One of the really interesting things about this book is its visual representation of the human voice. Each character has a different style speech bubble that reflects their personality and “reality.” In the above panel, we get a few examples. Asterios’ box is square and rigid, with straight, forceful font that mirrors his no-nonsense, inflexible approaching to life. Hana’s bubble is curved and “feminine”, the font graceful, calm, and smooth. The text depicts her sensitivity, empathy, and relative passivity in comparison with Asterios. Willy Ilium’s bubble is misshapen and irregular, with a bold font that reflects his eccentric and dramatic personality.
Near the end of the book, Asterios and Hana’s speech bubbles intertwine to create a new kind of font, signalling their mutual understanding:
One of the most compelling instances occurs while Asterios is dreaming. In the “Road” chapter near the end of the book, Asterios has a dream while he’s in the hospital in which his brother Ignazio appears in his place and begins to recount the story of Astetios’ life as if it had been his. However, we can differentiate between the two thanks to their speech bubbles (at least in the beginning). Ignazio’s speech bubble has font similar to Asterios’, but it is ultimately larger and italicised. This is the same font used in the narrative sequences because, as we know, Ignazio is the narrator of this story (or is he?!). Ignazio’s speech bubbles have a cloud-like, curved aspect in stark contrast with Asterios’ boxy, rigid, speech that signals his imaginary, ethereal existence. Ignazio’s words are very similar to Asterios’, but they come from on high, from the “clouds”, and have a physically larger, more epic presence.
However, as the scene progresses, Asterios becomes increasingly agitated (Ignazio is trying to steal his life…!) and Ignazio’s speech bubbles become more box-like, the font smaller and straighter. He begins to adopt Asterios’ speech. Soon, the two characters’ speech bubbles are indistinguishable, and Asterios becomes violent. Ignazio has uncovered the truth of Asterios’ existence, has described in simple terms the very essence of his life and struggles, and the stylistic aspect of his speech reflects that. The merging of these two binaries seems to affect the waking life of Asterios. It is after this dream that he decides he is “going somewhere”, and attempts to find Hana.
One of the first things that struck me about this work were the changing text boxes to symbolize different voices. To me, this added depth to each character and helped bring them to life even more than emphasizing certain words or adding exclamation marks would. And the “rest in peace” image definitely made me apprecate the usage of these text boxes even more through a creative use that signified Asterios and Hana bonding and being on the same page. Overall, this unusual and creative usage of various text boxes added a great deal to the personality of the characters and the story.