The Story Explained


Setting and Cultural References

The Celebration is a story set in medieval times. The setting is a place hard to identify
despite being closer, stylistically, to being set in medieval Japan. The story itself makes
use of Shinto mythology but the characters aren't drawn in any such 'Japanese' style and
no name references to Japanese/Shinto culture are made.
The story itself is a loop. The beginning and the end are the same, they are a continuous cycle
that could be repeated eternally. To achieve that, it makes references to reincarnation and shinto
beliefs, like Tengu and Reiku. Understanding what Tengu and Reiki are isn't crucial to the story
but, if necessary, the book could have some sort of visual glossary at the end with short descriptions.
The book is divided by a solid-color page in the middle as a way of separating time, but the
book itself isn't divided into parts.


Background of The Elements Used in The Story

'Tengu' are mountain and forest demons prevalent in Shinto, a native religion of Japan.
These creatures assume normally a bird form, morphing into a human form with bird-like features
when they want to. They often play tricks and jokes on travelers, even possessing them or, in extreme
cases, killing people. These demons inhabit deep pine and cryptomeria forests.
Read the Wikipedia description (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengu)
Reiku could be compared to 'energy' or even to 'soul', perhaps. When an animal dies in a violent
or sudden way, that animal's Reiku will look for a host that will help it perform and unfinished
duty or mission. In The Celebration, we see this happening in the beginning and at the the end.
This parallelism aims at establishing continuity in life after death and beginning of the graphic
novel caused by its end and vice versa, a loop.


The Characters

The Two Travelers are the main characters. They are identical to each other, like twins.
The only clue to distinguish them is a scarf worn by one of them. They will be distinguished
as 'Scarfless Traveler' (1) and 'Scarfed Travaler' (2). We never go deep into the personality of
each of them, as they are merely observers that guide us through this world.
Baltazar, the village leader - A bearded man who will be the host of the two travelers.
Ogdi, Baltazar's father - Who lives with him and who is the 'wise' figure.
Calibraster, The cat of the house.
Samuel, Villager and friend of Baltazar.
Antoine, Pilot of the broken down Lockheed Lightning P-38 airplane (in fact Antoine de Saint-Exupéry).
Amarind (Forest Farmer), The farmer-like Tengu who possesses Traveler 1 (Scarfless Traveler)




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