It's not really a secret that I've been high on Daytripper for a while now, touting in both the preview of Daytripper #1 and the December Comics Guide my excitement for this new ten issue series from Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon by way of Vertigo. It feels forever ago that it was announced, but now here I am holding the issue in my hands. Was it worth the wait? More importantly, is Daytripper what I expected?
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Yes, to both questions. "Worth the wait" is self-explanatory. It's good. Surprise! But saying that something is "what you expected" is usually code for "I've seen this before" or "average". But that's not the case here. After all, my expectations were beyond high. Daytripper is not like any other book being published at Vertigo right now. There's no political intrigue like Air. No rough-and-tough sex and violence like Scalped. No third world awareness like Unknown Soldier. And there is certainly no high-concept literary allusions like Fables or The Unwritten. All of those books are great for those reasons, but Daytripper is able to carve out a new little niche of the current Vertigo standard.
Daytripper is a very subtle, and incredibly personal look at a human being that longs to make his own way in life - in this case, a writer that wants to step out of the shadow of his father - and that has become disillusioned with his day job and his aging presence. The way in which Moon and Ba weave the obituaries that the main character, Bras, writes into the narrative is remarkable. Each short interlude is in some way relatable to Bras' life, some only after giving the book another read. To me, that is what elevates this issue above the norm, it is able to make you think about what you read and go back to think about it some more.
Bras is a great characer, and certainly easy to identify with. And though we never meet them other than through conversation, we are given a very clear picture of Bras' relationship with his parents. Using the comics medium to the fullest, Moon and Ba are able to expertly mesh the script and the artwork to form a delicately paced and beautifully rendered issue. There are no wasted words here, nor are there any space-filling panels. Just like the message the creators are trying to convey, there is nothing trivial in these pages that should ever go unnoticed or worse yet, unappreciated.
The artwork, like the script, is low-key and has a certain sense of tranquility that is only enhanced by Dave Stewart's phenomenal coloring. He uses a wide array of warm tones for his backgrounds, that then seem to spill into the scene amongst the characters, surrounding them. Going by that train of thought, the semi-shock value ending shouldn't be all that surprising when you see the sort of color change that Stewart unleashes.
For spoilers sake, I'm not going to divulge said ending, but while it holds an initial element of shock, or even confusion, I think we can rely on Ba and Moon to use this as a launching point for the remainder of Daytripper. If the first issue is indicative, then Vertigo's newest book will be another fantastic addition to their illustrious library.
