Lightness Tie In

The Cape makes use of many of the defining features of Elit put forth by Hayle’s. Specifically there are scenes where text does not immediately appear but is timed to fade in and out, emerging for a short while and then disappearing. This is not possible in works of traditional print media as words appear in a particular order, and are at best (with comics and non-linear texts) disordered. The Cape juxtaposes text next to, and inserts text on top of pictures. While print works may choose to place text separate from pictures or embed it on top, rarely will a work do both. This ability of the text to work with or in contrast to other media gives the impression that the text is both weighty and weightless. The text can anchor the pictures, or it may float above it, or it may become obscured by it entirely.

Lightness Elit

The Cape by J.R. Carpenter is a work of compiled artwork with an invented story. Each page is a unique experience involving a government issue graphic combined with a pseudo-true (fictitious) story interwoven. The pictures are all black and sometimes pieces are ‘sliced’ out of the original revealing a glimpse of another black and white image beneath. Other images are merely graphs or charts that are emotionless at best.
These images, if taken on their own, convey a heavy sense of sadness through the bleak imagery of empty beaches and the use of black and white as the main color palette. The story that is loosely pieced together through the pictures ameliorate the weighty feelings and have a quality of reminiscence about them that parallels how a child would retell a story (indeed the pictures, obviously antique, also parallel that feeling but only within the context of the story). In this way the heavy kinesthetic feeling is lifted from the pages through the context of the story.