The Poetry of Snails

The graphic novel Duelo de caracoles [Duel of snails] (2010) by Sonia Pulido (images) and Pere Joan (script) recounts a meal of snails shared by friends, a simple premise upon which Pulido overlays complex layouts that elevate the snail to the conceptual level of metaphor, symbol and allegory. A brief analysis of Estudios psicológicos [Psychological studies], a single-page comic featuring snails by Apel·les Mestres i Oñós, outlines basic principles of layout and the representation of subjectivity/interiority that inform subsequent discussion. Pulido and Pere Joan’s comic privileges Thierry Groensteen’s categories of the shown, the intervened and the signified. Pulido’s poetic mode of composition captures the polyphony of group dynamics, occasioning multiple interpretations of the page within and beyond the inter-iconic space.