The Whale

Reading at the pace
of breathing

The Whale is a fanzine inspired by the film of the same name, where every breath is an effort for Charlie. The zine rebuilds the film's script as a typographic body that struggles to move forward, so the text is read at the rhythm of his breathing. It is structured in five chapters, each one a phase of breathing: Inhalation, Contraction, Apnea, Exhalation and Collapse. The type size stays fixed at 8 pt, which makes tracking the main expressive tool. In Apnea it closes to −10, until lines overlap and the page runs out of air. In Collapse it opens to 900, leaving a single stretched word, pause, alone on a blank page. Line breaks, shifts in leading and white space act as silence and recovery. The result is a slow, heavy read that makes the reader feel Charlie's effort, not just see it.