Sebastiano Toma's graphic novel "NORMAL LIFE" is an epic declaration: stirring, dramatic, darkly comedic, readable, and above all, necessary.

The quirky memories of Nora and Elvis reveal a story inscribed with a resounding "no." It is a rebellion against dehumanization amidst norms that displayed the abnormal in menageries and circuses for horror and amusement. Rare individuals were exhibited to satisfy an embarrassed sense of superiority. For the (colonially influenced) world, they were mere monstrosities to be gawked at from a safe distance for money. But for the few – and Sebastiano Toma is among them – who empathized with them and shared their closeness, they were sensitive, thinking, and gifted beings with genuine imagination, curious and kind-hearted creatures. It is strange and unsettling how Nora and Elvis narrate their world and lives – subtly and simply, fearless but not untroubled. To protect their dignity, they once became sheltered wonders in an environment that exploited them, serving simultaneously as a place of fulfillment and refuge.

The set designer and director of poetic circus kaleidoscopes, Sebastiano Toma, illustrates the experiences of Nora and Elvis on large double-page panels – with fantastical, dreamlike grand compositions that give a visual voice to the lives of Nora and Elvis, appropriately stark and melancholically tender.

The harsh linework emphasizes the uncanny. And the grotesques, achieved through distortion, exaggeration, and sarcastic expressions, graphically play on the cosmos of the circus, where such elements were commonplace..

Su Tiqqun

24.3.2024

Reading sample: (Sorry, only in German) Pages: Title and 24&25 / 26&27 /30&31 / 52&53 / 68&69

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