"Time" by Aliki Barnstone, part 1 (poem used by permission)
1 comment:
Anonymous
said...
The title panel sets the tone with a Mobius strip crossing the T over a wash that could be the sun or a tunnel. Next, the deceptively simple statement about calendars gives us a metaphor. The panel with the girl looking down at the stack works because the stylized flower on the girl's shirt is rising up from the horizon of the calendars, with the wacky cat cover on top; We know this kid is an actual poet. The days and nights presented visually as rays emanating from the girl really works because it simultaneously shows a particular person confronted with the enormity of time and the world and tells us that we are seeing both through her eyes and sensibilities in the poem. Panel four translates the line beautifully. The thirsty germ, invisible but sucking up everything in the end. The drawing nails that and the whole scene could be seen as galaxies from Hubble as easily as a microscope view. Panel five we have the poet fearing a future loss, something more to be expected from a person in mid-life, and you capture that with the brick wall and hedge, downed kite and empty wagon. The stuffed animal tea party is meticulously arranged and illustrates nicely the kind of people who want control and fear change, like me.
This is excellent. The poem makes me think of Dickinson and Thomas Wolfe, with its simultaneous appreciation and love of life and hyper-awareness that none of it is here to stay. Your comic complements the poem very well.
1 comment:
The title panel sets the tone with a Mobius strip crossing the T over a wash that could be the sun or a tunnel. Next, the deceptively simple statement about calendars gives us a metaphor. The panel with the girl looking down at the stack works because the stylized flower on the girl's shirt is rising up from the horizon of the calendars, with the wacky cat cover on top; We know this kid is an actual poet. The days and nights presented visually as rays emanating from the girl really works because it simultaneously shows a particular person confronted with the enormity of time and the world and tells us that we are seeing both through her eyes and sensibilities in the poem. Panel four translates the line beautifully. The thirsty germ, invisible but sucking up everything in the end. The drawing nails that and the whole scene could be seen as galaxies from Hubble as easily as a microscope view. Panel five we have the poet fearing a future loss, something more to be expected from a person in mid-life, and you capture that with the brick wall and hedge, downed kite and empty wagon. The stuffed animal tea party is meticulously arranged and illustrates nicely the kind of people who want control and fear change, like me.
This is excellent. The poem makes me think of Dickinson and Thomas Wolfe, with its simultaneous appreciation and love of life and hyper-awareness that none of it is here to stay. Your comic complements the poem very well.
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