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PROBABLY NOTHING by Matilda Tristram

Introduction

“Probably Nothing” is a graphic novel by Matilda Tristram published by Penguin Viking in August 2014. This nearly 100 pages long book is a tragedy, graphic memoir of grief and recovery. In this memoir; Tristram, English comics artist, animator and illustrator, shares her personal experience of nine months of suffering as well as a series of other unfortunate events in the form of a visual diary. Thus, the story is in part a pain and suffering narrative and makes remarkable points on post-loss growth and transformation. As mentioned earlier, the paper is based on Matilda Tristram’s true story that have made a big impact on her life as well as her family’s. As clearly explained by Catherine Lucas, Probably Nothing is a story that is created by the author herself when she was diagnosed with bowel cancer. More tragically, at the mean time, she was 13 weeks pregnant with her first child. “As she embarks on an unholy combination of cancer treatment and prenatal care, the risks are multiplied and the outcomes less predictable. A professional artist and animator, Tristram finds an outlet for the resulting emotional upheaval in her work and posts it online in comic strip form: she draws short, evocative episodes of her daily life that are shot through with a captivating blend of pathos and irreverent humour. Probably Nothing: A Diary Of Not-Your-Average Nine Months brings the series together as a graphic memoir that provides an informal and frank account of the physical suffering and emotional anxiety of cancer treatment, as well as the joys of starting a family—all of it against an acutely observed backdrop of middle-class life in East London.”

Author

According to the information that is provided on the comic book itself that is published in 2014, Matilda Tristram studied Animation at Royal College of Art and now lectures in drawing and moving image at Kingston University. She is a writer for children’s TV (the Adventures of Abney and Teal and Dibdap for Cbeebis) and her short films have been screened at festivals internationally. Tom and Matilda’s first picture book, Santa’s Beard, is published by Walker’s Books.

Style

Colour

When it comes to the style of Tristram’s graphic memoir, one of most remarkable points to has to be mentioned is the application of the colour. Generally speaking, the application of colors can certainly make big impacts on the comic books. The feelings one may receive from non-coloured comic books and from the coloured ones greatly differ. What is more, strategies that are used on each panel can change the perception of the story, whether would that be two or three dimensional coloring. New understandings of the messages that are hindered in the story will change depending on these features. More particularly, it can be said that colors play significant roles by presenting the change in the mood, feelings as well as revealing basic facts about the story such as time, season and so on. It is, in a sense, very helpful in the readers’ understanding of the stories and does not let the whole burden on them which makes the reading more enjoyable. Especially in Matilda Tristram’s deeply tragic personal memoir, the colors play a great role in the forming the whole sense of the story. Pastel colors that are used throughout the story might be deceiving as in their way of revealing positive ambiance. However, they are applied to promote the senses of smoothness and innocence. They suggest quietness, melancholy and amusement, liveliness at the same time. This strategy is usually used to better understand complex ideas behind the story beyond and between the panels. On the other hand, having had the first glance at the graphic novel’s cover picture, one can sense the melancholic and depressive effect that is aimed with the usage of pale colours as well. This effect has been obtained also thanks to the application of watercolour which is already an interesting choice in a tragic comic book as Tristram’s. even though these points create the fundamental assets for the choice of coloring, they are not the only and the most interesting one. More interestingly, at a speech that is given by the author herself at Laydeez do comics (2014), Tristram specifies that the initial form of the memoir was only in black line. The reasoning she brings up for the matter is that the starkness of blackline could make it easier for the story to give the true-story impression whereas usage of colours might make the story seem less true or less real. In other words, bright and strong colours could have created a form of story that is totally a product of imagination and fiction even though the case is completely the opposite. However, by applying the colour method no matter what, the expected effect does not seem to be the case and Tristriam states that she is quite happy with the result. What is more, she suggests that, with the help of using watercolour wash in between the panels in Probably Nothing, a sense of not really knowing what is about to happen next occurs. The colours and lines are freely distributed in between the pages just in much the same way the lives of the characters located in the narrative which, in turn, creates a perfect harmony between the style and the story. Ultimately, it could be assessed that, in Tristram’s work, the application of colours aims rather to indicate a positive perspective. As stated by the creator of another tragic graphic novel, Nicola Streeten, this style stands for an attitude of hopeful for the best but accepting of reality. Streeten suggests that the full colour and high-quality production connotes comic as art. Similarly, in an article called Altering English: Reexamining the whole class novel and making room for graphic novels and more, Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey asses that graphic novels are also beneficial in exploring tone and mood, using the color and visual cues from the images along with the printed text. In conclusion, as can also be seen in Tristram’s graphic memoir, the colors in comic books are not only there to please the eye of the audience. They function as constructing tools for themes, maintaining the storyline, and putting emphasize on certain scenes in order to create a colorful journey for the readers which will eventually be pleasurable for them.

Content

Author and illustrator, Art Spiegelman, believes that comics are a narrative art form, a form that combines two other forms of expression; words and pictures. With regards to this information, the way Tristram portrays the true story of herself with the combination of words and pictures can be clearly seen in her work. Combining almost painfully beautiful storytelling with stunningly drawn panels, this everyday life novel, in short, tells the story of a woman who goes through a situation that is not that usual for everyone. Here, the specification of ‘everyday life story’ carries one of the fundamental aspects of the story. This type of story could be classified differently in between all the stories that could be found in the same category. In other words, one of the most powerful aspects of Tristram’s tragedy graphic novel is the way it involves a real experience of heroic everyday people like us. Throughout the story, the reader senses a familiarity and easy understanding which accordingly boost creating a sense of empathy. Generally speaking, majority of comic book readers are used to encounter with stories that are entirely or partly products of imagination and have no relation to true stories. they are usually given stories of people with supernatural abilities, cartoon animals going on epic adventures, sci-fi myths beyond your wildest imagination. Thus, by applying such style to a comic book, Matilda Tristram already goes beyond the conventions of a typical comic book. In order to transfer information as accurate as possible, she turns the pictures into tools that are as integral to the story as the words themselves.

Tristram’s choice of topic is another point of the novel that creates many criticisms as well as appreciations. Some scholars suggest that by giving lightness and humour to a topic that is hardly discussed in everyday life, the novel offers a wider space for awareness of people and creates discourse around a taboo topic. In doing so, this novel builds bridges that connect people who have experienced the same situation. Even though graphic form of novels is not commonly preferred especially among the biographical genre, it can be said that it is very successful as in their way of conveying more than a life story. This combination between the comic book style and biography genre offer more insights for one’s personal stories and more freedom to the audience to interpret the story they hear. Even though it might seem that biography novels include more research in their content, comic book style can carry as much research as well. What is more about it is that they are additionally able to convey the message stronger and more easily thanks to the visual strength that is usually associated with the lay-out features, colours and so on. Thus, they are able to provide the same effect on the reader.

Matilda Tristram proves these theories with her novel Probably Nothing. The readers are put into a journey of a life story that is both amusing and heartbreaking. Tristram uses both drawn and written narratives and in doing so, she manages to convey an overwhelming message that facts only with words would fail to do so. Similarly, she proves that biographical comic novels can be really strong in communicating topics that can be hard to emphasize with.

Lay-out

Lay-out in Matilda Tristram’s biographical comic book is another asset of the novel that makes it remarkable and easy to comprehend. The relationship between the lay-out and the sequence of the narrative is created with great attention. More in detail, every page has sixteen small panels and text is contained under the panels rather than integrated with the image, as is the more common comics convention. In this sense, it could be assessed that the message, understanding of the texts are aimed to be conveyed more easily than the traditional ones. The storyline is more convenient to follow. One particular point that should be mentioned is the sixteen panel repetition on every page. This point is associated with how trauma can be perceived as repetition in itself as well by Hilary Chute. For that reason, comic books are really powerful for such storyline, Chute suggests. It is believed that by repeating the format of small panels of images and the repetition of herself within them, Tristram goes beyond the conventions of typical comic books and makes her novel successful in its area.

Bibliography

- Dallacqua, Ashley K., "Exploring Literary Devices in Graphic Novels", Language Arts, 89.6, 2012, pp. 365-78

- Fisher, D., & Frey, N., Altering English: Reexamining the whole class novel and making room for graphic novels and more. In J. B. Carter (Ed.), Building literacy connection with graphic novels, 2007, pp. 26-37

- Lucas, Catherine, A graphic memoir: Probably Nothing, The Lancet Oncology, Volume 16, Issue 1, 2015, p. 21

- Tristram, Matilda, Laydeez do Comics, Foyles Bookshop, London, September 2014