Manatee by Carly Shooster - Transcript
Page 1:
A black and white 3 panel comic with 3 people in individual kayaks in a mangrove system. Dappled light pools around the figures with hanging vines and leaves in the background.
Panel 1: Crystal River Florida, 2022. A somewhat annoyed woman in a kayak says “Why am I so bad at this?! Abby, Carly, one of you switch paddles with me! A second woman says “Haha, Cass hates being worse at a sport than you Carly.” Carly, who paddles in the front, responds “Oy vey! You’ll be ok, Cass. Look y’all, I think I see a manatee.”
Panel 2: Cass is trailing behind and says “I’m normally so much better at activities than Carly”
Panel 3: A close up on Abby, who has curly dark hair and a dark jacket says “I can’t wait to meet a cutie patootie manatootie!”
Page 2:
A five panel spread shows the kayakers looking into the dark waters for manatees.
Panel 1: Abby says “I don’t see any” but then “Oooh there!”
Panel 2: A snout pokes out of the water. The kayakers say “CUTIES!”
Panel 3: Cass says “Ok, that was worth it.” And Carly smiles saying they’re perfect!” Abby adds “I think it’s a mama and a baby!”
Panel 4: Carly peers into the water with a concerned expression on her face her tattooed arms just visible by the side of the boat.
Panel 5: Two shapes float in the water. Text reads “Lately I’ve been imagining a life in which I don’t have children. Doing what I please, reading when I like, and not enduring the physical and mental agony of motherhood.”
Page 3:
The page is divided into three sections, the first with 6 small panels of manatees, the middle with an image of the mangrove forest and kayakers from above and finally another 8 small panels close up on Carly’s face.
Panels 1-6: Illustrations of a manatee swimming with its calf in the water. Narration continues, “But I know the truth inside my body…it calls for a family.”
Panel 7: The kayakers paddle above the manatees. Text reads “There’s an untapped well deep within the pit of my “soul” (or uterus?). Spilling over with maternal affection.”
Panels 8-16: Carly’s face changes expression several times from happy to contemplative to concerned. Text continues “And sometimes it’s all too much. I’m overwhelmed because I know I, too, will be a mother.”
Page 4:
A dynamic page with 5 panels with a central focus of a middle round panel.
Panel 1: A horizontal strip shows the mother and baby manatee swimming across the top of the page.
Panel 2: A round panel shows Carly standing with her kayak paddle looking into the water and turning her head towards other possibilities. The narration continues “but I’m scared to lose my individual-ness. I’m scared to raise a child in an increasingly racist United States. I’m scared of what it will feel like to create life, and this gut suspicion that it will bring me closer to death.”
Panel 3-6: Vertical panels show Carly readjusting in her kayak and watching the manatees. “With all the dividends I know having a child will give me…I’m most afraid of how close it will bring me to:”
Page 5:
Two panels show shifting waves and dark spots where manatees are swimming.
Panel 1: Text reads “nothingness.” “How can I produce a life with death ever present?”
Panel 2: The manatees keep swimming. Text continues “People do it every day. Sex. Babies. Families. I’ll probably be torn on this forever. Until death.”
Page 6:
7 panels of shrinking size.
Panel 1: A group of manatees swim under the edge of the water.
Panel 2: Abby and Cass join Carly again.
Panel 3: Cass says to Abby “I’m starting to catch up with you guys.” Abby laughs “ha!”
Panels 4-6: The kayak paddle dips in and out of the water.
Panel 7: The shapes of the manatees start to disappear under the water and shade.
Page 7:
A single panel page shows a beautiful manatee lifting it’s face from the water and snorting delicately.