Daytripper #1-10
Published by: DC/Vertigo – 2010
Written and Illustrated by: Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba
Daytripper is that rare comic that can make a grown man’s eyes water—though, perhaps, not outright cry.
A ten-issue DC/Vertigo miniseries from 2010, written and illustrated by brothers Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba, Daytripper is the story of the many deaths of Bras de Oliva Domingos, a Brazilian man with aspirations of literary greatness whom makes ends meet as a writer of obituaries. Each issue highlights a pivotal moment in his life, culminating in his untimely death, and obituary, at the end of each issue. Revealing this detail is not a spoiler because it is part of the premise, not merely the plot. The important parts of the story are the things he leaves behind.
In rejecting the notion of a singular continuity, each death is as canonical or as apocryphal as the next. Each new death ranges from bittersweet to sad to tragic and is treated with delicate poignancy; an orphaned child, a love never fulfilled, ambitions never realized, a life never lived, each tug at the heartstrings and may even cause some sort of introspection or self-reflection on one’s own mortality and what makes life such a special, fragile, gift, however fleeting it may be.
The interior art appears to have been done primarily by Moon whose art is most obviously distinguished from his brother’s similar style by the use of a brush rather than a pen in the inking stage. Ba, on the other hand, produces the cover art and a vignette in issue 9. Their respective roles in writing the comic are unclear, as they are both billed as its creators without any specific delineation of whom did what. Moon’s art is competent—perhaps even endearing—tells the story well, and conveys the emotions therein, but does not elicit long, lingering glances to focus on its artistry independent of its narrative role. In general, in terms of two-dimensional composition, Moon is surpassed by his brother in this regard.
The writing, though, is what makes Daytripper such a special and unique experience. The dialogue may not be pithy, snappy, or particularly clever, but it doesn’t have to be. The story’s focus is on the characters, their relationships, and the emotions that compose life—the small details that seem trivial until put into the greater context of a life, or the tragedy of a death, and the life left behind.
Daytripper is not for all ages. The theme of death is, for the most part, not disturbing or morbid and, other than being occasionally somewhat graphic, should pose no significant source of offense; the comic’s treatment of life, however, includes the typical experiences of adults—sex mostly—that would probably be considered inappropriate for anyone whom can’t already relate to them on a personal, experiential, level. For that reason, Daytripper should be found only in the reading diet of the post-adolescent.
Any fan of Daytripper will likely enjoy the other projects by Moon and Ba as a team or independently—such as Two Brothers, Casanova, and The Umbrella Academy. Casanova is a time-travel/parallel-reality espionage adventure comic—written by Matt Fraction—with a plot so convoluted summarizing it is a fool’s errand. The Umbrella Academy written by Gerard Way—the lead singer of the rock band “My Chemical Romance”—is about super-powered youngsters and is surprisingly satisfying—surprising because of the natural assumption that a singer in a rock band probably wouldn’t be that good of a writer. Two Brothers has more in common with Daytripper in that it focuses on families and slices of life in Brazil—Moon and Ba’s country of origin.
Also, the Spanish comic The Extended Dream of Mr. D by Max (no first name, no last name, just “Max”) should appeal to the same audience as Daytripper. The Extended Dream of Mr. D is the story of a surreal, symbolist, dream had by a man during a coma that lasts forty days and forty nights.
Brian Bigelow
August 14, 2018
