Hannah Berry's Britten and Brüligtly is truly a unique work. The film noir vibe of the comic is fused with the a hint of surrealism. Surrealism in the fact that one of the tile characters, Brülightly, is a tea bag. A talking, crime solving, tea bag. And only Britten can hear him, or at least Britten is the only one who talks to him. Which begs the question, is Britten crazy? Is this some bizarre alternate reality where tea bags are sentient? Is Brülightly in fact a dead soul inhabiting a tea bag? What is going on? And yet the oddity of Brülightly's form is never explained, nor is it ever really mentioned as something odd, it's just something that is, like a person having a nose or a dog barking, it just is.
The rest of the novel is a typical film noir detective story starring Britten. Known as “The Heartbreaker” Britten is hired to investigate the apparent suicide of one Berni Kudos. The late Mister Kudos' fiancé Charlotte Maughton suspects foul play and is convinced that Berni would never have killed himself. And so she contacts Britten to assist her, unaware that his nicname and his reputation stem from his prowess as uncovering cheating spouses.
The whole book plays out in traditional detective story fashion, the internal monologues of Britten, the constantly rainy weather, the backstabbing, and all the lies and secrets are just par for the course, pretty much what you'd expect, but the inclusion of Brülightly just adds that little bit of extra bizarreness that intrigues you enough to keep reading because you want to know what the deal with him is. And then you never find out, he's the one mystery in the book that remains unresolved, left for you to figure out yourself. Another interesting facet of the novel is the writing. All of the writing I the book appears to be handwritten, Berry's cursive script shifting in legibility depending on what it is vocalizing. For Britten's internal dialogues the script is very cramped and hard to read, causing you to have to look harder for insight into the protagonists thoughts.
Really aside from just the handwriting the entire artistic style of the piece has a very hand-made vibe. The art looks like watercolor over ink and everything has those little ticks and imperfections that make art truly human. And so you can connect because when you look at the frames you see little flaws and small pieces of true beauty that intrigue you and leave you wanting more,
As far as Hannah Berry's being a woman is concerned, it's really not any sort of a big deal. The story is one that could've been written by and can be read by people of either gender, it's universal in its appeal. The author info is also incredibly vague, causing the story to stand further on its own. Al the publisher tells you about Miss Berry is that she is in her mid-twenties, has contributed illustrations to magazines in the UK, and Britten and Brülightly is her first novel. Nothing else is really needed, the story is strong enough to hold up without any knowledge of the author, it stands apart from her as a unique entity unto itself.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
The Phoenix Requiem
When it came to picking just one webcomic about which to write I had great difficulty narrowing it down. Initially I had planned to write about Hanna is Not a Boy's Name, but when I glanced at the course resources page I saw that someone had already recommended that. So I went with one of my two second choices, The Phoenix Requiem. It was a toss up between this and The Meek, and both have great merit, but I already sort of talked about The Meek in terms of the authors refusal the reveal their gender when we had our discussion over women in the comics industry and art in general. So I picked The Phoenix Requiem, coincidentally written by a woman, an Australian woman named Sarah Ellerton.
When Sarah began The Phoenix Requiem she already had a large following from her previous comic Inverloch, which ran from June 2004 to mid 2007. Almost immediately upon it's completion she began work on The Phoenix Requiem which she had had in development for a good while whilst Inverloch was wrapping up. The lack of down time between projects meant she didn't lose too many readers in changing projects. In fact she's become even more popular with The Phoenix Requiem than she ever was with Inverloch.
Sarah's main job is not being a webomics artist though, she is actually an IT worker in Queensland and so is able to support herself with a steady job as well as her comics. She doesn't sell too much merchandise, just occasional prints of chapters from the story and limited runs of statues of a few of the characters, so she doesn't make enough off of that to live off. Unlike say Penny Arcade or Questionable Content her story doesn't generate the kinds of jokes and visuals that make a good t-shirt so she simply doesn't make any.
As far as the story of the comic goes, Ellerton traditionally works in an actual plot, not just a daily or weekly gag-strip. There is an overarching story in the traditional sense, the characters are thrust into a situation and the plot carries them through a development of themselves and their environment. Webcomics with plots don't have as much longevity as strip comics because they have a definite stopping point whereas strips go as long as the creator wants to keep drawing them. PvP has been running every weekday since 1998 for Pete's sake. That's a long time in terms of the internet, over a decade.
This blog entry really ended up being more about webcomics in general as opposed to The Phoenix Requiem specifically, and for that I apologize. So I'll leave you with the synopsis as Miss Ellerton herself puts it.
“The Phoenix Requiem is a Victorian-inspired supernatural fantasy story about faith, love, death, and the things we believe in.
On a cold December night, a gentleman stumbles into the town of Esk, gunshot wounds leaving a trail of blood in the snow behind him. Despite making a full recovery at the hands of an inexperienced nurse - and deciding to make a new life for himself in the town - he is unable to escape the supernatural beings, both good and bad, that seem to follow him like shadows.
As they try to discover why, the nurse must question her beliefs and risk her own life in order to protect her family, her friends, and those that she loves.”
-Sarah Ellerton, The Phoenix Requiem, requiem.seraph-inn.com
When Sarah began The Phoenix Requiem she already had a large following from her previous comic Inverloch, which ran from June 2004 to mid 2007. Almost immediately upon it's completion she began work on The Phoenix Requiem which she had had in development for a good while whilst Inverloch was wrapping up. The lack of down time between projects meant she didn't lose too many readers in changing projects. In fact she's become even more popular with The Phoenix Requiem than she ever was with Inverloch.
Sarah's main job is not being a webomics artist though, she is actually an IT worker in Queensland and so is able to support herself with a steady job as well as her comics. She doesn't sell too much merchandise, just occasional prints of chapters from the story and limited runs of statues of a few of the characters, so she doesn't make enough off of that to live off. Unlike say Penny Arcade or Questionable Content her story doesn't generate the kinds of jokes and visuals that make a good t-shirt so she simply doesn't make any.
As far as the story of the comic goes, Ellerton traditionally works in an actual plot, not just a daily or weekly gag-strip. There is an overarching story in the traditional sense, the characters are thrust into a situation and the plot carries them through a development of themselves and their environment. Webcomics with plots don't have as much longevity as strip comics because they have a definite stopping point whereas strips go as long as the creator wants to keep drawing them. PvP has been running every weekday since 1998 for Pete's sake. That's a long time in terms of the internet, over a decade.
This blog entry really ended up being more about webcomics in general as opposed to The Phoenix Requiem specifically, and for that I apologize. So I'll leave you with the synopsis as Miss Ellerton herself puts it.
“The Phoenix Requiem is a Victorian-inspired supernatural fantasy story about faith, love, death, and the things we believe in.
On a cold December night, a gentleman stumbles into the town of Esk, gunshot wounds leaving a trail of blood in the snow behind him. Despite making a full recovery at the hands of an inexperienced nurse - and deciding to make a new life for himself in the town - he is unable to escape the supernatural beings, both good and bad, that seem to follow him like shadows.
As they try to discover why, the nurse must question her beliefs and risk her own life in order to protect her family, her friends, and those that she loves.”
-Sarah Ellerton, The Phoenix Requiem, requiem.seraph-inn.com
The Kindly Ones
I've been working my way through the Sandman series for a few years now, and I like it more and more with each issue. The Kindly Ones threw me off initially however, both in the art style and the writing.
Firstly I made the mistake of reading the forward by Frank McConnell, which basically told me the plot of the novel. Not the best plan on my part. And so since I knew that the young boy was going to become Dream and that the Dream with which I was familiar was going to die I kind of didn't really enjoy the story as much as I ought to have. With every twist and turn in the plot I knew the ultimate goal and so could see where it was going, sort of like when I watched Fight Club and already knew that Tyler Durden was a part of Edward Norton's character's mind, or when I saw The Sixth Sense already knowing that Bruce Willis' character was dead. It was one of those kinds of things.
All spoilers aside I still did enjoy the novel, though the art threw me at first. This volume is so bold and graphic and the others have slightly thinner, more sketchy lines and coloring. But it sort of lends itself to the tale. As the story progress's the art shifts and becomes darker and slightly more gritty to fit the mood of the murder and destruction of the Dreaming and its inhabitants.
Focusing on the selfish tale of Hippolyta and having her be the catalyst for Dream's ultimate demise lends a sense of humanity to an otherwise supernatural story arc. You feel for her having lost her baby and you can understand her pain when she thinks Loki burnt him alive, so her search for the Furies seems justified. But then the Furies take it too far. They see an opportunity to destroy Dream and they go for it despite Lyta's protests. So in the end her child becomes the new Dream through her own actions, and she can never see him as she knew him again.
This book feels like an end to the Sandman series with the demise of our familiar title character and ascension of one to take his place creating a nice close to the otherwise disjointed narrative. But there are two volumes left. The title of The Wake of course gives me a clue of its story, but knowing Gaiman it won't go at all as I expect. However Endless Nights is still a mystery in terms of plot for me. With the protagonist dead where can it go? I'm Neil has something up his sleeve, something new and unexpected. As long as I don't read the introduction.
Firstly I made the mistake of reading the forward by Frank McConnell, which basically told me the plot of the novel. Not the best plan on my part. And so since I knew that the young boy was going to become Dream and that the Dream with which I was familiar was going to die I kind of didn't really enjoy the story as much as I ought to have. With every twist and turn in the plot I knew the ultimate goal and so could see where it was going, sort of like when I watched Fight Club and already knew that Tyler Durden was a part of Edward Norton's character's mind, or when I saw The Sixth Sense already knowing that Bruce Willis' character was dead. It was one of those kinds of things.
All spoilers aside I still did enjoy the novel, though the art threw me at first. This volume is so bold and graphic and the others have slightly thinner, more sketchy lines and coloring. But it sort of lends itself to the tale. As the story progress's the art shifts and becomes darker and slightly more gritty to fit the mood of the murder and destruction of the Dreaming and its inhabitants.
Focusing on the selfish tale of Hippolyta and having her be the catalyst for Dream's ultimate demise lends a sense of humanity to an otherwise supernatural story arc. You feel for her having lost her baby and you can understand her pain when she thinks Loki burnt him alive, so her search for the Furies seems justified. But then the Furies take it too far. They see an opportunity to destroy Dream and they go for it despite Lyta's protests. So in the end her child becomes the new Dream through her own actions, and she can never see him as she knew him again.
This book feels like an end to the Sandman series with the demise of our familiar title character and ascension of one to take his place creating a nice close to the otherwise disjointed narrative. But there are two volumes left. The title of The Wake of course gives me a clue of its story, but knowing Gaiman it won't go at all as I expect. However Endless Nights is still a mystery in terms of plot for me. With the protagonist dead where can it go? I'm Neil has something up his sleeve, something new and unexpected. As long as I don't read the introduction.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Britten and Brülightly
Hannah Berry's Britten and Brüligtly is truly a unique work. The film noir vibe of the comic is fused with the surrealism of the fact that Brülightly is a tea bag. A talking, crime solving, tea bag. And only Britten can hear him, or at least Britten is the only one who talks to him. Which begs the question, is Britten crazy? Is this some bizarre alternate reality where tea bags are sentient? Is Brülightly in fact a dead soul inhabiting a tea bag? What is going on? And yet the oddity of Brülightly's form is never explained, nor is it ever really mentioned as something odd, it's just something that is, like a person having a nose or a dog barking, it just is.
The rest of the novel is a film noir detective story starring Britten, who is hired to investigate the apparent suicide of one Berni Kudos. The late Mister Kudos' fiancé Charlotte Maughton suspects foul play and is convinced that Berni would never have killed himself. And so she contacts Britten, who is best known for catching cheating spouses, to assist her.
The whole book plays out in traditional detective story fashion, the internal monologues of Britten, the constantly rainy weather, the backstabbing, and all the lies and secrets are just par for the course, pretty much what you'd expect, but the inclusion of Brülightly just adds that little bit of extra bizarreness that intrigues you enough to keep reading because you want to know what the deal with him is. And then you never find out, he's the one mystery in the book that remains unresolved, left for you to figure out yourself.
As far as Hannah Berry's being a woman is concerned, it's really not any sort of a big deal. The story is one that could've been written by and can be read by people of either gender, it's universal in its appeal. The author info is also incredibly vague, causing the story to stand further on its own. All the publisher tells you about Miss Berry is that she is in her mid-twenties, has contributed illustrations to magazines in the UK, and Britten and Brülightly is her first novel. Nothing else is really needed, the story is strong enough to hold up without any knowledge of the author, it stands apart from her as a unique entity unto itself.
The rest of the novel is a film noir detective story starring Britten, who is hired to investigate the apparent suicide of one Berni Kudos. The late Mister Kudos' fiancé Charlotte Maughton suspects foul play and is convinced that Berni would never have killed himself. And so she contacts Britten, who is best known for catching cheating spouses, to assist her.
The whole book plays out in traditional detective story fashion, the internal monologues of Britten, the constantly rainy weather, the backstabbing, and all the lies and secrets are just par for the course, pretty much what you'd expect, but the inclusion of Brülightly just adds that little bit of extra bizarreness that intrigues you enough to keep reading because you want to know what the deal with him is. And then you never find out, he's the one mystery in the book that remains unresolved, left for you to figure out yourself.
As far as Hannah Berry's being a woman is concerned, it's really not any sort of a big deal. The story is one that could've been written by and can be read by people of either gender, it's universal in its appeal. The author info is also incredibly vague, causing the story to stand further on its own. All the publisher tells you about Miss Berry is that she is in her mid-twenties, has contributed illustrations to magazines in the UK, and Britten and Brülightly is her first novel. Nothing else is really needed, the story is strong enough to hold up without any knowledge of the author, it stands apart from her as a unique entity unto itself.
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