Megillat Esther

This blog is dedicated to the first half of Megillat Ester, by J.T. Waldman. This graphic novel is complex to say the least, I guess I will start where I usually do, the art, the art of Megillat Ester is in a word, oppressive. It is that the art is heavily inked with dark borders. It feels incredibly contained; this combined with the dark stylistic Hebrew makes the whole piece appear heavy and oppressive.
This is interesting though because the stylization of the panels as well as the Hebrew letters, also break it free of the normal flow and pattern of the standard comic book. The layout of the pages is not the set standard pattern that most comics use in their approach to storytelling, but rather it changes flowing differently on almost each page. Then why does the author included what appears to be a contradiction, and oppressive art style with a truly free layout?
I think the best approach here is to see that the art, once again, is a continuation of the narrative, while this is no surprise in something that is called a graphic novel, I think it is important to distinguish the fact that these images are different. The characters within the panels are heavily inked and they have about them a gravity that is usually ignored in comics. I believe the author does this as a way to show that while they may appear free they are being controlled. The King is being manipulated by his advisors, the women are being taken from their homes, and the Judeans’’ are marked for slaughter. The first half of the narrative is very heavy a dark and the art style really reflect that. I think the heavy borders also reflect the confinement of the characters. In the first half of the narrative it’s not often that the frame of a panel is broken. The only time that specifically comes to mind is the hanging. The hanging image in which two men are hanged from a tree, the boarder fades into words. This, I think, is supposed to mean that in death they are free unlimited by the bonds of earth, of course this is without taking in to account any afterworld punishment, or the fact that they were attempted assassins. So the borders create an oppressive atmosphere while reading the text, however there is a sort of freedom in the panels.
The panels in this graphic novel do not often flow in the standard pattern of left to right then down, that most comics books have, instead the images flow freely (and not to jump the gun early but the book also flips completely at one point to be read more in the manga style). This is evident in the tear drop image as well as the image where the advisor throws the dice (a d20 by the way), these images show a lack of conformity to the genres style as a whole. It is like opening Paradise Lost and finding someone twisting the sentences in to shapes of various kinds, it’s disconcerting.
Why have the paradox, why mix stylistic freedom with stylistic oppression? Mayhap it is because the author wishes to show the state in which Ester is in, both controlled and yet she may have anything up to half the kingdom so it’s hard to call that subjugated.