Passionate Journey is a wordless graphic novel written by Belgian graphic artist Frans Masereel. Unlike other general comic books, Passionate Journey is composed by images with no colors, hence, offering readers a greater chance to expand their interpretation and give them several variations of the plot. Published after the World War I, the book represents the experiences of an early 20th-century ordinary citizen in a modern city. The book intends to present the ups and downs of common people living int those days, specifically showing their life style in post-war period. In order to highlight the trends of that historical period, Masereel uses the methods of contrast and symbolism by utilizing black and white colors to reveal how the desolation of human being can still thrive in modern civilization after the detrimental impact of war. It is possible to speculate that, the main issue the author is trying to illustrate is the criticism of war and its effect on humans and the world in general.
Passionate Journey has differences in comparison to other comic books in terms of a general topic and symbolism. As aforementioned, Masereel uses only black and white colors, depicting the contrast between modern city and the confined rural area. Usually, black is widely viewed as a symbol of the hidden, the secretive and the unknown, creating an air of mystery. On the other hand, white color usually represents pureness, perfection, and innocence. In addition, McCloud, the author of the Understanding Comics, mentioned the white as a positive symbol, using the word “pure” (McCloud 186). While the book presents the industrialized city mostly using black, the countryside is presented with more portions of white, which shows the emphasis between the industrialized city and tranquility of a countryside. It is possible to claim that Masereel created black-and-white comic book to emphasize a hidden meaning of his ideas. The following pictures show the difference of representation between the urban environment and a countryside landscape, by using the contrast of dark and light:
In the first picture, the main character is standing on the right side in the middle of the road, surrounded by darkness and shade with the angulated boxes and wooden wheels moving around. This shows that the main character is located in the city, and the black color is largely occupying the portion of the panel. Moreover, Masereel depicts his leading character in black that makes him to melt in a background. In contrast, the second picture shows the characteristic of a typical rural area, drawing attention to kids and nature in general. Besides, the white occupies more space than the black does. The second image contains both the countryside and the developed city, it shows the contrast between the city and the rural area. In the top half of the picture, there is black smog coming out of the factories, which symbolizes its adverse impact on the city. On the contrary, second image portrays happiness and joy that was illustrated by using white color. Referring to McCloud’s statement, bright colors represents the heroic figure in the peaceful world (McCloud 188), who in Marsereel’s work is illustrated in two different scences using distinclive colors. Consequently, the author depicts a dark figure in the city, who transforms into the light one in the countryside. As a result, the viewers can assume that the life in the industrialized city had a negative connotation.
McCloud claims that color is fixed with a new iconic power and they came to symbolize characters (McCloud 188). It is possible to connect this idea to Masereels exploitation of the positive symbol of the white matching with the children’s iconic meaning, in order to represent the improvement of humanity in the protagonist’s spirit. The image above shows the rustic area, but there is a peculiar part that the the image attracts the readers’ mind using the light of black and white. The main character is walking down the street in the countryside, holding hands with the children. The children are typically considered to symbolize purity and innocence. The children are portrayed in white, which also points to the same idea. As these two symbolic meanings pair up with each other, this image gives the readers the sense that the protagonist transforms when he is depicted in the countryside. Since the sequence of the story plot proceeds from the city to the countryside, the readers can assume that the negative connotation illustrated by black represents the industrialized city, which contrasts to the illustration of the rural area that is mostly depiced in the light colors. Subsequently, the figure of the white light and the children bolsters the author’s message: the human nature is being cured by environmental nature.
The picture above is a very convoluted image that could lead the readers to have diverse interpretation of the story. Although McCloud insists that “in black and white, the ideas behind the art are communicated more directly. Meaning transcends form. Art approaches language” (McCloud 192), in this case, it is hard to detect the definite connotation of at the end of the story. Nevertheless, if you closely look up inside the panel, it is not that difficult to figure out the implication of this image. The author is trying to make the readers to use their creativity. When taking a closer look at the skeleton, it will be easier for to understand what the author is trying to say. By using black and white Masereel tried to create a contrast between the forsified urbanization and tranquility of the countryside by emphasizing the purity of the nature and aggressiveness of the city.
Overall, Passionate Journey portrays the perception of change experienced by the author in the 1920s. Masereel incorporates the concepts used in the graphic novels highlighted by McCloud uses, like vivid symbolism and contrast these concepts in order to strengthen his ideas in the book. For instance, the author exploits the contrast of black and white to encapsulate the life style in the modern city and compliment the naturl life in the countryside. By using symbols of the joyful children and happy protagonist, Masereel features how the main character’s spirit changes after moving to the city. At the end of the story, utilizing iconic meanings of the white skeleton and its environmental surroundings, the author tries to create a dialog with his readers and stimulate their creative thinking in terms of understanding their true calling, which according to author, was moving from the industrialized areas. Apparently the author sees the roots of industrialism in the outcomes of war, which can explain the gloominess on the pictures illustrating the urban areas. Thus, Masereel’s comic book points to the negative consequences of war and the abnormality of new path chosen by humans after these frustrating event. The author has vividly showed that his protagonist tends to have different mood in urban and rural areas, revealing that he feels happier by being with children and surrounded by nature rahter in the company of the automobiles and factories.
Works Cited
Masereel, Frans. Passionate Journey. New York: Dover Publications, 2007. Print.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: [the Invisible Art]. New York: HarperPerennial 1994. Print.
