Hawaii without the green

Picking up Johnson’s Night Fisher, I expected it to be a quick and easy read. It was quick but was in no way easy for me to read. The story  and themes were easy enough to pick up on such as Loren always playing catch up to Shane and the grass is always greener mentality , but the art really lost me at times.

First of all, this story takes place in Hawaii. Now if that is not an artist’s dream, I don’t know what is. Rolling green fields, beautiful plants and trees, clear blue oceans etc… are just a few of the things that come to mind when I imagine Hawaii, however this wasn’t anywhere to be found. The book used black and white to illustrate the scenes in the book. The luscious grass was portrayed with blacks and whites; to give it some dept and a hawaiin feel. Other scenes that take place in Loren’s front yard or when Loren thinks back to a beach party are portrayed the same way. I think I can understand why this was done; the author wanted the audience to focus on the story as opposed to the scenery. The scenery is something that one can easily get caught up in when dealing with a place like Hawaii, but using a black and white color scheme to  illustrate the way Hawaii is, helps keep the focus where it needs to be: Loren.

Although the blacks and whites were meant to enhance the story, I also found myself very confused. I felt lost in some of the panels and couldn’t tell what exactly was going on. The blacks and whites sort of blurred together and had me lost. When Jon and Shane went into a building and told Loren to keep lookout, I had no idea what they were doing. I knew they were up to something mischeivous but I didn’t know for sure.When I reflect more on these two color choices, I think the black and white also served a purpose: to confuse it readers.

The hazy panels and illustrations help the readers understand what Loren feels and also creates what it may feel like to get high off of Batu. It distorts things and forces you to question what you are seeing and if it actually matches up with the story. My brain did just that. It seemed to spin and tried really hard to make a connection between what was illustrated and what I thought was happening. Going back over a series of panels multiple times (to see what I was missing or just did not get), I remained very perplexed. It was not until I started to realize what was put in front of me might have the intention of confusing me. Maybe I was not suppose to understand everything.

Aside from the artwork, the story was really nice and seemed to flow well. Centering around a teenage boy who appears to have the “good life”, we see how his world changes when he starts following his friend, Shane, and does drugs. Loren’s issues with himself and feeling trapped in a sort of routine are apparent, however the way the author chooses to end this story is interesting. After all the drugs, he is still left in the dust and is unhappy. This is a familiar idea that seems to end all of the graphic novels so far. I guess the idea in McSweeny’s about a person’s failure or disappointments being the center of graphic novels is true.