I went back and picked up the first issue of this series after it was named Pick of the Week. I agreed with all the praise that the issue had received and I really looked forward to the second issue, though I was afraid that it would necessarily be a prequel rather than a sequel.

I was surprised. Even though issue two DID rewind the clock, I liked it even better than the first. The creative brothers (Ba and Moon) are really showing mastery at capturing life, poetry and emotion in their story telling. In this issue, (our protagonist) Bras’ life flashes back to age 21, and he and his best friend are on a road trip across Brazil. The creators have a way of invoking the spirit of their location much to the same potency that John Berendt made Savannah, GA come alive in his work Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. That is, they make you really see Brazil, and really want to go there.

Beyond the setting, the self-reflection and discovery that Bras experiences on the way is entirely relatable. To put it short, Bras meets a girl on their road trip and he goes through the struggles of planning to meet her, worrying if she’ll show up at their rendezvous, and wondering if this random mid-vacation encounter is worth the obsession. I’ve definitely been there myself, sitting on a bridge in that foreign city, wondering if she’s going to show, or if I should wait just 10 more minutes. Over it all is this mystical, poetic, cultural story telling which really ties the story together.

Ba and Moon are really hitting it out of the park with this series, and if you’re reading it, Daytripper is a testimony to how good non-super hero comics can be.