Literary Identity: The Composites
Brian Joseph Davis collects faces. Specifically, he collects the faces of fictional characters on The Composites, his blog of police sketches driven by reader suggestions. We talked with Brian about his motivations and process, and we followed him through the creation of one of our own favorite faces.
Literature’s Most Frequent Crimes?
Congratulations on the first 50 composites!
As The Composites nears its 50th image I thought it was time to look at what was popular on the site statistically. Anyone can see what was the most shared composite on the archives page (It’s Humbert Humbert, if you were wondering) but I wanted to add a dimension of literary analysis and break the numbers down to crimes committed by characters when possible. Not all the composite characters on the site slot easily under the definition “criminal” —and, like literature itself, the defining elements of criminality can be culturally, politically, and temporally relative and biased—but I think the most compelling composites have a clear mark of criminality or transgression, which makes for a perfect meeting of two mediums: fiction and forensic art. Please feel free to offer any corrections. The statistical breakdown is after the jump and the chart above links to a larger image.
Thanks to all the fans and friends of this site and please keep the suggestions coming for the next 50.
