Use of Page and Panel Layout in "Daytripper"

I chose to look at chapter 7 in the work, “Daytripper”, especially at the point where Bras find Jorge after receiving the letter from Jorge, asking to find him.  On pg 175 and 176 is the point where Bras find Jorge, alone in a shack off the coast of the beach. He is deranged and not acting like he usually does and this led me to believe that Bras would save his friend and return safely. I chose this page because I feel it captured a lot of emotion in both the page and the reader. Our expectation of Jorge in the chapters previous to this would never lead us to believe that this character is capable of this. Fabio and Gabriel did an amazing job in capturing the perfect setting for this, with the dark color scheme of the background and the red setting sun that is representing the mood and the foreshowing of bloodshed.

To further deepen the setting and to play on the reader’s feelings, the scene flips back to a memory of the two friends on vacation, enjoying life and trying to understand life. In the memory are caught up with everyday worries like work, money and being successful and then flips back to him murdering Bras. This puts the two in perspective showing how we fill our lives with worries and things we need to do, instead of just enjoying life and understanding how short, fragile and unpredictable it can be. Another interesting element of these two pages is the fact that what is happening in actual time takes up the whole page with not border and the memory is in panels and contained over top of the events currently happening. On page 175, the first thing the reader sees is a shot of trees blowing in the wind and the sound “TK” to portray Bras getting stabbed off page. Flipping through and integrating the surreal memory of their vacation with the gothic and violent genre, opens up this contrast to the reader. It gives us perspective of their relationship attaching us emotionally to them, while Jorge murders his best friend. This pulls on two contrasting feelings, immersing the reader in the text, and making them hear and see the act and feel with the characters.

The depth of feeling and portrayal of the contrast of events really took me by surprise and engaged me into the comic even more. These contrasting feelings made me read the page over and over, trying to comprehend the actions of Jorge against his best friend. The creators do an great job with the color scheme, borderless page and memory panels to get not only to portray the event, but to immerse.