O Human Star by Blue Delliquanti tells the story of Alastair “Al” Sterling, a prodigious engineer and pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence. After a sudden and tragic death, Al wakes up 16 years later in a completely synthetic body, unsure of who’s behind it. To understand more, Al reconnects with former business partner and lover Brendan Pinsky, who has taken the development of artificial intelligence far beyond Al’s imagination as there are now fully synthetic people with their own selfhood, agency, and protected rights. Al also meets Brendan’s daughter Sulla, an excitable and gifted synthetic teenager who’s base code is Al himself. Al is suddenly confronted with the truth he kept so deeply hidden from others, while still trapped in a body that never really felt comfortable.
How do the panels’ composition foreshadow Al’s coming out?
In recent years, there seems to be a trend in popular storytelling of “subverting expectations.” Some creators seem to be at odds with their audience for dominance: on one side, the audience — simply due to their appreciation and interest in the story — enjoys discussing and speculating about what’s to come. Whether the story is serialized or not, readers enjoy wondering what’s next by scrutinizing what has happened. On the other side, some creators find themselves avoiding their audience’s conclusions in a misguided attempt to assume dominance over the story. For creators such as these, the audience must be always kept in suspense and constantly surprised regardless of the cohesion of the story. The fact of the matter is that, as human beings, we find pleasure in recognizing and deciphering patterns, especially in stories because they play such a pivotal role in how we communicate. A carefully plotted story with clever hints alluding to future plot points creates a rich and memorable text, a much richer one than one based solely on sensationalism.
Quite frankly, foreshadowing in a story is completely optional. Not every story requires it but, just like food doesn’t technically need seasoning, it is undoubtedly enriching when used appropriately. In narratives like stories and novels, a well-placed phrase in a character’s speech or an easily dismissed object or interaction can serve as a big clue in what’s to come. The reading experience acts like a veil that clouds the readers’ perception unless they are keenly paying attention to the page. The reader’s attention is focused on the bigger actions, and the process in which the written word becomes mental images varies greatly between readers. In other words, the mental image generated by one passage has infinite forms. In a visual medium, however, this variety is lessened. In comics, each panel is composed according to the creator’s intensions. Every utterance, interaction, and object is curated for the readers experience. As such, a technique like foreshadowing takes on a visual form.
Credit: Blue Delliquanti
A four-panel page.
First panel: A close-up of Brendan looking a little smug.
Brendan: I’ll have to set up a better bed for you down in the workshop.
Second panel: Sulla is excitedly flying down the hallway. In the background, Brendan is leaning back against the wall, arms crossed across his chest. Al has his hands up, as if to stop Sulla. Brendan is right in front of a poster of a magical-looking woman on the wall. His face and body match almost perfectly against her silhouette.
Sulla: I can do it! We can rebuild the day bed!
Al: You don’t have to do that —
Brendan: Go ahead and help her out. I have a few phone calls to make.
Third panel: Sulla is floating in the background, waiting for Al to hurry up. Al is holding his hand up to tell Sulla to wait, conceding to her and Brendan’s requests.
Sulla: Come onnnn, Mr. Sterling! We gotta get my tools together!
Al: All right, all right.
Fourth panel: Al is walking down the hall, multi tool in hand, looking back at Brendan, who is looking quietly at Al, his hand resting on the door frame. The poster of the woman is barely visible at the edge of the panel, which is mostly taken over by Al’s figure.
Al: I’ve got this.
Credit: Blue Delliquanti
A three-panel page.
First panel: Brendan is speaking, pushing his glasses back casually, eyes closed. Al is beside him, looking at Brendan wide-eyed. Behind Al, a glimpse of the woman’s face from poster is visible over his shoulder. Her eyes are solemnly closed.
Brendan: Al and I... agreed... that neither of us are directly responsible for him being here. But I’m making it my responsibility to find out where he came from. In the meantime, however, he is more than welcome to stay here.
Second panel: A close- up of Brendan with a tender look in his eyes.
Brandan: Alastair is one of the best friends that I’ve ever had. Regardless of the circumstances that have brought him back...
Third panel: A close-up of Al looking at Brendan as he speaks. Over Al’s shoulder, more of woman’s face from the poster is visible.
Brendan (off-panel): He’s back. And we should be here for him.
Undoubtedly, the climax of O Human Star is Al’s coming out as trans. While one of the main themes in the comic is the trans experience, for the first-time or undiscerning reader, it is only developed through Sulla’s and Titus’s storylines. Al’s revelation then comes as a surprise, but the clues had been laid out all along, and Sulla’s and Titus’s storylines are in fact foils to Al’s own. While clues can be picked up from his speech, questions, hesitation, and behavior throughout, the visual foreshadowing is simultaneously easy to overlook but speaks volumes. This is particularly true in the panels above where Al eclipsing the woman in the poster. The woman’s figure is constantly popping up behind him, her hair and figure framing Al’s body. The poster itself is significant because before it used to hang in Al’s bedroom in his workshop. It is a constant symbol connecting the past and present storylines in the story, shedding light on Al’s struggle with his identity. Its narrative intention as a foreshadowing device becomes absolutely clear in the end as Al physically transitions. The progression of panels starting from Al and finishing with the imagery of the poster shows that it wasn’t as much a poster as it was a window to Al’s innermost self.