The Weaver Festival Phenomenon (2018) pg.50

Adapted from a Banana Yoshimoto short story ‘Moonlight Shadow,’ that you can find in the back of most copies of "Kitchen," The Weaver Festival Phenomenon maybe Ron Regé, Jr.'s most straightforward book but also his most lyrical and beautiful.

The moment the whole story has been leading up to and Regé doesn't disappoint showing the transcendent moment where a living person get to see their departed love one last time. There is almost a pyramid like structure to the page from medium shot, to close up and finally whatever you would call the bottom third of the page. Giving us the character's separated in the first two panels to have them finally together in the last, where they connect but Regé still never has them actually touch, and the next page they start to part, there is even a line drawn between them to make sure there is threshold that can not be cross by them.

Amazing experience to get to go to MOCA in Los Angeles and see Regé show all of the original art from both this book and Halcyon together in massive binders that could be flipped through. Fun point of the night for me was when I was scanning a binder next to Jordan Crane who stopped on this page, which I had already purchased, and asked to borrow someone's glasses to look closer and after looking expressed how incredible he thought the page was. Was nice to confirm I made a good choice.


Pencil and ink on bristol board.

14" x 17"