Using lilting prose and sparing but powerful illustration, Ray Fawkes beautifully distills and slows the human noise that captures us all as we search for “The People Inside.” Within the pages of this book the search for connection and significance is presented in its most essential and comprehensible form. Agonizing and beautiful, joyous and despairing, this chronicle of the internal lives of twenty-four characters is a rich and vibrant rendering of the human experience in all its complexity and contradiction. As sparse as it is intricate, this graphic novel is a perfect example of innovative storytelling.
Written & Illustrated by Ray Fawkes
A new original graphic novel from the Eisner-nominated cartoonist of ONE SOUL! This ground-breaking new book looks at the lives and relationships of 24 individuals in a way only the medium of sequential art could. Relationships change, grow, and end but the one thing that always remains is the people inside who define both ourselves and our liaisons.
Before you sit down with “The People Inside,” you should know that it as much an experience as it is a story. Composed entirely of double-page spreads, this book unspools itself in a very unique way. Each page features a grid, and each position on the grid remains consistently dedicated to a single character or couple. As the pages are turned, the story of each character begins to stack on itself. The events of each life proceed in a linear way page by page, but each double-page spread highlights a larger theme. Without ever calling a character by name or completely contextualizing their experiences, Fawkes disregards all nonessential information and focuses on the most intimate details. A bold study in minimalism and experimental form, “The People Inside” has its own heartbeat, and this living beast carries the weight of humanity on its back.
Fawkes bravely introduces each character without passing judgment on them. Examining the horrifying and magical moments we all leave in our wake, no one is made to seem more or less worthy of study and consideration than anyone else. Each individual is multidimensional and beautifully realized as the story progresses. The couples and individuals featured in “The People Inside” represent a broad spectrum of personalities, values, and dynamics. Allowing each couple the same amount of space on each page, Fawkes draws the idea that we are all as alike as we are different into sharp focus.
There is a gorgeous rhythm to this cast’s thoughts. Creating a kind of poem that skips between scenes, Fawkes omits punctuation, which forces text from one panel to pair with that from the next. Choosing not to punctuate the text also makes the writing feel more internal; less polished or contrived than things spoken aloud could ever be. There is a stinging honesty in this writing, and an unflinching vulnerability in these characters. The only phrase ever spoken aloud repeats and echoes through each story, and never means the same thing twice. Singsong simplicity, sweet refrains, sweeter nothings, everythings and the moments in between unite these stories in their differences. Repeated phrases cross between stories, forcing us to consider the universal nature of the process of loving and being loved.
Just as poignant are the contrasts that these repetitions highlight. It is amazing to see how completely unique a word or phrase can become depending on a little context. Fawkes is always up to something, conflating meaning and transforming dialogue with context. In the book the phrase, ‘look what we made,’ bubbles with affection and contentment, while ‘look what you made me do,’ is hateful and biting. Just by shifting the words around a little the intention is completely altered. Even more impressive is the way one word can be charged with radically different meanings as it returned to panel after panel, story after story. The malleability of language which Fawkes embraces is echoed in the unique meaning of actions as they apply to each character. For example, early in the book, each pair of characters are shown in an embrace, though the actions are the same outwardly, the meanings of each image are vastly different.
Continued belowFawkes writing shows masterful intention, and surely the same must be said for his illustration. Using only sharp black and white, these stark renderings push us into intimate, confined spaces with the characters. Unique perspectives force the audience to engage with the characters. At moments, the artwork seems intentionally disorienting, literally forcing readers to pause and consider a character’s point of view. Despite the fact that this narrative follows people across lifetimes, there is some instantly recognizable essence captured in the way they are all depicted. Allowed to age and wither, to emote and react, the ever-changing characters are always clearly recognizable as a specific person. Given the simplicity of Fawkes‘ style of art, this speaks to an incredible ability to connect emotionally with a character, and to somehow make that connection consistently read visually.
One of the most effective choices made in this book is a visual device. Over the course of the story, as characters die a solid black panel holds their place on the grid. In the beginning when the cast is young and hopeful the black panels are conspicuous, and truly emphasize the tragedy of loss. As the end of the book draws nearer, the black panels are more and more numerous; it becomes harder and harder to remember who once occupied a certain space, and what their story was about. At times, several new black panels are introduced at once, hardly giving the audience a moment to react. This creates a dizzying sensation as a couple of pages might pass before a character’s absence is even realized. The loss of a character always matters most to the partner whose story continues. As the characters disappear one by one it is impossible not to consider the idea that they will all become holes where their stories used to belong, and feel intensely temporary.
“The People Inside” makes brilliant use of both visual and thematic motifs. One particularly effective example is the integration of these personal stories and the natural world. Playing with the imagery of changing seasons, little details in panel reinforce the idea that time is passing with every page throughout the entire work. The cyclical changes inherently tied to seasonal shifts are mirrored in the lifespans of the characters and their romantic entanglements. Whether comparing the burning heat of infatuation with summer, or showing couples settling in during the fall, or finding warmth and comfort in one another in winter, or beginning anew in spring; Fawkes finds a way to build beautiful allegories between love and nature. In this way he implies that love is nature; forceful, inevitable and constantly changing. In this context, growing apart, or together is as inevitable the changing of seasons. This connection with the natural world highlights the temporary and fleeting reality of our existence.
A powerful commentary on the constancy of change and the transience of affection, “The People Inside” is beautiful and utterly frightening in its sincerity and its unwillingness to look away, even for a moment.
Final Verdict: 10.0 – This book will remind you that there is always beauty, and always loss, and that it is always worth it.
