Author: Beiatrix Pedrasa
Genre: Autobiographical
Schedule: Completed
Y O U R C O R N E R deserves some sort of award for the most awkwardly written title and hardest to search for. Even worse, searching “Your Corner” on Smack Jeeves, there doesn't seem to be any other comic with the same name, which makes the shifting around of letters, understandable if someone was already squatting on the title, completely arbitrary and annoying. Can't say the same for the comic itself though. It's a short comic, but manages to pack meaning with artistic motifs to enhance the writing. The art and lettering could be cleaner though, but it's a decent enough read and shows that the author has promise.
Writing
The comic is based on the author's
life in New York, realizing that despite being in a city that's
supposedly diverse, most people seclude themselves into certain
neighborhoods based on race and class. She experiences what other
parts of the city have to offer, and though still getting over her
past biases, she still encourages others to do the same.
There's very little dialogue or scenes
to really speak of. Most of the writing in the comic is done through
caption boxes of the author sharing her thoughts about past
experiences, re-examining
previously held beliefs, and coming
to a conclusion based on her musings. The overall theme of the
comic, that people should get out of their comfort zones and explore
their surroundings, isn't exactly groundbreaking or profound, but the
fact that the author makes the story personal by talking about their
own experiences and biases is what makes the story read true as a
person who's learned something new and is telling a friend rather
than if they just told you to do those things, which would come off
as preachy. The author even mentions that they still
feel uneasy about exploring their city, but still does it, which
could be seen as undermining their point, but makes them more human
and relatable.
The comic is short, and if the author
wanted to do more pages or expand the comic somewhat, I'd say that
they should probably go into more detail on her experiences in the
places she's been. She talks about the scary industrial centers and
the “existential
romance of a coffee shop on Bedford,” but besides adjectives to
describe these places, there's little to say why she likes these
places or what happened there that makes her love these places. And
what about the people? She makes a point about the ethnic
enclaves of the city and says how we should see beyond the racial
lines of the city, but says little about any people she met in the
places she went. The emphasis of cityscapes and buildings over
people is reflected in the art, which shows those places she loves
completely abandoned. The comic is personal, but could definitely
dig deeper.
The comic is black and white and
appears to be done in ink on paper. Given that there are not many
pages and panels in the comic, the author gets creative in using the
visuals to reinforce the themes of the comic. In Scott McCloud's
Understanding Comics, he
discusses the relationship between panels and storytelling. He
mentions that majority of comics use “action to action,” “subject
to subject,” and “scene to scene” but very few use “aspect to
aspect” or “non sequitor.” And these are the two that I think
this comic take advantage of. Looking at page
2, there appears to be little to no relation between panels. A
cube, a letter and a check on a desk, a droplet splashing into a
puddle, a rope barricade, a line of people following a detour, a
tree, and abstract shapes linked with lines. But it's the writing
that links the disparate elements together and grounds its abstract
qualities, and it's the art that reinforces the writing in a way that
pure text couldn't. The art also sets up some visual motifs to
strengthen the theme of the story. Boxes
frequently
appear
in the comic as well as
clouds,
both building up to the
end in which a character breaks out of a box and breaks through
the smoke to see the endless possibilities of literally thinking
outside the box.
Despite
this, there are still some things that could use improving. The
early pages are too wide, resulting in horizontal and vertical
scrolling. Though part of this is because she used a template that
pushes the page off to the right of the comment section. The
lettering
in the early pages and the
map legend here is difficult to understand. And despite
everything I've said about the way she's been able to reinforce
points in the writing in the art, when she does have to draw the
places she's been to, she writing has to carry the art, because the
“scariest
looking warehouse gallery” looks anything but. If she played
with the lighting or the angles in the scene, she could have made it
look sinister on its face, similar to how she
portrayed Brooklyn earlier in the comic.
Y O U R C O R N E R
is short, but a combination of personal writing and art that
reinforces the themes and language of the art show that there was
clearly a lot of thought packed into a tight space. The writing
could go into a little more detail and the art could still do more to
reinforce the writing, but overall, not a bad effort and I wouldn't
mind seeing future comics from the same author.
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