How to be happy and relation of black and white

We where instructed by Kerian to pick out a book from the library and use it as part of our research. I have chosen "How to be happy". "How to be happy" is a collection of short stories by Eleanor Davis, published in 2014 by fantagraphics. I will only be studying one 4 page story in the book called "Darling i've realized I don't love you."

 

This caught my eye initially as I saw the last two pages, even without the introduction to these characters first there is still an atmosphere that has been created without the need of dialogue. 

Firstly the most recognisable aspect of this comic is the use of white space as a signifier of the passage of time. The panels follow a steady rhythm that breaks in the middle of the second page to leave us with only white space. This subverts our expectations and uses it's white space as an emotional break. The last panel is on it's own and does not follow the established back and forth between the couple, giving it a sense of loneliness and finality with the previous exchange and pause in dialogue.   

The white space comes more into it's own as a signifier of time as we turn to the next double page and we understand that the couple is having a baby, we understand that the baby is not actually there in a black void, rather the black void around it is communicating that it is in the womb. The black of that panel tells us that the space that the baby is living in is both lacking in any light but is also groundless, through association of these elements combined we understand that it is growing in the womb and continues to grow with the inclusion of more white space under it. 

The next page over gives us again a metaphor in replacement of something that may take many more panels and may make it loose the emotional depth within the comic. 

The use of the couples expression, or lack of it is a large part of what makes this comic so effective, it's use of the same expression throughout tells us that it is not something that is said, or maybe even thought in these character minds, but an underlying feeling of where they wanted to be in life and where they are now and what they choose to do in effort to change that in effort to be happy. 

This is accumulates in the final page as we see though a metaphorical birth of the couple looking outward together, still with the same expression as before, the woman then taking the baby into her arms, the distance between her and her partner emphasized even more with the use of his black shirt creating even more distance between the mother and child. The final panel having the mother holding the child, with the same blank expression and the man looking on at both of them, seemingly removed standing back. There is no resolution to if the baby has brought them any closer, or given them any happiness or alternatively drove them further apart, we can see by their unchanging faces that they are still as distant from each other before the child and it ultimately did not result in anything.

Eleanor Davis, E, D. 2014. How to be happy. United states: Fantagraphics