Your gateway to endless inspiration
Lackadaisy Analysis - Blog Posts
WARNING FOR BLOOD ON SOME PANELS
Lackadaisy's color scheme and lighting analysis Pt.1
A thing that many people have already noticed in the Lackadaisy comic, though intrigues me very much is the color palette changes. You see, in the beginning of the comic, we have a soft sepia, but when the Pig Farmer's raid happens, the soft ambiance gradually darkens to expose the tension and character's feelings better. (This can be considered as the lighting of the night time, too.)
By the end of Volume One, the light colors are back, though the readers are aware of the hidden climate, seeing the car window full of bullet holes in the background (Not necessarily related to the raid, but general gang violence).
At Lackadaisy Demurral and Lackadaisy Hamstring, they both darken, making us, the viewers, focused, so we pay better attention. We get to see Mitzi's attempts to keep the Speakeasy functioning (Although not so strong, unfortunately) along with a small, yet essential piece of Mordecai's plans working as one of the Marigold's, frantically unraveling every piece of information he can find at his reach (Which is in fact, quite important to the story as it goes on).
Jumping to Lackadaisy Briar-patch and Lackadaisy Mephistopheles, Mitzi and Sedgewick sit in a generally dark room, as a single sun ray shines through the upper window, hitting them both as Mitzi discusses her proposal with Wick, reflecting the hope she has on that deal. In a way, he used to be her angel of salvation, but it did not take long for her attempts to go downhill.
When Mitzi goes to Zib in Lackadaisy Mystique, there is a light behind her, full of moths. I'd like to say this represents their relationship in some sort of way. Moths follow the moonlight, Mitzi is Zib's light. He loves the light so much he gets hurt because of it. Mitzi, on the other way, used to be the moonlight, she was everything he cared for. But now, she is artificial, damaging the one who follows her.
We can also see this lighting metaphor in Lackadaisy Blood-money. Zib looks up at her right after being hit by the same. The remains flicker ever sightly behind Mitzi in the form of a streetlamp. Slowly yet, desperately, she is rapidly transforming onto what her husband was, trying her best to take his place in this cruel world of crime. Zib is aware of it, it pains him to know that once the light that shone the musician a path became cold, artificial and careless unless for interest. He needs that money, but at what cost? Watch Mitzi lose everything she had. Her money, her happiness, her husband, her soul. I see the streetlamp Mitzi walks forward to as a sorrowful representation of her dead husband, Atlas. The fact that had he had done dirty work multiple times on his career is what Mitzi is transforming onto. Zib knows the origin of all the blood money he received, but now having Mitzi as the giver is painful. Yet, there is nothing he can do about it. She sacrificed everything to become an empty shell of what Atlas once was, trapped in the delusion doing so will save his business, almost entirely dead, like Mitzi's and Zib's relationship, along the once successful band, destined to drift away to the country, featuring the loss of their star; Mary Ellen.
