Apotamkon THE WATER MONSTER
The ethnographic graphic novel was an attempt to retell a Maliseet traditional story that incorporates contemporary concerns with lessons learned from Maliseet “deep time.” Too often the traditional stories are dismissed as “just so” stories with little relevance to contemporary issues and concerns. This graphic novel utilizes the framing devices and intertextual capabilities of graphic novels to reinforce the most important lesson that we still have a lot to learn from our ancient storytellers. Many of the traditional stories describe how the world came into existence and how it was shaped into its present configuration for the good of the people. This graphic novel continues that tradition by alerting us to be ever vigilant to protect our environment for the common good.
“Reading” Apotamkon.
If all the frames were removed from each page of the novel, you will find that if you placed each page side-by-side that each page is a single part of a twenty page continuous landscape of 360˚ located at the (quasi)mythic Tobique Rock (see the sketches in the Intertextuality section of this exhibit). Superimposed upon the landscape of Maliseet “deep time” are rough edged frames for telling the story in mythic time. The graphic technique is less controlled and more gestural. The storyteller’s words are italicized and are represented by an informal font. Instead of restricting the frames to single pages, I extended mythic time to two-page spreads to invoke the larger expanses of mythic time. When the story is interrupted (page 6) it is in non-italicized formal font. In addition, the frames are smaller, regular, and conform to single-page format. These single page frames highlight the regulatory and abbreviated timeframes of the present. The storyteller’s responses are also in non-italicized font but he retains the informal font. As soon as the storyteller returns to his narrative the informal italicized font returns and the frame expands across two pages. The mythic time narrative culminates in the very large single mythic frame (page 12 and 13). Immediately, another interruption returns to formal and constrained fonts and frames. The drawing become much more controlled and the story is focused on the lessons for the present. Finally, the story concludes with the beginning of the story as told in Maliseet. This graphic novel is an exploration of intertextual retellings of ancient stories as integral lessons for the present.