User:Ksnortum/Bruno
Bruno is an online webcomic written and drawn by Christopher Baldwin since 1996 January 1, still online as of 2005 July 9. Its story lines revolve around the life of a introspective young woman, set in the real world. Her unusual name comes from the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno.
Themes and literary style
[edit]Bruno differs from the usual webcomic, that tends to reflect video games or student subculture, and instead deals with real, often controversial, issues through the daily life of the main character and her friends. The comic is characterized by a great deal of sometimes angst-ridden dialogue between the characters, occasionally punctuated by a single panel with a contemplative scene without words. The story lines follow the life of Bruno (somewhat autobiographically) as she quits college, visits friends in various American towns, travels to Europe, falls into and out of relationships, and publishes her novel.
Artistic Style
[edit]The backgrounds are mostly of real-life places converted to black and white outlines penciled over and shaded with cross-hatching. Each character is drawn as a representation of a real person but with its own stylistic characteristic. Bruno's face is based roughly on a sketch of an angel's head by Leonardo da Vinci. Baldwin's early drawing style was influenced by Nicole Hollander's comic strip Sylvia.
History
[edit]Bruno originally appeared in the The Daily Collegian, a newspaper for the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in the Spring of 1994. After an unsuccesful try at syndication the strip went online in 1996. Baldwin redrew and relettered many of the original strips for the website. Since then the strip has continued online, nearly continuously, between six and four strips per week.
Bruno and controversy
[edit]Bruno smokes and drinks, sometimes to excess. She has attempted suicide. She has had an abortion. She is bi-sexual. She dabbled in polyandry (but decided it wasn't for her). She took a job as a stripper. One of the characters is a post-operative transsexual woman.
Major events in Bruno
[edit]{{spoiler}}
Book One
[edit]- Quits college [1]
- Has an abortion [2]
- First lesbian affair (doesn't work out) [3]
- Gets drunk with in an airplane bathroom with a flight attendent [4]
- Visits New Orleans
- "Liberates" her younger cousin during an extended babysitting job [5]
- First lesbian romance and breakup (Donna) [6]
Book Two
[edit]- Attempts to commit suicide [7]
- Leaves for parts unknown [8]
- Gets lost, meets a hermit (Stanley) [9]
- Invites a cirus into Stanley's house [10]
- Delirium caused by fever starts a series of visions based on Danté's Inferno [11]
- Finds her way back home [12]
Book Three
[edit]- Jay, a strict Catholic begins to question his religion []
- Bruno's mother comes to visit []
- Jay has a vision and Bruno and her mother follow him on a religious quest []
- Bruno's parents separate []
- Bruno and Jay sleep together []
- Jay marries another woman (Notburga) in a Wiccan cerimony []
- Bruno passes out in a bar and is taken home by a good samaritan []
- Bruno house-sits for Stanley []
- Bruno talks to a ghost of a young boy in Stanley's basement []
Bibliography
[edit]Baldwin has produced nine Bruno books. The first three were originally hand bound. The current soft-cover versions still bare the photographic representation of this binding. All are published in the US by Morrison Publishing.
- Uh...Hey..Mom and Dad, I'm Dropping Out of College, (1996), ISBN 0-9667574-0-8
- Bread and Circuses, (1998), ISBN 0-9667574-1-6
- These Troubled Soles, (1998), Forward by Will Devlin Willson, ISBN 0-9667574-2-4
- The Seventh Cause (Or The Lie Direct), (1999), ISBN 0-9667574-4-0
- Something Lost, (2000), ISBN 0-9667574-5-9
- Love, God, Sex, and Cinema, (2001), ISBN 0-9667574-6-7
- Lebensraum, (2002), ISBN 0-9667574-7-5
- Eleven Months Early, (2003), ISBN 0-9667574-8-3
- Once Removed, (2005), ISBN 0-9765483-0-5