Daytripper

Daytripper is a graphic novel written and illustrated by comic book artists Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá. Originally published in 2010 as a comic book series by Vertigo, the collected series was published as a completed book in 2011. Daytripper won the 2011 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series. Bá has also worked on popular comic series such as Umbrella Academy and Casanova. Both Moon and Bá are twins, and they sometimes refer to themselves as the Brazilian “Wonder Twins.”

The book is written in a non-linear, fragmented, loose structure, with each chapter marking a different, vital moment or possibility in protagonist Brás de Oliva Domingos’s life. Daytripper employs elements of magical realism and a detailed, surreal illustration style, and nearly every chapter ends with a mini-obituary for Brás.

Plot Summary

The reader is first introduced to Brás at age 32, as he grapples with trying to live up to the shadow of his father, an acclaimed writer named Benedito de Oliva Domingos. Brás is an obituary writer at a newspaper but aspires to write novels. Flashing back to age 21, Brás travels the country with his best friend Jorge and meets his first love, Olinda, during a chance encounter. At age 28, Brás and Olinda break up. Lost in his heartache, he turns to his father, to Jorge, and to artwork to find meaning again.

Flashing forward once more to age 41, Brás loses his father the same day that his wife, Ana, gives birth to their son Miguel. Brás, now an accomplished novelist in his own right, must navigate grief and joy simultaneously. The reader is then transported to the life of 11-year-old Brás, a young, carefree boy surrounded by family, only to realize that he too will one day grow up to be just like the adults in his life. At 33, Brás finds himself writing dozens of obituaries to honor the victims of a plane explosion. Though the work is painful, it allows him the opportunity to take his writing somewhere new and unexpected. Jorge, who was almost on the plane that exploded, runs away, unable to cope with the near-death experience.

At 41, Brás is a famous published author, yet he yearns to reconnect with Jorge. After he tracks Jorge down, he finds his friend mentally ill and struggling, stabbing both Brás and himself. The reader is then transported to Ana and Miguel’s experience of losing Brás. It is unclear whether or not this violent incident with Jorge truly took place, especially as the chapters progress and Brás lives to be much older.

Defining moments of Brás’s life blend together in a vivid and disturbing dream that he cannot awaken from right away. People he has met remind him that he needs to make meaningful choices in order to live a full life. In the final chapter, we see Brás’s birth—a “little miracle” in which Aurora, his mother, gives birth during a citywide blackout—and we see him learn of his impending death from cancer at age 76. Miguel, now an adult, finds a letter from Benedito to Brás written on the day Miguel was born and Benedito died. Brás reads it to himself before walking into the ocean and staring at the moon.