A POIGNANT, COLOURFUL JOURNEY
Fabled story of identity, migration mirrors harsh realities of relocating
Immigration is this incredibly difficult, huge, epic undertaking that people embark upon.
The first graphic novel to come from the creative team of poet/ author Wayde Compton and illustrator April dela Noche Milne is a story of a person, Lacuna, without a past, home or family.
Motivated by a not-altogether-pleasant, will-o’-the-wisp character named Polaris, who wants to move from her lonely swamp of inky waters for the gilded halls of the Northern Kingdom, the young Lacuna must follow the blue brick road.
One thing is clear as the traveller embarks on a weird, at times woozy, walk north: We are most certainly not in Oz.
Passing through walls both real and metaphoric, Lacuna arrives at the end of the journey in a place that is in every way as challenging as living solitary, waist-deep in murky swamp water.
Her realization that finding one’s place must always require some style of starting over most certainly reflects the experiences of so many migrants in the world today that must uproot and recreate lives in distant, strange and foreign lands.
The Blue Road features fresh storytelling and strikingly beautiful images packaged together in a book that works for a wide age range and interest base.
The suggested audience is young adult, but there are themes here that carry weight with much older minds.
Wild passages such as the trying journey through the twisted briers of the dense Thicket of Tickets rings true to anyone who has ever hit their limit with paperwork and passes.
“Lacuna gets through the Thicket of Tickets and intends to help whoever might follow behind by burning it down to knock out that one impediment, only to discover she needs the ticket,” Compton said.
“It’s a metaphor for bureaucracy as a whole and how inescapable it is. The first version of the story appeared in my first book which just had its 20th anniversary.”
Compton admits that he had a lot of time to think over the story and that most of the changes that went into it were driven by the current anti-immigrant backlash that we are living in now, and how children have become a target and a rallying point for contemporary xenophobia and racism.
Many of Lacuna’s creative and intelligent workarounds for the, often stupid, challenges she faces speak directly to what many immigrants are up against.
“Immigration is this incredibly difficult, huge, epic undertaking that people embark upon, where they have to recreate themselves in new places and languages,” he said.
“I remember writing up the protagonist’s dilemmas and taking long pauses to try to figure out how to get her out of them.”
Illustrator Milne gives Lacuna added agency in her colourful plates.
The Blue Road is the artist’s first graphic novel and she was excited to be involved in a medium that she feels delivers narratives in a unique way.
“Wayde sent me the script in 2018 and I was drawn to it being about migration, specifically about a young girl, as my mother immigrated here in her early 20s,” said dela Noche Milne.
“I storyboarded up the whole thing, sketched it up on pencil and paper and brought it into a meeting, which led Wayde to go do some rewrites.
“As a writer, he wasn’t as used to the visual structure in storytelling, so some things needed revisiting and they came back great.”
The artist initially visualized a darker, moodier palette for the story, but ended up using brighter colours to be more appealing to a younger audience.
Lacuna is a woman of colour described by Compton to somewhat resemble the author’s daughter, who was a basis for the story. The result is that Lacuna stands out against a lot of the backgrounds.
The look achieved using a digital illustration software called Procreate is almost like pastels against chalk.
Dela Noche Milne says that doing more children’s books and graphic novels is now becoming her “life’s passion.”
Compton echoes that the writing process involved in crafting stories for younger adults is extremely rewarding. The Blue Road is proof of both of their passion for the project.