Sloth (graphic novel)

AUTHOR: Hernandez, Gilbert

ARTIST: Gilbert Hernandez (illustrator); Jared K. Fletcher (letterer)

PUBLISHER: Vertigo

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 2006

Publication History

Gilbert Hernandez’s Sloth (which followed his 2003 Palomar series) was published in July, 2006, as a hardcover and in December, 2008, as a paperback. The work was released by Vertigo, which is an imprint of DC Comics that caters to mature audiences because of adult themes such as graphic violence, verbal profanity, and sex. Sloth was simultaneously published in the United Kingdom by the London-based company Titan Books, without any changes to the original publication; the hardcover was released in October, 2006, and the paperback was published in January, 2009.

The size of Sloth is somewhat smaller than that of standard-formatted comics, with a page dimension of 9 × 7 inches. Consequently, the pages often have fewer panels than standard comics, which Hernandez uses to his advantage with the repeated incorporation of long horizontal panels that stretch across whole pages.

Sloth differs from Hernandez’s usual serialized form of publication; it is the first stand-alone project of his career. In several interviews, he has stated that the choice to create a stand-alone comic was based on a desire to have a work with a concise narrative arc and one that is completely independent from his ongoing Love and Rockets (1985- ) story line.

Plot

Although the format of the graphic novel suggests a more complete or contained story, Hernandez complicates this tendency by presenting readers with an open-ended narrative that is packed with ambiguity and uncertainty, suggesting a significant tension between the format and the contents of the work.

Characters

•Miguel Serra, the protagonist, is a teenager with straight black hair who has a calm, pensive, and reserved personality. Abandoned by his parents at a young age, he was raised by his grandparents, Armando and Bea, in an unnamed suburban neighborhood. He is haunted by the vague memory of his mother and the mystery surrounding her disappearance and possible murder in the lemon orchard. After an identity switch with Lita, he maintains the same name and appearance, but becomes much more popular in high school. However, underneath this newfound popularity, Miguel remains the same quiet individual he was before the identity switch.

•Lita is a freckled teenager with blond hair who is Miguel’s girlfriend and possibly Romeo’s love interest. She is a drummer and displays a passionate interest in urban legends and the supernatural. Halfway through Sloth, she switches places with Miguel and becomes the protagonist after waking up from a self-induced yearlong coma. After the switch, she is active, outgoing, and determined to be in control of her life.

•Romeo is a friend of Miguel and Lita. He is tall with curly blond hair and has an outgoing personality. In the first section, he is the “third wheel” in a love triangle that involves Lita and Miguel. In the second section, he becomes Romeo X, a popular rock musician who grew up in the same suburban neighborhood as Miguel and Lita. After running into the two teens in the lemon orchard late one night, he quickly develops a romantic interest in Lita, thereby reinstating the original love triangle between the three teens. As Romeo X, he is less self-assured and cocky around Lita.

Artistic Style

Hernandez’s storytelling has often been described as Magical Realism, which is clearly reflected in Sloth through the stunning depiction of surrealist dream sequences and dreamlike moments in waking life where, for example, characters physically take flight into the sky. In terms of mood, the work is often compared to the films of David Lynch, especially Mulholland Drive (2001) and Lost Highway (1997). This comparison stems from the similarities in style and storytelling, such as the unexplained character switch, the use of surrealism, and the weaving together of reality and dreams. The overall artistic style of the work is carried out visually through a remarkable balance of black and white spaces. The contrast between black and white is especially dominant in dream sequences and moments of deep questioning, uncertainty, or fear, which mirror the interior emotions of the characters. Although Hernandez’s lines are simple and clean, they remain expressionistic and gestural and add to the obscure and gloomy mood of the work. A good example of this can be seen in the swirling skies above the lemon orchard, which visually complement the inner turmoil of the three teens.

Characters are often depicted in a cartoonish fashion with exaggerated doughy eyes and simplified mouths that are reminiscent of Dan DeCarlo’s and Harry Lucey’s Archie series. The straightforward look of the characters is enhanced by their lack of shading, giving them a two-dimensional or cutout appearance. However, the characters are not flat; rather, Hernandez reduces complex individuals to their bare essence. As with all of his work, Hernandez excels in the use of body language to convey important character traits and emotions. This can be seen in his use of silences, where readers are often left to deduce the internal state of characters through subtle visual clues, such as the direction of the characters’ gaze or the positioning of their bodies.

Themes

The themes within Sloth focus on such things as tumultuous teen romance and risky teen love triangles, the difficult transition between childhood and adulthood, the breakdown of the family, and the mundane boredom of suburban life that produces a numbing effect brought on by safety and predictability.

Throughout the work, characters attempt to escape the pain and absurdity of their teenage years through a variety of methods such as heavy rock music, dream worlds, comas, and suicide. These attempts at escape are symptomatic of a struggle for meaning in a world that does not always make sense. Sloth portrays an environment in which parents are absent, jailed, or fading out of mind; bullies are friendly one day and hostile the next; and love triangles among friends render everything uncertain. These themes underscore the existential mood of the entire work, as teenagers often perceive their lives as fleeting and meaningless.

Urban legends and the difficulty of differentiating reality from fiction are also significant themes in Sloth. By juxtaposing the supernatural figure of the goatman with the possibility of actual murders in the lemon grove, an overlap between fact and fiction is created, heightening the sense of darkness and ambiguity in the work. Furthermore, Hernandez aptly links the murky space between reality and fiction to the question of free will. More specifically, this can be seen in the unresolved mysteries in the work, such as the question of whether these teens can choose to will themselves into comas and whether the goatman can actually convince his victims to switch places with him.

Impact

Although Hernandez’s Sloth was not a huge commercial success when first published in 2006, it did receive very favorable critical reviews for its outstanding storytelling and art. Sloth is a high-quality graphic novel that attests to the long-lasting legacy of the author who is known to have mastered the skill of visual storytelling in both serialized and stand-alone formats. Furthermore, Sloth contributes to the overall status and reputation of the Hernandez brothers, who began producing and self-publishing comics in the early 1980’s, marking them as pioneers in the world of alternative comics.

Arguably, one of the most important contributions of Hernandez to the genre of alternative comics is his innovative portrayal of the human psyche. More specifically, in his focus on complex characters that exhibit both positive and negative personality traits and in his ability to construct the visual passage of time through character aging and weight gain, Hernandez has once again proven his overall understanding of the human condition. This standard of excellence is clearly maintained in Sloth, since the three teens are far from being flat characters; they are complex individuals who struggle with existential dilemmas and identity crises that are universally representative of the human condition. Hernandez is often cited as a major influence in the world of alternative comics for his artistic mastery and uncanny ability to capture psychological realism.

Further Reading

Hernandez, Gilbert. Human Diastrophism (2007).

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Poison River (1997).

Hernandez, Jaime, and Gilbert Hernandez. Flies on the Ceiling (2003).

Bibliography

Hernandez, Gilbert. “Palomar and Beyond: An Interview with Gilbert Hernandez.” Interview by Derek Parker Royal. MELUS 32, no. 3 (Fall, 2007): 221-246.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “Pleased to Meet Them: The Hernandez Bros. Interview.” Interview by Gary Groth, Robert Fiore, and Thom Powers. Comics Journal 126 (January, 1989): 60-113.

Hernandez, Jaime, and Gilbert Hernandez. Ten Years of Love and Rockets. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 1992.

Royal, Derek Parker. “To Be Continued. . . .: Serialization and Its Discontent in the Recent Comics of Gilbert Hernandez.” International Journal of Comic Art 11, no. 1 (Spring, 2009): 262-280.