THOUGHT BUBBLE MONTH 2024! Kai Dylan’s work first came to my attention via our most recent Broken Frontier Connects day of one-to-one Zoom mentoring sessions. The title Fifteen Minutes is symbolic of that much repeated Warhol-ism pertaining to fame, and acts as the thematic presentation of the first part of Dylan’s slice-of-life story about a largely unknown and unsuccessful author suddenly thrust into the limelight.
Events centre on the character of Julia whose novel concerns a knight, a prince and a stained glass window. When a mention of her book on social media goes viral she suddenly finds herself and her work to be the objects of unexpected attention. As book tours and signings follow, the world of the novel slowly weaves in and out of her world as we learn of its characters – a knight who has fled their pillaged village and the prince Aster – both of whom are taking shelter in a deserted church.
There are hints of secrets about both characters to be revealed. In reality, though, we are also observing Julia, and the question being asked here is that when you achieve your long-held dreams what actually comes next? Fifteen Minutes is the start of a longer-form narrative so there’s obviously lots to be revealed about where these interlinking parallel threads are going when the story recommences. But for newer voices jumping straight into long-form work it’s always important to get initial chapters out there to gauge feedback.
Dylan’s visuals are very much stripped back to the representational in the character scenes but that’s not to say there aren’t sophisticated things being done sequentially. Colour is often used to reflect that the book is the joyful focus of Julia’s life. When she thinks about it, for example, backgrounds may burst into vibrancy as opposed to the restrictive palette she normally moves through. Scenes set within the book similarly use colour (or a lack thereof) to create character presence, with frames and borders giving a feeling of classical romanticism to mirror its setting.
Where there is room for development in Fifteen Minutes is in the lettering side which can be raw and uneven in places, though there are strong uses of sound effects and text outside of the confines of speech balloons and thought bubbles. As I have mentioned previously in our Thought Bubble Month coverage, this is an event that is as much about the emerging voices as the established ones. Fifteen Minutes sets up more than enough in this sample to make me want to see exactly where Kai Dylan intends to take things in future.
Kai Dylan (W/A) • Self-published
Visit Kai Dylan’s website here.
Review by Andy Oliver
Harl Jones will be at Table B27b in the Redshirt Hall at Thought Bubble.
Thought Bubble 2024 runs from November 11th-17th with the convention weekend taking place on the 16th-17th. More details on the Thought Bubble site here.
Read all our Thought Bubble 2024 coverage so far in one place here.
Art by Rocío Arreola Mendoza
