Local artist brings graphic novel to macabre frontier

The Sturgeon County-based author and illustrator of the Threshold series of lyrical graphic novels has returned to the scene with a new title that delves further into non-linear storytelling and no-holds-barred artistry.

Daniel Evans studied both art and English and both of these talents showed themselves as vibrant but mysterious complementary components in his other works. The trend continues with his recently released work called Galleria, a brief albeit atmospheric pond-jump through time and the minds of his characters.

At first it reminded me of the Griffin and Sabine series with its dark-natured imagery and feel even though it steers clear of the epistolary framework. Instead it presents itself as a multimedia series of pencil sketches, paintings and pictures as companions to otherwise random thoughts, eloquent phrases and shorter, abbreviated passages of what seems like a longer work of writing.

The author explained that his art is a study in German anthropologist Adolf Bastian’s concept of ‘Elementargedanken’. This proposition, in as simple terms as possible, argued that there is a psychic unity of mankind because all mental acts of everyone are the result of characteristic human physiology. He said that each person inherits a set of basic ideas and this is a fundamental structure of our humanity.

What Evans has done is presented a series of some pretty challenging art/story compositions that are truly fascinating yet slightly nightmarish. One section reads, “Suddenly the answer was there, bursting without warning.” That answer, it would seem, is shown in the opposing picture of a man, head tilted back, and a crow emerging from his jaws, its own beak wide open. These are the kinds of flights of macabre fancy Edgar Allen Poe might have had on his bad days.

Still that image lingers, as do its companions. Evans revealed that he was striving to demonstrate the critical point in any story when a character encounters the gap between what is known and what is unknown. He calls his work ‘painterly illustration’ but it comes across more like visualized emotions.

“I’d say that my style draws from a school of illustration that’s about making the process really evident, about making your materials really obvious.”

It’s something that must be seen. The preparatory labour is as obvious as the materials because the critical point he is trying to reach is often very minute and defined. Evans achieves it repeatedly and with mastery, but it does leave some people hanging and wanting more, even though it’s pretty dark.

“Part of what was interesting me about the anthropology was what stories say about the people that tell them. I don’t like beginnings and endings. I really like the idea of giving these tantalizing little snippets where people keep wanting more or keep asking questions about them. I just hope to make it intriguing enough that people are compelled by it.”

He ended by saying that he is already in the process of creating further issues in the Threshold series.