Return to Sender (webcomic)
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| Return to Sender | |
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| Author(s) | Vera Brosgol |
| Website | http://rts.lunistice.com/ |
| Update schedule | hiatus |
| Launch date | 2002 |
| Genre | Mystery, Horror, Comedy |
Return to Sender is a webcomic by Vera Brosgol. It centers around two main characters, Often and Colette.
Contents |
[edit] Style
Return to Sender is drawn in a style reminiscent of manga and anime. Vera Brosgol makes a lot of use of facial expressions and body language, and there are entire pages when the characters speak very little, if at all. One of the trademarks of the comic's style is the fact that the only color used is a pale blue, used to create shadows and indicate darker colors. The simplistic color scheme contrasts to the highly detailed backgrounds, which gives the comic an overall surrealistic atmosphere.
The comic has been criticised for its lettering, which can feel cluttered when there are many words squeezed into tiny speech bubbles, but it has been acclaimed for its talented artwork.[citation needed]
[edit] Characters
There are two main characters in Return to Sender: Often and Colette. Often is a typical straight man. He is a skeptic who works as an editor of some kind, and the comic focuses primarily on him. Colette is his comic foil, his polar opposite. She is dark and mischievous, and sometimes reckless and unsympathetic, although she can also be cute and quirky, doing odd things such as blowing bubbles out of string cheese. Their relationship to each other is uncertain, as are many things in the comic. They are never portrayed as having any other relations or acquaintances besides each other, and so it can be assumed that they are very close to each other, especially considering the manner in which Colette first appeared in the comic (she shows up at Often's new house, uninvited yet accepted).
Although Often is the more down-to-earth of the two, he can give himself to strategically placed silliness to achieve an end, or out of simply not having any practical steps to take, having already stepped into a surreal world that defies logic.
[edit] Plot
The story is left purposely ambiguous, as is explained in the comic's F.A.Q: "talking about a story makes it lose its life force or something wonderful like that…."[1] It begins with Often buying a new house — cheap. It is hinted at that the reason for this is that the previous owner died a grisly death, though this issue is never re-addressed. Soon Colette arrives, and together they discover a mail slot mysteriously built into an inside wall of the house. It leads to nowhere, and is assumed to be a fluke until enigmatic letters begin to appear from it. The letters and the directions are the driving force of the plot, as well as the namesake for the comic.
One of the recurring plot devices is the deaths of insignificant characters. In fact, the very first page depicts the death of a man on the street, seemingly irrelevant to the rest of the story. As it turns out, following the directions on the letters leads to a chain of events that most often leads to some character being killed. Readers are usually given a glimpse into the life of the martyr character, from the point of view of Colette and Often, before the unfortunate soul is mutilated, incinerated, or otherwise killed.
Another recurring plot device is that of random monsters attacking Colette and Often. As more and more attacks occur, it is apparent that the monsters are after the letters from the mysterious mail slot. No explanation is given thus far of the monsters origins, or ultimate goals, or self-awareness, however they tend to disguise themselves as normal humans before attacking the main characters.
The monsters, deaths and mysteries of the comic add to its morbid and surreal mode, and contrast to its pastel and cloud-like drawing style.
One large complaint about the comic is its vague and ambiguous storyline. It is hinted at in the comic's F.A.Q. that it is not pre-written at all, and that it is written more or less as the story progresses. As a result, the comic lends itself to the more random and Colette-like audience, accepting of mostly any anomaly that comes along, rather than the Often-like audience, demanding a reasonably realistic explanation for the plot.
[edit] In other webcomics
- Return to Sender was once referenced by Jason and Seth of Niego, which parodied the random monsters aspect of the comic. [2]
