Stylistic co-existence and the chronotope in Stone Fruit and onwards towards our noble deaths

In this essay, I will examine the co-existence of different styles of drawing in Stone Fruit by Lee Lai (Lai, 2021). I will argue that this graphic novel uses two styles of drawing to produce different space times which can be better understood through a discussion of Bakhtin’s idea of the Chronotope. (Bakhtin 2011) I will compare this use of drawing to the drawing styles present in Onwards Towards Our Noble Deaths by Shigeru Mizuki (Mizuki and Allen, 2011) and argue that these comics use style to activate different chronotopic space times in order to deepen the reader's understanding of the interpersonal relationships between characters. I will consider the implications for both the drawn and drawing body in these comics, in the context of the history of naturalistic forms of representational drawing in manga and the practice of genre-splicing and ‘swiping’ in alternative comics. I will examine ways in which the movement between two styles of drawing form a structuring element of these narratives and argue that this movement is essential to communicating the meaning of these comics.