10 Great Comics You Didn't Understand The First Time

Daytripper is one of the best received comics of the last ten years, and seeing as that category includes the likes of Sweet Tooth, Nimona, and Umbrella Academy, that's saying something. What appears to be a slice-of-life comic about Bras, a Brazilian obituary writer, takes several dark turns as he dies in a new and graphic manner at the end of each issue only to reappear with no explanation in the next.

This continues as Bras grows old and experiences the trials and tribulations of life. The first time readers get their hands on Daytripper, they are usually too swept up in Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba's terrific writing and Bras's existential journey to pick up on the exact reason why he keeps dying and his death is unremarked upon.

It does take a few read throughs and some close reading to fully appreciate the subtext, but ultimately Daytripper is about how death, despite being common and expected in the grand scope of things, recontextualizes how a life is viewed.

If Bras didn't die at the end of each chapter and the narrative flowed freely from one life event to the next, it would only emphasize that those moments, while important, are usually shared experiences and not especially unique to Bras. But because death is a natural separator, Bras' continuous fatalities make each of these significant points in his life wholly his own.