I-50

Episode Forty-Seven: I-50.
In which the map may not exist.

1 comment:

  1. Paul Metcalf, I-57 (1984). Metcalf's collage-like storytelling is an ongoing influence on this strip. I am intrigued by my own reaction when unanticipated or unwanted style changes are made an integral part of a narrative.

    History is a preoccupation for Metcalf: personal history, cultural history, natural history. Geography as a defining characteristic of personal identity.

    I-57 traces a personal story against a broader social organism, with an Interstate Highway system as a spine. "I-57" also a pun: it was written in Metcalf's 57th year.

    And, so, I am 50. Written in the week of my 50th birthday, this cartoon traces the journey of this story - neither a cartoon, nor a story, nor an autobiography. Neither an IT Support professional, nor a father, nor a boyfriend, nor an artist. Yet, at times, some or all of these.

    SM panel addresses my tic - my broken self. Metcalf's stories often addressing that which puts us apart. The internal voice seeing it simply as malfunction.

    And the final panel: the map doesn't always work. The cartoon doesn't always stand up to scrutiny. The life doesn't always make sense, or be justified as worth living.

    Guy holds a map that traces the route back to who we were.

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