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Daddy Lightning Review

By Beth Davies-Stofka
July 5, 2012 - 10:08

Daddy Lightning's grief has driven him to dream. At least, that's how I read this hilarious and moving comic by Tom Hart.

Hart dedicates this book to his daughter, Rosalie. He writes his anguish on the inside cover, telling us that Rosalie died before her second birthday. He wrote the story when she was a newborn, and drew it after her death. The two experiences coexist here. The joy and confusion of the new parent and the anguish of the grieving parent sear each other's surfaces. It's an emotional chimera of a book. I cried before I read it. I just sat there in the booth at the Village Inn and wept. Then when I started reading, I started laughing. And I finished it, consoled.

When we first meet Daddy, he doesn't have a name. A man and his baby are traveling on foot. Their destination is the beach, but for now they are in the woods, archetypal dream places of fear and confusion, and of things lost, gone, or missing. The baby is crying and the man is frustrated and alone. He's also broke. His desperation cries out from nearly every page. He changes his baby's diapers, he gives her milk, and he worries about their dwindling resources. And his own needs, unmet, are driving him crazy. When is a man supposed to poo?

He's also stalked by a gang of disapproving mothers, all nursing their own babies. He struggles to understand his crying child. Every "Eureka!" moment of insight is promptly cancelled out by the relentless needs of his baby. Everything he does to quiet her is temporary. No matter how many diapers are changed or bottles are given or pacifiers are offered, his baby inevitably returns to crying, and Daddy's desperation returns.

But just a look at the front cover will show you that his victories are well-earned and his humor does not desert him. I laughed out loud when, in one of his occasional pep talks, he started looking through history for role models. "We can do this, you know!!" he tells his sleeping baby. "There's a lot of inspiring fathers throughout history. Like…uh…Chronos."

The dream recounted here is one of those dreams where you feel you've gone a long way, only to wind up where you started. Our heroic daddy solves a pile of problems, but they just come back. And he experiences the surreal as if it were perfectly normal. A caterpillar for a pacifier! A swaddling contest! A fight with a baby cart assassin!

At one point, the loa Baron Samedi looms in the background, a threatening smudge of ink in a top hat. He emerges from the gloom as "Lady Gretchen," who gives Daddy Lightning his name and teaches him to swaddle his child. She gives him a pacifier, too. This traditional loa, or god of resurrection haunts Daddy's dream. Baron Samedi could be an ally. He could grant Daddy's deepest wish. But he doesn't.

"I get it," Daddy says. "Daddy Lightning is all alone." But he's not.

Daddy Lightning is about so much; about frustration and victory, hope and fear, even waffles. It's about everything, because it's about love. We never truly recover when our children are lost. But there is hope in love, which is why this story finishes with a smile of contentment. Love survives death. Daddy Lightning can tell you that.

Note: this review refers to the black and white version of the comic.

Rating: 10 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12