Broken Frontier

Drifting in and out of conversations, a swirl of people and lights, a never ending row of drinks and friends sliding in and out of focus. Parties. Underlying tensions and relationships. The 'spotlight people', the back-against-the-wall'-people, the 'I need more booze'-people, the 'naturally exuberant'-people and the introvert people. Thank you Brecht Evens for making it easy to watch the world go by.

Gert and Noemi are two lonely people in a world dominated by relationships. Robbie is the alpha male, loved by men and women alike for his party atmosphere and his ever positive outlook on life. But what happens when Gert and XX each separately run into Robbie? Will their lives be changed by Robbie's exuberant outlook on human relations or will they stubbornly stay stuck in the social ruts they find themselves living ...

Parties are a haphazard mix of all humanity has to offer. A cross slicing of society of a certain age group where are all the strengths and the weaknesses of the group and the individual are laid to bare. The setting of Belgian writer/artist Brecht Evens fourth graphic novel The wrong place is a place stuck between two worlds inhabited with the same type of people. Mid twenties post graduates, marking their place with the exuberance of youth. Or the lack of exuberance.

The main characters are Gert, Noemi and Robbie. While Gert and Robbie occupy opposite ends of the growing up-circle of life, Robbie seems to exist as an archetypal joker, a fun boy who seems to avoid all responsibility and just wants to enjoy life. Making friends, going to parties, carefully avoiding grown up themes. Noemi gets the most growing up to do, Gert is clearly unable to expand himself beyond the gravitas of the trauma of growing up, never reaching the heights Noemi reaches. Whatever Gert does or whomever he meets, he does not seem to succeed in passing through the different stadia of responsible behaviour. In both cases though, Robbie is the catalyst. An obvious fit for the royal joker who gets to say or do whatever he pleases.

The book is divided in three parts, first we get introduced to Gert, then we meet Noemi who meets Robbie and then we see Gert meeting Robbie. Evens takes his time outlining his story. A lot of it is conversational talk where meaning is gathered by reading between the lines. Evens has a great ear for dialogue and philosophical one-liners and even foreshadows it on the cover which contains pieces of dialogue that become only visible when tilting the book  due to the printing of the text with a varnish. However, Evens never lets the gravitas of the themes weigh him down. Humour is prevalent in this graphic novel and the philosophy is tempered with a satirical and humorous outlook on life.

Brecht Evens uses colour to its utmost effect here. His drawings are like paintings, shedding any ambition of outlining or delineating, he uses the brush by applying layers and layers which leads to characters on top of each other, buildings and levels inter-crossing. An apt visual style for the superfluous lives these people seem to inhabit. Using ecoline in combination with coloured markers, his drawings and tableau's give off an otherworldly, vibrant vibe resonating perfectly with the exposed world of transitions, pure fun to adult responsibility, that is on showcase here. It also firmly roots the characters on one end of the world. Clearly, this world is so much fun that you can understand that Robbie wants to sip its nectar all the time. Where-ever he goes, he is always revered and called upon and is the star of the party, even when he isn't there. He is an easy character to like and one of his powers which makes him so charming is his ability to see through the gravitas and seriousness other people lend to their lives. When Gert is giving his grand soliloquy about his depressing view of life, Robbie interrupts him with a loud fart.

Evens even goes so far as to give each character its own colour scheme. Gert is always drawn in a drab gray, Robbie gets a vibrant blue and Noemi gets a female dark pink. There are a lot of crowd scenes in this book and besides being a neat colour symbol, it also lets Evens' characters stand out in the crowd.

Brecht Even's The wrong place is a phantasmagorical tour de force where, through colour and conversation, a fiction is told about life's different phases and growing opportunities. Evens' artwork captures the essence of the frivolous nature of development and the surrounding circumstances of maturing. The relaxed pacing and spacious storytelling gives the tale gravitas and in the end, we recognize a bit of all the characters in ourselves. Though maybe we would all like to be a bit more like Robbie ...

      
The wrong place by Brecht Evens is published by Oogachtend. It is an 176 pages counting original full colour graphic novel, retailing for € 24 and is available in finer bookstores and comic shops in Dutch speaking countries. The english edition will be published by Drawn & Quarterly  in february 2010.

For more on Brecht Evens, check out his blog and read the article Ceci n'est pas la bande dessinée flamande to find out more about Belgian artists.