Daytripper

‘Comics’ is such a wrong category for this book. A beautiful piece of art!
It will draw you in, trigger your deepest memories, make you gasp for the air while at the bottom of the ocean asking yourself – am I still dreaming..?!
Wake up reader! Go on with your life, never forget this book! “...because you only get one chance”.
Thank you Fabio! Thank you Gabriel! and please, may we have some more…

I have bought three copies throughout the years. I will lend a copy to someone, wanting them to experience this graphic novel, and tell them to loan it to someone who they think would enjoy it. I may get it back, I may not, but that doesn't matter as long as others are reading it. Fantastic writing, brilliant artwork. Highly recommended.

This beautifully written and beautifully drawn work by a pair of Brazilian twin brothers is without doubt the most engrossing and most innovative graphic novel I’ve come across in several years. It certainly deserves the Eisner Award it won. Blas de Oliva Domingos, an aspiring novelist, is the son of a famous author but the only writing he can make a living at is newspaper obituaries. He has a talent for dealing with death -- which is a good thing, because in this series of not really independent chapter, he’s going to die over and over again, at many different ages, and from a variety of causes ranging from drowning during a fertility festival and being shot during a robbery to electrocution as a child and being murdered by his best friend shortly after the publication of his first book. The story has a Fellini flavor to it that will hold your attention as Blas comes to terms with his life, and with all the people in it who have made him who he is -- even when he doesn’t get to enjoy very much of it. The artwork is truly outstanding, with each figure being drawn in a complexly subtle and individual way. This could easily have been written as a novel, with no drawings at all, but the high quality of the art raises it to a new level. And while the story could as easily have been set anywhere, the culture of Brazil provides another intriguing background layer. An amazing book and I’m going to be recommending it to everyone I know.

Wow...Anybody seeing this review please do yourself a favor and buy this right away or download it on E-reader. It NEEDS to be read.

While I sit here I'm still trying to gather all my thoughts of this title in one review. I mean the emotions this Graphic Novel gave me is...just...I don't even have words. It made me sad, made me think, almost made me cry, made me smile, made me laugh...I mean it hit it all. It's truly an amazing title that I had no clue what I was getting when I opened it and I already knew it was highly rated (one of the highest on this site actually.)

Bras is a writer. The story focuses around his life, throughout various important moments, and at first it might strike you as a odd choice when the first issue ends. But as you read on you begin to see that the ending to each chapter is special, because it's an end, and you'll understand more of that when you read.

Without spoilers these stories focus on important parts of your life. From Love, to loss, to work, to family you get various stories focusing on things you might not even notice in your own life. I won't even lie, the dialog is some of the best I've ever read. The art is stunning, giving a realistic feel but almost dream-like. You know what I mean? It's so hard to describe because I never felt that way till today when reading a graphic novel.

I want to speak soooo much about this book but so much is spoilers and honestly I don't want to ruin the overall story for anyone. I just need to state again this graphic novel NEEDS to be read. It's one of the best books I've ever read. It hit me on so many levels that I can't even sum it up in this review. Just please do yourself a favor and pick this up right now. Just be prepare to reflect on life a bit after ;) 5/5.

DAYTRIPPER is a mysterious little book. I read the first three issues when they came out, and though I was absolutely intrigued by what was happening in the story, the way each installment came and ended without explanation made me not want to have to work through the serialization. Rather, I wanted to get it all at once. It's a book where the payoff is going to require some faith, and where the individual moments matter to the cumulative whole. I didn't want them lost in the gaps between.

This creator-owned comic is by the Brazillian twins Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá, who have electrified the world of graphic literature over the last several years with their work together, separate, and in collaboration with others. DAYTRIPPER is their first truly substantial work as a solo team. It tells the story of Brás de Oliva Domingos, but it does so in a fractured fashion. Time bends here, the narrative pieces are scattered. When we first meet Brás, on his 32nd birthday, he is an obituary writer on the way to see his father, a famous novelist, receive a lifetime achievement award. In chapter two, he is 21 and seeing the world. The youngest we see him, not counting the oft repeated tale of his birth--a blackout baby who emerges into the darkness like the light, or even life, itself--is at age 11, the oldest age 76. We jump through time to watch his romances and failures, his family benchmarks and even the lows of an important friendship. Each chapter of DAYTRIPPER has a definite end, finite in its way, and one which I shan't reveal here, but you'll discover it soon enough. Fittingly, only the very last ending deviates from the pattern.

It takes a while to get an explanation as to what is happening. The book is a string of second chances and missed opportunities--though never squandered ones. For as spectacular as some of the failures, they never come with a sense that someone wasn't trying. It's more that things just don't turn out as expected. It's why you never wait to go for whatever needs going for, events may turn before you get the opportunity to seize it. It's at the end of the eighth chapter when we start to get a sense of what it all means, how Brás' each and every action creates a reaction, and DAYTRIPPER is the study of that resonance. I could have done without the penultimate entry, but that just might be personal taste. The dreamy ninth chapter is the only time where I feel the book has to strain for its mood, the only time the creators are trying to create the feeling of strange wonder that so naturally blossoms in the rest. I feared it was the last chapter, actually, and was frightened that the whole thing would fall apart.

Thankfully, we had one more step to go, and honestly, had I jumped from eight to ten, from age 47 to the big 76, DAYTRIPPER would be just about perfect. It seems a minor complaint, however, like whining that an otherwise spectacular car race is ruined because no one crashed during the second-to-last lap. Plus, that eighth chapter also has some of the most beautiful artwork in the comic. The duo's impressionistic linework and Dave Stewart's striking, painterly coloring really come alive when let loose to roam the unbridled realm of imagination. Then again, that seems so wrong to say, because it's very much alive throughout. DAYTRIPPER isn't a comic where you ever wonder why its creators opted for this particular medium. Every watery ink scratch undulates with passion for the form. Perhaps it's because they are twins that Bá and Moon manage to inspire two diametrically opposed reactions at the same time. Every panel of DAYTRIPPER compels you to stop and stare at the beauty of the drawing while also pushing you on to the next. You want to stop and smell all the roses, and yet you must go forward, you have to see the ways the scenes play out.

In that sense, while reading the book, we are also living the lesson that Brás must learn. Don't let any of the details of this existence pass you by without noticing them, but also don't ever accept those details as being the last. There is always more to be seen just out of frame.

Life is built from a collective series of small moments, which may seem unimportant as they occur. At other times, we recognize them, are compelled by them, and they loom large within our own personal narratives. A small shy glance can lead to a life-long love, and a brief conversation with a stranger at a coffeehouse can form the strongest friendship. Moments of chance and quirks of fate define each of us. They form the threads of the stories that shape us, and impact how we will be remembered by others. This is the story of Daytripper, and it is the story of us all.

A thoughtful mediation on life itself, the creators--twin brothers Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá--explore the existence of Brás de Oliva Domingos. Domingos is an obituary writer for a newspaper but aspires to be a novelist despite living in the shadow of his famous father, an iconic literary star of Brazil. In his short columns, Domingos celebrates the life of those who have recently passed, while struggling to define his own life. Each chapter is structured around a moment of time in his life, the milestones of his first kiss, his true love, the birth of his son and the death of his father. The uniqueness of each story is that, at their close, Domingos dies.

Each of his various deaths are a tragic reminder of life's fragility, a reminder that any day could be the last. Although one quickly becomes accustomed to the narrative hook of Daytripper, much credit is due to the wonderful scripting and engaging visuals from Moon and Bá, which work together to prevent the repetition from becoming a mere gimmick. Where other works may try to draw attention to the repeated deaths or rely on fanciful genre conventions, Moon and Bá wisely avoid those traps, opting for a smoothly paced, quiet manner of storytelling.

Although some of Domingos's deaths are shocking, at no point in the story do they feel cheap or tiresome. If anything, as the story progresses and Domingos grows more and more into a familiar character, the looming specter of death serves to heighten the reader's emotional involvement, ratcheting up the tension for an increasingly sad release. One particularly moving segment comes late in the book, and is told from the perspective of Domingos' wife and child, while he is traveling on a book tour. Although the central character is absent, the entirety of that chapter is haunted by his presence. His eventual death, as viewed through his family, is made raw and painful. The visual elements provide all we need to know about the devastation inflicted upon his loved ones, and it is utterly heartbreaking in its potency.

At first, given the nonlinear narrative and the deaths and rebirths of Domingos, Daytripper feels more like a series of well-told vignettes. However, the book quickly takes on a novelistic approach as the story grows and events become linked across space and time. Moon and Bá have crafted an exquisite study in existentialism, emphasizing the importance we, as humans, attribute to our own stories, our own personal narratives. We define and assign value to particular moments in our life, shuffling the events that happen around us, or simply forgetting some entirely, while ascribing moments of epicness to our own individual existence. We struggle to define our place in the world as we separate ourselves from those around us in order to create our own identity. We seek to make sense of not just our life, but of life itself.

Daytripper is a story of the human condition, of the joys we all share in, and the tragedy and losses we must all face. If anyone out there is still arguing that comic books cannot be true works of art, Moon and Bá's story should silence them. A highly literate work, there is a poetic, lyrical sense to its language and visuals, which capture not only a strong command of words and character development but of place as well. Brazil and its outlying locales are beautifully drawn and is almost as much a character as the people that inhabit the vibrant cityscape or visit its beaches. The story stands on its own as strong, dramatic fiction embedded in a real place, in a specific time in the life of one man. Ultimately, Daytripper is an ode to the power of storytelling. Although it has its share of death and melancholy, it is a reaffirming and beautiful narration about life and its many surprises. An intimate, emotionally engaging work that is by turns tragic and lovely, it stands as proof that no man is an island unto himself and that every moment is filled with meaning.

-- Michael Hicks

To begin with, when I first started reading DAYTRIPPER, I was impressed with the illustrations. The illustrations are beautiful and although not photographic-like, they capture the essence of everything around them. The illustrations in the book feel quite real.

DAYTRIPPER was written by two Brazilian twins. It follows the life of Bras de Olivia Domingos. It takes a little while to understand what's happening in the book as the book jumps forward and backward in the history of Bras' life. Not only that, but most of the chapters end in his death. That's because Bras spends the early years of his adult life after college writing obituaries for a newspaper. He is the only son of a famous Brazilian author and, like his famous father, Bras has a knack for the written word. DAYTRIPPER explores some of the major events and some of the smaller events in his life. Bras wants to live a life full of meaning and he often finds himself questioning if he truly is.

Although the chapters where Bras dies aren't true, much of the story in those sections is. They are just alternative ways Bras life could have ended and, I believe, they are ways he imagines how they could have. The book explores some very deep and universal questions, such as when do you truly begin living (is it the day you are born? After your first kiss? When you truly fall in love for the first time? After you get your first job? When you're married?). Most people just exist in life, but Bras follows the call (even though he doesn't know it) that all of yearn for, the call to truly live.

Upon initially reading DAYTRIPPER, I was confused. It took me awhile to figure out what was going on with the story. Although I still prefer more traditional narratives (instead of the one in this book that mixes the actual story with fictional endings), the device ends up working in DAYTRIPPER.

Overall, DAYTRIPPER is an interesting read with some excellent illustrations. Not everyone will enjoy reading the book, but if you can accept the storytelling device, it makes for a compelling tale.

Daytripper has to be one of the more wholly representative works of the graphic novel genre. All components imagined, written and sketched by Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba are so effortlessly, subtly synthesized into a breezy evocation not just of Brasilian life, but life itself. It's the work of a pair of brothers with nothing to prove beyond simple but effective storytelling. Though by no means slow, it is a story in which everything takes its time to unfold, perhaps one integral trait of South American or Brasilian culture.

It is the story, or perhaps stories, of nothing more than Bras de Oliva Domingos, obituary writer and aspiring novelist. Looking to parallel the literary success of his father, Bras is an ordinary individual striving for some balance apart from Brasil's numerous sensory distractions, constantly reminded to grasp the importance of living and dying in the moment. To be sure, there are plenty of distractions in Brasil, such as his friendships, family, loves and dreams, but none contemplated without quiet deliberation and perhaps a strong cup of coffee. Such deliberations are shown through a series of vignettes of various time periods in his life, each detailing the circumstances of these spontaneous moments when living and dying get in the way of his daily routine. These momentous accumulations, with a Tarantino-esque flair for anachronism, are caressingly startling. It is here where Ba and Moon confound the reader as to the intersection of reality and our dreams, and the wonder of life and death.

Like fellow Brasilian Rubem Fonseca, Daytripper provides a peek into the culture of passion in Brasilian South America. Despite the instances of death and violence in the work, there is an equal amount of warmth between the characters in their mutual goal of embracing the present. Additionally, the undertones of social and ethnic equality perceived in Brasil, exhibited through Bras and comrade Jorge, is also refreshing. Violence, inevitable as it is everywhere, is simply accepted as a sporadic part of life, a tolerated cost of a naturally unhurried and carefree lifestyle.

The lush coloring from Dave Stewart and sharp sketches from Ba and Moon make Daytripper an achingly quick read. For as much as the story emphasizes a deliberate and dreamlike pondering about life, it's so engaging one can't help but devour the atmosphere.

This graphic novel is one that you will return to again and again. After my first read, I had so much to think about that I needed time just to process everything. This is a novel that is rich and complex, and if you put in the time to think through all of the nuances and twists, it is incredibly rewarding. The art is beautiful and fitting, and the pace is so fast that I finished it in one sitting--it's a real page-turner! This novel is loaded with every emotion you can think of, and I would highly recommend it for both those new to graphic novels, and those who have loved them for a long time. I could easily see this work being discussed in college classrooms...it has that much depth and lends itself well to discussion.

The art is exquisite beyond belief. It's a gorgeous book. However, I'm not as taken with the writing as many here seem to be. In the introduction, Craig Thompson argues that the book surmounts the usual comic book dichotomy of fantasy escapism on the one side and demystifying realism on the other. Since I think this dichotomy is false - at least to the extent that works like Maus and The Invisibles demolished it years ago - I can only assume that Thompson is referring to the mysticism of the story and its ultra sentimental portrait of everyday life. It's hard for me to criticize the work of young people for being the work of young people, especially because there is a laudable ambition to this book and, indeed, the drawings are so scintillating that they almost (but only almost) validate cliches like "wonderful game of life," "we don't get to choose our families," and the very boyish assumption that every significant moment in one's life will be presided over by a kiss from a pretty girl. But this is a shabby, hand-me-down philosophy of the miraculousness of existence, and the central conceit (the obit) renders it maudlin and preachy. I've given the book four stars because I don't want to damage its overall rating and because it is remarkable in so many ways. It's just that it's being treated as a mature work and not as the promising first book of precocious young writers. This is unfortunate, because one hopes that Ba's and Moon's real masterpiece is still to come.

Daytripper is a great story, reading reviews for the trade paperback will tell you that. I still remember reading it for the first time and upon re-reading, continue to find new things I like. Specifically though, this edition is a great. I've been able to compare it to the trade paperback and the expanded dimensions do more justice to the artwork. The paper quality is much better and the extras included really do justify the "deluxe edition." Vertigo really did a nice job with the presentation and I sincerely hope this presentation becomes the standard for their deluxe editions. For the price on the store you can't go wrong.

Reason for Reading: Honestly, I would not have chosen this book myself and simply started to read it as I'd been sent a review copy. I had no idea what to expect and again, honestly, wasn't sure I'd even like it.

This book is exquisite! Bras de Olivia Domingos is the only son of a famous Brazilian author, and a miracle child to his mother, who himself is an aspiring author but at the moment has the lowly job on a newspaper as obituary writer. This story takes a look at Bras' life, a day at a time. A random day, each chapter focusing on a different age, going back and forth from young to middle age to youth to elderly and each day ends with his death. These are the possibilities of his life; throughout we are given a whole life story of Bras and yet we see how his life could have ended any day. Heroic deaths, tragic deaths, accidental deaths ironic deaths; they are all possibilities.

The twin brother author/illustrators show the reader how much death is a natural part of life. How one must respect each day of life as if it were the last. Live each day in a way that will honour yourself (your soul) should this be your last one. What will your obituary say about your life? Will it say you died as you lived? But not only is the book about death but about life as well. When do you truly start living your own life? Bras' mother retells the story of his birth over and over throughout the years nicknaming him "miracle child". Do you start living when you are born? Or when you start to love? Or is it when you reach your goals? When should one stop waiting for life to begin and start living it?

Each chapter is like a short story with a trick ending and yet they are all related and a pattern develops and a life starts to take form. One sees missed opportunities, misspent youth, true defining moments in a life and finally after all the possible outcomes, not exactly what most would call a happy ending, but a life well lived.

I don't know whether the authors are Catholic but Brazil does have the world's largest Catholic population and I noticed several rosaries in the illustrations. I bring this up because as I was reading I couldn't help thinking how pertinent the story was to the Catholic way of life. Catholic theology asks us to always try to live each day prepared spiritually to enter Heaven as we never know when our time on earth will end or when the day of Christ's return will come.

A stunning, compelling, breathtaking read! This is the book you bring out if you still know people who think graphic novels are somehow lower on the literary spectrum than "real" novels.

Beautifully inspiring and fun is this ingenious graphic novel by Fabio Moon and Gabirel Ba! DAYTRIPPER delights into observations of everyday life, and pinpoints deftly, and subtlety a myriad of nuances that in many instances may go unnoticed by everyday people all around the world. Although the whole story takes place in Brazil, it’s easily understood that the circumstances experienced by the protagonist can be easily translated to any one person at that specific moment in life at one geographic place or another.

Describing DAYTRIPPER in one word, one must say it has “substance.” Not only is the graphic novel beautifully illustrated by its authors engaging the reader with an explosion of colors and expressions, its message is deep and thought provoking.

One is able to immerse in the pages and almost daydream with the situations encountered by the protagonist. In the story Bras de Oliva Domingos who came into the world unconventionally is the only child of a renowned author, who has dreams of his own but feels himself somewhat stuck in life. As the story unfolds peculiar situations come to fruition and leave both the protagonist as well as the reader wondering what options and circumstances taken at one point may dictate the rest of ones life. The story also allows for one to reflect on what is really important in ones existence, and what makes life different for distinct people.

DAYTRIPPER is truly a feast for the eyes and mind!

Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba's graphic novel, Daytripper, is a book that celebrates life by making us confront death. This is a book to be savored and celebrated; it takes the comic book form to rarely achieved heights by focusing not on super-humans, but on very human moments. For someone new to comics, this book could serve as a powerful introduction to show that comics can achieve emotional heights as meaningful as any novel. For those familiar with the genre, Daytripper will serve as a refreshing reminder that comics can move and stir you while respecting your intelligence.

With consistently beautiful art and crisp prose, in each chapter we find the same character, Bras, at a different point in his life. Whether as a child, anticipating the birth of his own child as an adult, or as an old man, we encounter Bras as he experiences major life events, both joyful and painful. There are frequent references to Bras' profession as an obituary writer and this serves as a vehicle for the authors to provide commentary on fundamental life questions: How do we want to be remembered? Will we regret risks we did not take? Do we realize the impact, whether positive or negative, we have on those around us? If Bras could write his own obituary, what would he want it to say?

What makes Daytripper truly special is that in answering these questions, it does more showing than telling. Some of the best parts of this book are wordless panels showing faces full of nuanced emotions. And most readers should be able to relate to at least one of the vignettes from Bras' life. In the end, the vibrant mission statement of this book is that we must not let our fear of death, unforeseen circumstances, or tragedy prevent us from remembering that as long as we are alive, we have the choice of how we want to live.

This is a beautiful book with a rather weighty philosophical theme, an odd combination for a comic book series. I admit, I only picked it up as a work assignment but I'm glad I did. On these pages readers are invited to explore what makes each day significant through the eyes of obituarist and would-be author Bras. More than just a day in the life of an essentially average Brazilian citizen, Daytripper lulls the reader into a sense of complacency only to yank the rug out with one of those random acts that are, sadly, too common in modern day life.

This isn't your usual comic book fare, but if you've ever wondered what it takes to be a successful writer or struggled to understand your writerly friends, this is definitely a book you'l want to pick up.

I will keep this review short and sweet. I picked up Daytripper, and began reading. The story was kind of hard to follow, but after a while I began to see what was actually going on. The writing was superb, and some of the contemplations within the text were very true and inspiring. If I had to knock anything, I might complain a bit about the randomness of the sequence of events. Other than that, this graphic novel is well written and contains some very true observations about life in general.

As someone new to reading graphic novels, I was blown away by what the genre can achieve.

Alan Moore (author of Watchmen, V for Vendetta and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) explained the reason he has always been against movie adaptations of his novels has been because if they were meant to be movies they would be movies, and if they were meant to be straight novels they would be straight novels. He writes graphic novels because that is the medium that best tells his story. Never was this theory more true than in the case of Moon and Ba's frankly spectacular piece of art. I was mesmerised from the outset and read it all in one go, wishing I could forget each chapter so I could read it all over again with the same sense of being transported by the images, story, the characters, the beautiful colouring.

Reading this book brought to mind the magical realism that pervades much of the well-known literature from South and Central America (the novels of Gael Garcia Marquez and Like Water for Chocolate to name two of the most famous - and my favourite - examples). For me, this book is a classic that fits just as easily on the shelf next to the greats like Marquez as it does on the racks of a comic book store. This book is a wonderful example of just how talented, exciting, innovative and yet mindful of the legacy of classic literature the world of graphic novels can be. It got me hooked on a genre that is now something of an addiction for me and for that I shall be eternally grateful to Moon and Ba, I just hope they produce something else as spectacular as soon as possible, I can't wait!

There are stories that make you slow down and read every word. As you try to absorb what they try to tell you. Showing you their world. When you're done you're left with this new part of you that holds that story. Maybe it's just for a moment maybe for your life, but there it is.

This is one of those stories.

"Every reference, every photo, every color and every character, everything was made to try to reproduce feelings. A feeling that you were alive, happy, lonely, afraid or in love." So true.
Everything about this comic novel was amazing..from the pictures to the story. I can honestly say that there were times where some of the chapters were so moving that they made me cry. It's one of those books that you just cannot put down because it just pulls you in. I'm not going to summarize because the description already does a good job at explaining it. All I can say is that it's beautifully written and it's such an amazing read. Definitely worth it.

I have read a number of highly-reviewed graphic novels, but never one like this. My favorite reading genre is literary fiction, and this was the first graphic novel that I felt scored five stars as a work of literary fiction--complex characters, shifting perspectives, believable relationship dynamics, and plenty of plot action to keep the pages turning, along with incredible, provocative artwork. Really, really impressive!!! :-)

Great and very original set of chapters. The illustrations in this specific edition come with so much detail that they are a joy to look at and tell as much of the story as the dialogue. I borrowed this from the library and will now get from the store. This is one worth owning and reading over and over.

Wonderful art, a thoughtful shifting assessment of one's life choices, woven through a single timeline of one character's life. I delayed getting this for some time, but don't regret purchasing it in the slightest.

Daytripper, to me, was the best comic printed in 2010. No exceptions. No comic made me laugh, cry, or drew me in the way it has, or possibly will again.

It's a beautiful story with breathtaking art, and it was the one book on my pull list I most looked forward to, every month. I was hooked by the first issue, and stayed with it to the bittersweet sobbing end. You will not regret buying it; you'll only regret that you didn't do so sooner.

I bought Daytripper in comic form, and over the course of a year I was able to watch this story grow, going from disturbing to perplexing to sublime. I've been reading comics for over 30 years, and this is one of the best uses of the medium I have ever had the pleasure to come across. I don't even want to say too much about it. The less you know - or think you know - the richer the story. That said, this has my highest recommendation. It's just a magnificent book.

Daytripper is an incredible read and it will be my go to recommendation to try to convince a non-believer that comics don't have to be about superheroes. Comics can have a lot more going on. Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon have inked something incredibly unique and special.

For a more in depth review go here: [...]

This is an excellent graphic novel. Each chapter is almost an independent story, telling a turning point in Brás's life in a very emotional, heartfelt way. The overall story somewhat reminds me of the movie "Sliding Doors". The characters and their stories are very interesting and the art work is excellent to look at. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Beautiful art! That's this book's strongest suit.
The plot was an interesting concept, but not well done. The main character is flat, a genial, talented good guy with problems that don't resonate. He's simply not believable - or if you did meet him in real life, he'd be your friend's brother or boyfriend, someone you register but don't feel the need to deeply interact with. He's thoughtful, talented, and BORING. At least, his dialogue and actions are boring.
There were some cool twists in the book, but they didn't get fleshed out very well.

I've read a lot of graphic novels (mostly magnas) and this book literally blew me a way. The art and the way it was written was well executed. Its a slice of life graphic novel that follows the main character through important parts of his life. The way the book transition between these events is totally incoherent until the very end of the book. It made me view my life in a new perspective. Simply beautiful. I HIGHLY recommend this.

At the risk of getting a few "not helpful" votes, I'm forging ahead and posting this reveiw. And I'm probably not the right guy to be reviewing daytripper, but maybe someone will find this an interesting counterbalance. Sometimes, I think we are all reluctant to post less than four or five star reviews, but they can be useful, can't they?

I am absolutely sure that loads of readers will love this graphic novel and that it deserves better than what I could say about it. The weaving of well-worn story lines into one whole is done "artfully" with some good moments, text and art matching nicely, and with some clever presentation. However, I found the writing itself laden with superficial self-importance that can only come when a writer writes about being a troubled writer, sort of Latino Indie Film existential bombast (if that's possible) complete with lots of cigarette smoking and death. No new or original thoughts, no new insight, other than the well-worn brooding young man who has an overblown sense of self, sort of a simplistic "circle of life" presented in a somewhat clever format, artful and painstakingly arranged.

All in all, good for youngsters who have yet to think too much about their mortality. I probably sound like the typical cynical old man offering nothing new of my own, so maybe this should be given to a younger reviewer, as I am finally coming to accept my place in life as a potential curmudgeon.

Three stars for good art and the clever manipulation of an old story.

Jeffrey Penn May, author of Cynthia and the Blue Cat's Last Meow