Louis: Red Letter Day – Metaphrog (w/a)
Metaphrog, $14.99, ISBN:
978-0-9545984-2-6
Louis: Red Letter Day was the first
adventure for its title character — and the first foray into all-ages comics
for Metaphrog (aka. Writer John Chalmers and artist Sandra Marrs)— released
back in 2000. Although the book was a
critical success, looking back on it now, it pales in comparison to the
artistic heights that the duo would later reach on Louis: Dreams Never Die and Louis:
Night Salad, with its artwork still bearing the gloomy hallmarks of the Strange Weather Lately series. That has all changed, though, as the book has
now been entirely redrawn and hand-painted; republished in a hardback album
format that matches the look of Night
Salad. It also invites us to reread
and re-examine the story and understand why such a labour of love was
undertaken.
In his new
finery, Louis has never looked better. Marrs’s
dramatic shift in style from subtle colour washes to the bold, saturated watercolours
of this new edition give the pages the look of a classic children’s book. She has also solidified her style
considerably, with Louis and his surroundings feeling more solid and
three-dimensional. This is in part due to a thicker clear-line in her inking, pushing
Louis into the same realm as Tintin and Jopo de Pojo, and also owing to a more
geometric approach to composition. As a
result, Louis is altogether more human-looking and, for that, he is all the
more tragic.
Even though
he is, ostensibly, a children’s character, Louis’s life is an existential
nightmare. He is confined almost
entirely to his house where he also works — an absurd, repetitive job that has
him filling empty bottles with air and inflating vegetables — kept in place by
patrolling robots, and given constant reminders to watch his television. Not only that, but he is spied upon by his
neighbours (the brilliantly-named Clean and Jerk) who torment him by sending
Louis letters that they pretend come from his aunt. When Louis inevitably writes back, his
private thoughts become a point of ridicule and suspicion for Clean and Jerk.
It’s an
elegant setup; one that recalls Orwell, The
Prisoner, Kafka and Vonnegut, but moreover, it is incredibly prescient and
accessible for children. With issues of
privacy, surveillance and security only becoming more important in the world
since Red Letter Day’s original
release, it’s a narrative that empowers kids to join in conversations about the
world at large. That Louis is such a
passive character, with such reasonable dreams — he wants to see the mountains —
makes him incredibly endearing to us, and the fact that he is continually
thwarted and repressed by the world he lives in is not only heartbreaking, but
makes the reader view policing and television in a much darker light.
The irony
is, though, that Louis’s world is an incredibly bright, colourful place. Again, this new edition brings the whimsical
aspect to the fore. Not only are the
pages redrawn, but often reimagined with new layouts which, especially in Louis’s
dream sequences, treat us to some beautifully playful arrangements. What’s interesting to note is that whenever
Louis slips into his imagination, his story becomes free of panel borders,
reinforcing the fact that he is otherwise imprisoned — even by his creators.
This is the
one instance, though, where we’re glad Louis is unable to escape, as his
adventures have gone from strength-to-strength.
In fact, one thing that Red Letter
Day really helps to cement is just how far Metaphrog have come as creators
in the last ten years. It bodes well for
what is still to come.
-- Gavin Lees
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