Imagine accidentally creating a new substance and then testing it on yourself, only to find the experience a horrifying experience that you seemingly cannot escape from. This is what happened to Albert Hoffman, the recipient of the very first acid trip in 1943, and what followed since his trip was a counterculture revolution brought upon with the help of his new drug. While the prevalent use of the drug and the culture surrounding it has declined significantly since the 1960s, LSD remains a drug with numerous negative connotations, earning itself a spot on the DEA’s Schedule I substance list. Regardless of the DEA’s status of the drug, people still use it and report their experiences with it. Brian Blomerth, the illustrator of Bicycle Day, takes inspiration from numerous art styles in order to present Hoffman’s bad trip in perceivable and entertaining ways to sober minds.
The question I want to answer is how heteroglossia is used in Bicycle Day to illustrate the fantastical and sometimes terrifying elements of LSD. Blomerth uses the comics medium to really let himself loose in regards to the artistic style employed throughout the pages. Blomerth doesn’t draw people but instead draws humanoid dogs that populate the cartoon ridden world he has envisioned for the first trip. Blomerth takes liberties from many cartoon art styles, most notably those from the ‘comix’ medium. ‘Comix’ refers to a particular style of graphic novel where the artwork is absurdly cartoonish and the material within often deals with material that is almost forbidden by the mainstream comics industry. In this aspect, Blomerth uses anthropomorphized animals to his advantage in this particular medium to illustrate them with outlandish physical traits, such as unnaturally long limbs or obsessive uses of emanata. A particular example of this comes when Hoffman finally makes it home from his bicycle ride from the lab. As he is greeted by his family, they are all illustrated as dogs, but with very long legs that are situated in very cartoonish ways.
Another aspect of how Blomerth uses heteroglossia to visualize different aspects of an LSD trip. He brings forward visual designs inspired by The Beatle’s Yellow Submarine film, which draws influence from underground comix. He also presents a modified and twisted version of classic Disney in order to illustrate the elements of a bad trip. At one point in the book, Hoffman is attempting to get home and he seems trapped in a terrifying color forest with evil trees taunting him. Not only does Blomerth take into account Hoffman’s journal entries of “...these demonic transformations of the outer world” (Hoffman, 1983), he translates Hoffman’s terrifying experiences to twisted versions of classic cartoons, drawing from a classic Disney cartoon Flowers and Trees, featuring anthropomorphic trees that don’t look like they can be trusted.
Works Consulted:
Flowers and Trees, Disney, 1932
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