Week 11: Comics as Contemporary Literature

When I hear the word "contemporary", I think about edgy and new..... like a modern art. I also think about nontraditional narrative styles. As such, Sandman Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman fits the bill pretty damn well!

As written in my older blog post, I started reading The Sandman series. Sandman Endless Nights is like a spin-off that focuses on the Endless: Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair, and Delight/Delirium. Each chapters tell each of the Endless' stories and the art style shifts accordingly. While all of them are cool and beautiful on their own, the one that stood out for me was Despair's "15 Portraits of Despair."

 

It is crazy! Each page is filled with grotesque imagery of what despair looks like or feels like. How do you portray absolute pain, helplessness, loneliness, and regret? How do you portray something that slowly, but surely gnaws into your heart and mind? "15 Portraits of Despair" does just that. There is no fixed layout or structure in terms of paneling. They are spread or squeezed haphazardly, as if someone shook the entire page violently. Sometimes, the illustrations are somber and lonely, sometime they are filled with rage and confusion. The little amount of texts help bring some coherence and narrative to the chaos. However, upon reading them, they too only add to the sense of despair. While Despair's chapter is not as crazy/ confusing as Delirium's, Despair's is by far the most emotionally charged one. 

On the other hand, Destiny's, Death's Dream's, Destruction's, and Desire's stories follow a more conventional narrative style. I can see why, as their focus is more on their actions instead of the emotions that they inflict. For example, Desire's story tells of a woman who desired the most handsome man in her village, who happened to be a womanizer. After making a deal with a witch and seducing the man into marriage, she finally got what she desired. However, by doing so, she no longer desired for anything as strongly anymore. After her husband's death, her life passed by quickly and rather uneventfully, until she died quietly. I take it that without desire, there is no purpose and excitement in life. After all, desire is what pushes people into the extremes. Desire for money, power, love, peace, or anything at all, leads people to take action. As such, desire is probably one of the most important driving force behind people's life.

Sandman Endless Nights is an awesome read, and it gives a fun glimpse of the siblings' relationships long before the main story took place. Believe it or not, Dream used to be pretty fond of Desire, and we even got a glimpse of Delight before she turned into Delirium! It is also nice to see Destruction, as he seldom appeared. Lastly, it is always nice to see comic/ graphic novel artists explore different styles of narrative. When done right, the result is so satisfying and memorable. In addition, this experience is something that can't necessarily be felt while reading a novel.