Dear readers,
This issue features Sean Ironman’s powerfully honest graphic narrative, Pinkies. Ironman employs precise line art, bold use of negative space, and dramatic, vignettes punctuated by strategic touches of crimson to recount a childhood event: the violent dispatch of a neonatal mouse, or “pinky,” to serve as food for his pet snake. While this is the recommended and humane method for feeding such pets, Ironman’s work perfectly captures the sheer, horrific reality of the situation, utilizing the comic medium to its fullest. The narrative masterfully conveys the profound impact this event had on the author’s youth, exploring the inner conflict and inferred emotions involved in processing themes of death, violence, mercy, and the shaping of manhood.
Through the artist’s measured storytelling and visuals, readers are invited to confront the sometimes shocking truths that we can encounter on the path to adulthood. The work also surfaces broader gender themes and the moral burden placed on men in a world that can be violent and ugly. It makes us consider the weight of being a moral agent in a world that demands sacrifice. Yes, it seems, this is what men do.
Drai Whitted
Graphic Lit Editor
Andrai Whitted is the Digital Media Editor at Solstice Literary Magazine where he painstakingly formats each issue among other contributions. He is also a designer and artist and in our Spring 2019 issue he has kickstarted a new genre for the mag with Graphic Lit featuring comic storytelling and other forms of sequential art including comic poetry and experimental works.
