Thoughts on "Hamburgers for One" and Slice of Life

In the 2011 annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Oscars of comics, "Hamburgers for One" by Frank Stockton was nominated in the Best Short Story Category. Although it didn't win, it left a deep impression on me. So deep, in fact, that I decided to dig it up and write this blog post on it one year after I read it.

"Hamburgers for One" is a slice of life comic about an obese man's visit to a hamburger joint, and his attempt to hit on the new waitress. One can see the influences Stockton takes from Japanese manga through the slow pacing of each panel that takes you from moment-to-moment, almost second-to-second. There were times it was a little overdone, but Stockton's attempt to mix Japanese influences into his own personal storytelling and art style was definitely admirable and created an interesting and unique atmosphere for his piece. In addition, the attention paid to small details such as the man feeding a squirrel scraps to show his kind nature and the visual depictions of the suburban town really set the lazy, relaxed, and somewhat depressing mood of the piece. The dominant orange and gray color scheme added to this mood, and definitely made me like the piece more, since orange is my favorite color and that color scheme creates a nice vintage look that I really like.

What I like about the story is how it depicts an event in the day of an ordinary person and makes it interesting for the reader. Stockton displays the event with striking honesty and objectivity, which allows readers to sympathize with both parties and make their own judgements at the end of the comic. In addition, actions speak louder than words in this comic, as Stockton focuses in on certain details from facial expressions and close-ups to body stances and positions which indicate the man's interest and the woman's disinterest as they seem to hold a normal, although somewhat awkward, conversation.

The waitress goes about her business and appears disinterested as the man converses with her.

I really like slice-of-life comics because I personally find it much more interesting to read about the lives of ordinary people than superheroes or famous people. Although Japan has a lot of slice of life comics, America, unfortunately, has a significantly less amount (I can't think of any others besides this comic at the moment!). Thus this comic was a rare treat for me to come by, and I jumped at the chance to read it as soon as I found out about it!

I definitely think there's a lot of great comics waiting to be drawn in this genre from America, and the short story format would make it really easy to take just a glimpse into the life of an ordinary American, a slice of life, so to speak. Although I have nothing at all against a long continuous story in this manner, and would be highly interested in reading something along those lines as well. In any event, I think this comic shows us that everyone has their own stories to tell and share, and the ordinary can be made into something just as interesting, if not more interesting, than the extraordinary. It's a short read and free online, so you can read it by clicking here right now!