Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Like its title, the graphic novel “Blue” by Pat Grant will make readers fall in love with the color blue all over again (unless you aren’t already a fan of the shade, than you’ll probably be just apathetic). I loved the artwork and the pleasant blues in this book. Set in a fictional Australian town called Bolton, the color blue pervades most pages, whether its protagonists are hanging by the sea, surfing blue waves, building sandcastles; and even if the sky and sea aren’t seen in the setting, the grass is blue in this graphic novel.
However, the plot is quite abstract; it revolves around an old resident recalling how their small town, once exclusively inhabited by Australians, eventually became overrun by blue beings who slowly began erasing the town’s long-established way of living. I realized I may not have interpreted this graphic novel in the way Pat Grant intended because “Blue” seemingly advocates racism, serving as a metaphorical lament against immigrants, although it doesn’t cast the locals in a favorable light either. Only towards the end, in the author’s note, does Pat Grant indicate that the story is meant to be a criticism of anti-immigration sentiments. Unfortunately, this theme was somewhat muddled in the book.
Quite a few dialogues and actions in the book display racist behavior, with no one explicitly (or even subtly) condoning them. The narrator recalls discussing the blue creatures with his friends, who don’t even know what country they are from. “They are from some other country. Like near Africa or some shit,” one of them says at one point. When her friend questions if it isn’t racist to refer to them as simply ‘blue people,’ she responds by saying it’s not racist because they are blue in color, so a fact cannot be racist.
Pat Grant’s artwork kept me invested in the graphic novel, while the characters are simplistic blob-like beings, almost like cactus plants depicted as humans, Pat puts in a lot of work into the background illustrations. Bolton looks like a lovely quaint sea-side town, almost like a ginger-bread cake town covered in blue frosting. Sample this illustration (below) of a bunch of houses in Bolton; am I the only one who thinks they look like they could be cake?
So, while the artwork is quite the treat in this work, the story just kept meandering, with the protagonist focusing the tale on a day when he first saw a blue being show up in Bolton. On one hand, a bunch of kids are cutting school to go surfing and see some gory local sights, on the other hand there’s news of strange new blue-colored creatures with multiple limbs showing up in the town. These creatures at first try to mimic the locals, but then eventually becomes the dominant residents, pushing out families that used to be the roots of Bolton’s community. The fact that the immigrants thrive despite the odds, is probably the only subtle positive point in their favor.
Pat Grant mixes his own personal childhood experiences with political themes, and the result is an awkward story which ends up just when it gets a little interesting. Perhaps, if the book had been at least 50 pages longer, the creator could’ve wrapped up this tale in a more coherent manner.
Rating: 3 on 5. “Blue” is also available on Kindle Unlimited.
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