The idea behind this sequence was to build on the previous example of the Southerner’s ruthlessness, but this time showing his willingness to get his hands dirty himself. The Southerner’s careful planning and his composure in the process of committing a horrendously violent act marks him out as a grade A psychopath. The sequence begins with two diamond panels inserted into another panel that establishes the setting. The diamond panels create an enigma: a hammer and a stake in the first and the Southerner reading a newspaper in the second. This design is repeated at the bottom of the page, with Leon and the Faubourg agent in the diamond panels inserted into a panel with a different setting. This enigma is resolved when the content of all four of the diamond panels are combined in the final five panels of the two-page sequence with the implication that the Southerner is about to murder Duverney’s agent in a particularly gruesome way.
‘Casanova in Paris: The Shadows of the King’ is freely available here.
Long form articles on Casanova’s life and times are freely available here.
#behindthescenes #storytelling #graphicnovel #history #southerner #faubourg #enigma
