This photographic sequence captures the unboxing and initial inspection of a printed graphic novel prototype derived from The Mill, an experimental animation and visual storytelling project by Alex Boya. The series begins with close-up views of the package, including a white envelope featuring postage, a customs declaration, and official handling stamps. The cover page of the spiral-bound booklet is revealed, bearing the title The Mill and prominently displaying the NFB logo alongside collage-style imagery of bread-textured figures integrated into industrial and architectural settings.

Subsequent frames move through the interior of the booklet, presenting black-and-white comic panel layouts. The images combine bread-human hybrids, surreal anatomical transformations, turbine motifs, and mechanical architectural landscapes rendered in high-contrast illustrative styles. Each spread shows sequential storytelling structured through paneled divisions, suggesting narrative progression from character moments to complex environments.

Notable recurring imagery includes bread-headed figures interacting with dystopian backdrops, gestural depictions of machinery fused with human form, and wide establishing shots echoing cinematic compositions. The arrangement demonstrates how elements from the animated film are translated into static graphic-novel form, bridging cinematic experimentation with the print medium.

This material object functions as both an archival artifact and a tool for distribution, bridging festival circulation with publishing and merchandising possibilities. Its spiral-bound design suggests it is an early proof-of-concept prototype, likely intended for internal review, promotional purposes, or to test sequencing, readability, and reproduction quality.

The documentation foregrounds the materiality of experimental animation as it migrates across formats: from moving image to printed sequential art. The tactile process of opening, flipping, and visually absorbing the panels demonstrates how experimental animation can create resonance across different cultural and industrial platforms, expanding its accessibility beyond the screen into bookshops, libraries, and collectors’ spaces.

This photograph depicts Alex Boya in a studio environment, holding an oversized package tightly against his chest. The package is securely wrapped in transparent protective film, with its cover label partially visible beneath the wrapping. The design includes an ornate emblem, likely referencing the experimental project The Mill, and signals that the parcel contains an important archival or prototype object, possibly another proof copy or large-format version of the graphic novel associated with the project.

The setting suggests a production or archival workspace: overhead, multiple adjustable desk lamps are directed toward work surfaces, providing concentrated light for inspection or technical tasks. Behind Boya, additional equipment and apparatuses hint at a hybrid environment between animation studio, archival lab, and research space. The presence of precision lighting and scanning equipment reinforces the importance of properly documenting material artifacts connected to experimental media practices.

Boya’s posture—cradling the object with both arms—emphasizes the physicality and weight of the delivery, while also symbolizing the role of artists as caretakers of their own creative archives. The protective wrapping underscores the value placed on preservation, suggesting that this is not just a package but an irreplaceable link in the production and circulation pipeline of The Mill.

The oversized form suggests that the contents could be a proof edition of a large-scale graphic novel or a print run sample, bridging the cinematic material of the project into distributable book form. Its arrival and documentation mark a milestone in the project’s transition from concept and moving-image experimentation into tangible, distributable print media.

This image functions as both a record of studio workflow and a symbolic gesture of the artist’s relationship to the material archive, where experimental ideas are not only preserved digitally but also embodied in physical forms that can be transported, stored, displayed, and circulated across international networks of festivals, galleries, and libraries.