Storeyville by Frank Santoro
2. My graphic novel is entitled Storeyville by Frank Santoro, is about the quest for a friend, and is told in first person, almost like a diary. The story takes place in the early 1900’s and begins in a camp of robbers in the city of Pittsburg. A fight is about to ensue when Will (the main character) stands up for one of the robbers. A couple of the men then turn on Will and they are about to fight. Suddenly, a friend of Will’s shows up named Cy. He tells the men to stop and they immediately listen. Cy and Will then take a walk and talk about their past experiences with their “gang.” Will asks Cy if he has seen anyone from the gang, and Cy responds with a story about a man name Reverend Rudy (to whom Will did something wrong). Will asks about the Reverend and decides he must go find him in Montreal. Will then makes his way to Montreal by riding a train, and sleeping in jails for rest. Will arrives in Montreal in hopes to find the Reverend, but is not successful. This disappoints Will as he has no idea what to do with his life, and he had hoped the Reverend would give him direction and accept him back. Will is sitting in a bar when a flashback occurs showing Will and the Reverend being chased by the police. The flashback ends with Will leaving the Reverend injured and ultimately caught by the police. Will snaps back from his flashback, and is offered a ride to Bermuda on a ship for work. He accepts it. On the ship he runs into the Reverend. On the ship, Will and the Reverend talk about Will’s future. The Reverend gives a surprise piece of advice however, that twists both Will and the readers.
3. The artwork in Storeyville is very interesting and entertaining. To start, the media is a mix of ink and pencil drawings. The main figures in each panel (and the largest) are drawn in ink, with pencil drawings for the backgrounds. It is quite obvious artwork is done by hand. The style is unique, and unlike anything I have seen before. The figures represent humans, but lean towards the abstract side of McCloud’s triangle. However, it is easy to see emotions being expressed through their movements and facial expressions. The drawings are obviously crude and sketchy. It is easy to see the lines Santoro used to create his sketches. The figures are all rough and stiff looking. Every thing is very tight, and nothing is free moving. The style almost seems compacted and constricted by the panels. The style continues with a heavy feel to it, supported by the formal elements such as dark colors. There are only 4 colors in the book: black, white, brown and a dirty yellow. All of the colors are rather bland and create a shadowy style. The formal elements are also very unique. The shapes are very geometric, as they are stiff, rigid, and seem to follow a pattern. There are almost no organic shapes. The light is very shadowy, and that contributes to the dark feeling. It seems as if everyday in the book is a cloudy day, and there seems to exist minimal amounts of light. The proportions are realistic and reflect that of a real life situation. The lines are typically horizontal and vertical. The color scheme is arbitrary as the people are either strictly yellow or strictly brown (including their clothes and skin color). The texture looks rough and rigid, almost as if it would hurt to touch it were not on a smooth piece of paper. Overall, Santoro creates a very unique and enjoyable artistic style.
4. I believe Frank Santoro wrote this book to preach a message: To find your own path. The story tells of Will looking for Rudy so that Rudy can tell him what to do with his life. However, all Rudy tells Will is that he needs to be himself, and go his own way. This message inspires the audience in a variety of ways. It challenges the audience, reveals a truth and it provokes discomfort in order to change behavior. First, it challenges the audience by inspiring them to find their own path in life. By witnessing Will have a revelation in his life, the audience may look at that and see they too need to find their own path, and the book has challenged them to do so. Second, the truth it reveals is obvious: that as individuals, Humans need to find their own way. This is presented through the words of the Reverend telling Will he cant follow him anymore. This evokes the thought in the reader that since humans are individuals, each one needs their own path, and cannot follow another person for their whole life. Through his story, Santoro reveals a truth to his audience. Finally, Storeyville provokes feelings of discomfort that may lead to change. While the feelings the audience has may not be that of horror or disgust, Storeyville does force the audience to reflect on their life and have feelings such as disappointment, regret, and frustration. The audience may regret that they did not find their own way yet, or they did not find it sooner. They may be disappointed they did not use their own personal talents because instead they followed the mainstream. Frank Santoro’s function and purpose was to inspire his audience, and in that he succeeded.
5. Storeyville was very well done, and it had many strengths. One of its biggest strengths was its uniqueness. Many different aspects of this book can be considered unique. To start, its message is uncommon and fresh. The message gives the reader a new perspective on life. The colors are also unique. Storeyville used an arbitrary color scheme that I had never witnessed before: Brown and yellow. While it did not always flow perfectly, it was different, and I enjoyed the different ways Santoro used the colors to portray light, shadowing, and different aspects of the art. The storyline was unique in that it was unpredictable. There was not much foreshadowing, and I enjoyed that fact that I did not know what was coming. Everything came as a surprise, which was refreshing. The form and style of the pictures and writing was unique. It was almost like Will was drawing in his diary. They looked to be quick sketches, which made them almost seem as if they were Will’s. Also, the handwriting was not a certain font. It also appeared to be handwritten, and that was also very unique. The personalization of the artwork was a great strength of the book. Another strength was the panel transitions. The transitions seemed to be a form of aspect-to-aspect, while also moving along in the story. It was cool to see the different perspectives of each scene from different characters, while also creating a cool story line. Also, the artwork flowed very well with the story. The facial expressions and body language visibly showed the dialogue through expressions such as: frustration, surprise, confusion, happiness, fear and animosity. A final strength was the accuracy in the storyline. Even though I did not live in the early 1900’s, the drawings, dialogue and events made it obvious and clear the times and situations of the story. I really enjoyed Frank Santoro’s Storeyville.
6. The only weakness I could find in this book was the confusion created by some of the panel transitions. For the most part, I enjoyed the transitions, but on a couple occasions they confused the story for me. For example, there were 3 pages in a row with no words, and the pictures really made no sense to me. I could not understand what was going on, and that really confused me in the book. Those 3 pages only showed shots of a boat, the ocean and a couple faces. There seemed to be no storyline in that. Even after completing the book, I could not find the purpose of those pages. Those pages just created a little bit of frustration and confusion in me and I felt they could have been handled differently. Maybe there could have been just a couple of words explaining the pages. Also, there could have been a clearer transition of picture-to-picture, explaining through pictures what was going on. Other than the aforementioned weakness, I really enjoyed the book. It gave me a new look into comics (or graphic novels) and helped me understand how different they can be.
7. I would recommend this book for college aged teens and young adults. The message is relevant to the time period that they are living in. During those years, there are many life decisions being made, and this story can remind young people that they need to create their own path. Also, it can be a bit confusing at times (as mentioned in question 6) so I feel this age group may be better prepared to comprehend the storyline. Furthermore, there are some situations (especially in the earlier parts of the book) that may require a higher education to understand. All these factors lead me to believe this story was meant for young adults. Alternatively, I really cannot see any objections to this book. The message is unique, but it is also widely accepted (especially in American culture). There is not an abusive language or pictures of propaganda. Overall, this is a clean and objective graphic novel that holds a unique perspective on life.
8. Frank Santoro has also written Graphic Novels Cold Heat and Kramers Ergot. He also has a blog on comicscomicsmag.com. Santoro seems to be a rather unknown commodity, as it was hard to find a lot about him by looking online. However, he does instruct a class on how to create different panel transitions and looks of the panels. Santoro may be unknown, but he is also very talented.
9. I would give this book a 4/5. It was very well done and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
