Thoughts on Here by Richard McGuire

From Goodreads.

Here is a graphic novel using images to tell the story of a place through many eras and centuries. Each page is filled with a continuing story of one place in different times, the spot is shown as having a life of its own and remembers what happened there over the centuries. McGuire’s (2014) unique sense of time, place, and flow contribute the overall story being told by this graphic novel.

Image I took showing various years in McGuire's Here

While most comics/graphic novels use standard frames and/or panels to tell their story in a flowing often linear timeline, McGuire changes the feel and rhythm of the genre using the juxtaposition of images on the same space to tell a story about time. In Understanding Comics McCloud (1994) discusses the importance of panels, gutters, and white space to tell a story. He explains how “[c]omics panels fracture both time and space, offering a jagged staccato rhythm of unconnected moments. But closure allows us to connect these moments and mentally construct a continuous, unified reality” (67). The closure McCloud discusses is not truly offered in Here, I often found myself feeling lost and confused by the multiple time periods represented on a single page. Each page became a jumbled mess of life, leaving me (the reader) hoping for one complete image of each time period.

This graphic novel is illustrated in a soft style with different hues for each time period, from prehistoric to modern, and even the future. Each storyline is told over the course of the book, requiring the reader to keep that in mind. This book lends itself to multiple reads. When reading it the first time the book is overwhelming and does not read in any standard manner. As a reader, mostly of novels, this book was not really for me. I enjoyed the pictures but became confused and lost in the various storylines, just when I picked up one it would be set aside, only to be picked up later. I would defiantly recommend reading through once taking all in, then if you want going back and looking at each year to get the entire tale.

Comics are an art of the invisible showing readers the world in a different light (McCloud, 1994). They show readers what is possible and what is unseen by revealing it through the use of images, icons, and lines. This is true in McGuire’s (2014) Here when readers see the past, present, and future meshed together to create on full-page panel explain a story of the unseen past (as seen on the page for the year 2213).

Image I took of  year 2213 from Here

The use of images to draw readers to a new time is well demonstrated in this book. Each page can bring a new beautiful adventure or continue the last moment in time, or even both at once!

Finally, I will end with this quote from McCloud (1994), explain how comics and graphic novels are an interactive art form. He states that comics are truly an art form in which “…what you get is what you give” (McCloud, 1994, 137). The McGuire’s book is an excellent example of this, at a first glance the book is a confusing mesh of stories and colors but when a reader takes the time to follow each tale the book is a delightful view of what changes take place in on spot over the course of centuries.

References

Goodreads.com. (2018). Here by Richard McGuire [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20587888-here?ac=1&from_search=true

McCloud, S. (1994). Understanding comics: The invisible art. New York: Harper Collins.

McGuire, R. (2014) Here. New York: Pantheon Books.