Daytripper is the real deal.  I just cannot imagine this comic having the same impact on someone who is 22, unmarried and without kids as it does on a parent with a spouse who travels sometimes.  They nail all the emotions: missing your spouse, the disruption in your daily routine by having to do your spouse’s daily tasks, the pleasure of having a child all to yourself, the voice mails and texts going back and forth, the minor irritation that the spouse isn’t there to “help” and (at the end) that little fear in the back of your mind: What if they don’t come home?

Even though this issue is yet another gut punch, I really appreciate a work that can make me feel much of anything on an emotional level without having to resort to shock and gore.  Try getting this level of emotional reaction from an Avengers comic!

Daytripper #7 – Review

By: Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba (writing/art), Dave Stewart (colors), Sean Konot (letters)

The Story: Will Bras be able to find his missing friend Jorge and what will happen when they get back together?

What’s Good: I still don’t really know where this storyline is going.  Wait, why am I listing that as a “good thing?”  Well, I’ll tell you: I spend more time trying to figure Daytripper out than any other comic I read.

I read about 60 new comics every month, so that doesn’t leave me tons of time to ponder the intricacies of someone’s obtuse plot.  Usually when I read a book that is just a little too “meta” (e.g. Batman #700 this week), I just grunt and pick up the next book on the stack because I’m annoyed that the writer is making it so darn hard (or perhaps trying to be a little more clever than the writing/art skills of the book will allow).  However, with Daytripper, I have really spent a lot of time trying to figure out what Ba and Moon are up to with this story.  I have NO answer yet, but I am fairly sure that it isn’t a knock off of “you killed Kenny!” from South Park.  This will make a great collected edition!

This issue was very interesting because for one of the few times in this series, events in this issue directly reference back to the prior issue.  The only time we’ve seen that before was with some of Bras’ girlfriends/wives, but even those stories did not feel as tightly tied as issues 6 and 7.

In the last issue, we saw Bras worrying that his good friend Jorge had been killed in a plane crash.  At the end of the issue, we learned that Jorge was alive, but had become disturbed/depressed and decided to “check out” of life and go on walkabout.  That issue ended with Bras dying in a logging truck accident while trying to go find his friend.  This issue again shows Bras looking for Jorge, but it is years later.  The search and reunion are touching and the end was pretty shocking/brutal (especially how it ties into a postcard that Jorge had sent to Bras).  Part of this series’ shtick is killing Bras at the end of each issue, so it does remind me very much of watching early episodes of South Park to see what interesting way Kenny would die.  This death for Bras really caught me off guard and that’s saying something because you read the entire issue with an eye towards the death at the end.

Daytripper #6 – Review

By: Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba (creators), Dave Stewart (colors) & Sean Konot (letters)

The Story: Has Bras lost his best friend in a plane crash?  Will Bras die again?

What’s Good: The marriage of story and art continues to be just exemplary in Daytripper.  Ba and Moon are really doing a great job of finding real events that we can all associate with: birth of a child, death of a family member, finding new romance, or…in this case, the fear that a good friend has been lost.

The basic premise for this issue is that there has been a plane crash.  Bras, who is a lowly obituary writer at the newspaper, is asked to write obituaries for the victims.  Bras really throws himself into the work, but is very concerned about his good friend who was supposed to be on the flight.  We repeatedly see Bras try to call his buddy on his cell (which is what we’d all do), and be disappointed when it just rolls to voice mail.  Haven’t we all been in that situation:  Calling a friend who you’re worried about, having their phone roll to voice mail and thinking in the back of your mind….”That’s exactly what the phone would do if ______________ happened.”  It is just amazing how well Ba and Moon are able to find these little parts of life and then use them to build drama and a story.  They are also masters of facial expression and body language.  Daytripper could almost be a silent comic in places and you would still know what is going on.

Daytripper #5 – Review

By: Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba (writers/artists), Dave Stewart (colors) & Sean Konot (letters)

The Story: An 11-year old boy enjoys an idyllic time of innocence on his family’s farm.

What’s Good: You could almost do a copy/paste for what is good about this title month after month.  Both the story and the art effortlessly capture memorable moments from a person’s life.  In this case, we are focusing on our main character (Bras) as an 11-year-old boy who gets to spend the weekends on his family’s farm.  Part of the reason a story like this is so touching is that it reminds you of being eleven.  The joy of flying a kite.  The mayhem of large family gatherings.  Getting a first kiss from a girl.  Just being a kid without a care in the world.   As an aside, I wonder if this comic connects with women as well as it seems to connect with most men?

I’m really impressed at how well Moon and Ba have come up with a list of these types of events in a person’s life.  But, more impressive is how well they meld the language of the story with the art.  Especially considering they aren’t native English speakers.  They have really mastered the facial expressions and body posture of the characters so you know exactly what their mood is, what they are thinking and how they feel.  Bravo!

This issue also really yanks at your heart and makes you dread the ending.  If you’ve followed Daytripper, you know how they all end and when you open this comic and see that it is about an eleven-year-old boy, the dread creeps over you.  Very effective storytelling, even if it isn’t particularly pleasant.

I also want to give a quick kudos to Dave Stewart.  The coloring in this issue is really nice and I don’t think colorists get enough credit.