A labyrinth in the fog above the abyss
Essé for the online magazine Elephant in Boa.
Brecht Evans is exceptional. And although it’s kind of weird to say this now that we’ve kind of given up on a pyramid with a major artist on top in favor of the risoma, but I still want to record it somehow. It’s totally irrational and very personal impression that I have when I look at his work: it’s like they’re the ones where the comic book finally gets itself, like he was still in the shadow of animation, literature, painting, and only Evans legitimized him as a completely self-sufficient kind of art. While such a statement without adequate reinforcement seems extremely vulnerable, I would like to start with it: because trying to explain my own feelings has been the source of the observations and conclusions I want to share.
Midnighters, Brecht Evans, SBP.: Bookbook, 2021
Richard McGuire, from an interview for Lock At Me
This understanding of the comic book has found its perfect expression in McGuire’s novel «Here»: this book depicts the same room at each turn, and the video clippings, like pop-up Windows windows, depict the events that took place in this place at different times. And the time isn’t linear: at one turn, we can watch the Lenape Indians, and at the other, we can watch McGuire’s parents, who are also in the comic book, celebrate Christmas. You don’t have to read «here» from the first to the last page, we can read it from the end, from the middle, open it at random turns, and in a way that comes to mind just us. In this way, the book gives the reader an endless story, which is built only by his efforts. McGuire, followed by many comics, refuses to manage the reader’s view by delegateing the storyteller’s function to the reader, crossing the boundary between the author and the reader’s narration.
«Here,» Richard McGuire, Corpus, 2016
Another vector takes Ray Fawkes in its comic book «The People Inside». The comic book is built on a hard net of six frames on each strip. Each shot describes the history of the same couple’s relationship. The human resources grid is broken if the couple separates (the person divides into two) or if one of the two dies (the person divides into two, and one of the staff becomes black). So we keep track of the lives of 24 people at the same time from their encounter to their death, where all heroes speak at the same time. And if, in the case of McGuire, we’re dealing with a comic book that delegates to the reader the right to choose the order in which the story is built, then Fawkes in turn uses the comic book’s ability to tell several stories in parallel in such a way that no one interrupts the other (how loudly the animated version of The People Inside sounds). However, the expansion that Evens chooses seems to have a different nature. All the authors listed focus the reader’s attention in one way or another only on certain points in history, using the set-up principles that Scott McClaude described in the Comics Understanding.
Scott McClaude, Understanding Comics, M.: White Apple, 2016
Enlightenment, Antonia Kyun, S.B.: Bookbook, 2020
Enlightenment, Antonia Kyun, S.B.: Bookbook, 2020
Panther, Brecht Evens, S.B.: Bookbook, 2017
Panther, Brecht Evens, S.B.: Bookbook, 2017
Panther, Brecht Evens, S.B.: Bookbook, 2017
In other cases, Evens' heroes operate in an unlimited white-leaf space. This allows much more phases to be used without overloading the turn-off (the 12-seat strip inevitably looks very dense, but the absence of a human resources grid makes it possible to avoid it by providing the necessary air). But, most importantly, the exclusion of the scope in the case of Evens also means the disappearance of the inter-person space, the blindest area in which silence is hidden. The speculation in his comic books is kept to a minimum. It’s like we’re running a film where the action is continuous. One phase flows smoothly into another phase, and it creates an absolute sense of credibility and intimacy: we feel that nothing has been missed in the dialogue. No sighs, no jamming, no weird, awkward tone will go unnoticed.
Panther, Brecht Evens, S.B.: Bookbook, 2017
Sometimes, to highlight the continuity of action, Evans sleeps the phases in one rhythmic spot. The movement of heroes becomes like a heart pulse on a monitor: there’s gonna be problems if it stops. Evens' heroes, who are so alive and reliable, tend to act in absolute emptiness: so nothing distracts us; on the contrary, every confession, even though it is whispered, is so clearly heard. It makes every scene in which there’s space so amazing, so loud that it can hardly even hear itself. It seems even that the dialogues are therefore so piercingly sincere and alive that they are placed on a Wednesday that completely humanizes heroes. And to create such an environment, Evans uses a very unconventional set of tools for a comic book.
Midnighters, Brecht Evans, SBP.: Bookbook, 2021
Midnighters, Brecht Evans, SBP.: Bookbook, 2021
Although attempts to enter this genre have been made before (for example, the great turn of 1937, «New Year’s Party for the Most Known Comics» by artists of the then-known New Cartoon Action Group comic association for the Japanese magazine Asahi Graph), it was the end of the 1960s that proved to be the most iconic time for this type of graphical narration. Because it is at this time that Roland Bart is one of the first to wonder whether our approach to the text is as true as a code that we can decode, and can we really, by studying the figure of the writer and its text along and across, determine exactly what the author wanted to say?
«When the author has been eliminated, all the claims to „discrypt“ the text become completely in vain. In a multidimensional letter, everything has to be deciphered, but there’s nothing to decipher; a structure can be traced, „trace“ (as it pulls down a loop on a stocking) in all its repeats and at all its levels, but it is impossible to reach the bottom; the space of the letter is given to us for a run, not for a breakthrough; the letter constantly gives meaning, but it immediately flies away, there is a systematic release of meaning.»
Roland Bart, Chosen Jobs: Semiotics. Poetry. M., 1994 c. 384-391
«The real charm of all these gigantic works is their mini-sagas, countless tiny stories shown in small pieces. The man and the woman who meet form a couple, become parents, and then separate. A ghost or a man in a fire, nudist, and skeleton. Together, these visitors watch, sweat, smoke, eat, light up, make selfies, or even scream sometimes. Kebby himself, as well as his parents and several friends, appear.»
Cynthia Rose, How Yann Kebbi Made His Own Museum, The comics Journal, Oct 17, 2019
Midnighters, Brecht Evans, SBP.: Bookbook, 2021
The artist of the Wimmelbuch has a unique vision. He’s capable of looking at buildings in a way, his will distorts his perspective so that we can see events on different plans with equal clarity, and the roofs of houses can be seen even when we look at passers-by on the street. It’s also the optics of the ruthless surveillance camera or, say, the everywhere drone, and the optics of the mobile phone that we’re making selfies from in the crowd. It must have been like this for us to see the Creator’s world, seeing everything and everyone at the same time. And this view, despite the impressive genealogy, is surprisingly ending today, where the world is reflected simultaneously in dozens of different screens.
Midnighters, Brecht Evans, SBP.: Bookbook, 2021
Over the course of 120 years of its history, the comic book has sought depth and psychology in a variety of ways. The storyteller’s voice (such as David B.'s Holy Disease or Art Spiegelman’s Mouse) was once based on a complex system of symbols and references (such as the alternative manga of Seiti Hayashi), in some cases, as, say, in the «Tales» segment of the popular comic book, the discovery of heroes was facilitated by an enormous amount of work. Each era and location produced its own set of tools that allowed us to talk about the topics that the reader was concerned about at that time. So the set of tools that Evans uses is also relevant to the era in which he operates. But what is striking is not even the relevance of these instruments, but their accuracy and diversity.
Midnighters, Brecht Evans, SBP.: Bookbook, 2021
Interestingly, in one way or another, Evens fits into almost every story. For example, in a conference at the ICU School of Design, «Theory and Practice of Art and Design», Evans explained that Panther was originally just a transfer and a continuation of the game that Evans played with his girlfriend: sometimes in conversations he pretended to be other people using different mimics and intonations, and these metamorphosiss so enticed him that he decided to dedicate a book to them. However, when history began to take shape and Evans saw what new meanings were emerging, he deliberately refused to clarify his statement, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions about what was happening in the book. By this point, the meaning field of the novel had grown incredibly, and the innocent story of the game had turned into a soul-cold exploration of the image of an imaginary friend.
Midnighters, Brecht Evans, SBP.: Bookbook, 2021
The parts of the presentation presented by Brecht Evans at the ICU School of Design Conference «Theory and Practice of Art and Design» on 22 April 2021.
In the same video show, he showed a presentation comparing Nina’s painting with his own. Evens has a lot to do with the world’s visual culture. He often takes what’s far away, and that gives him a remarkable intubational diversity. Here are the engravings of Utagawa Kuniyoshi, and David Hockney, and Adolf Wolfley, and Blacksbox, and Tintin, and Breigel, and the Persian miniatur. Together, Evans is helping to find new ways to describe life in all its diversity.
The parts of the presentation presented by Brecht Evans at the ICU School of Design Conference «Theory and Practice of Art and Design» on 22 April 2021.
Comparison of the scenes in Evans' first novel, «The Wrang Place», and in «The Midnight Guides»
The adult audience perceives the text as a recipient of information, it does not interfere with the work, but seeks to understand the author’s intent. The children’s audience, on the other hand, perceives the text as fun, believing that it knows better what heroes should do, how to look and dress, i.e. it perceives the art text as a puppet game. And the doll doesn’t want to see someone else’s mind, it requires games.»
However, I think it is important not to lose sight of the copyright itself. In her study «Methafors of space and its development in fan fiction discourse», Tatiana Voronina noted:
Tatiana Voronin. 2020. «Methafors of space and its development in the discourse of fan fiction-text authors.» Children ' s reading 4 (2): pp. 106-11
Source: http://slonvboa.ru/evens
