Endsickness is both the title of Sofia Alarcon’s collection of environmentally themed short comics stories and a term denoting the existential angst many feel as the world around us becomes ever more dystopian and preapocalyptic. Published by the ever socially relevant Conundrum Press, each story in Endsickness looks at aspects of living in a world “at odds with itself” as Alarcon explores this idea through different genres and stylistic approaches.
‘Positive Thinking’ the strip which begins the book, for example, contrasts the idea of a return to nature in a doomscrolling world with its protagonist’s unengaged realisation of its impracticality. ‘Special Delivery’ gives us a silent procession of world-ending disasters juxtaposed with a meme-like finale that is one of the most bleakly witty punchlines you will read this year. While ‘Patagonia’ juxtaposes greenwashing gestures with the reality of climate catastrophe.
In all these stories our very human characters are trapped in a worldweary lethargy; a resigned ennui where they are both aware of the end times and a need for action but on some level are completely resigned to their fates as well. Something that comes across throughout the book is the idea of how small humanity is; of the inevitability of its decline and decay in the face of a kind of nihilistic, self-destructive passivity.
Alarcon mixes philosophical visual essays, cutting symbolic commentary and dark comedy in Endsickness. ‘Lonesome Garry’ – where humans have become zoo animals in a future world of anthropomorphised animals – is a strong example of the latter with a satirical approach that uses an Attenborough-style narration to make its points. ‘Icarus’ gives us another future-set tale where a space mission to reduce global warming leads to reflections on our delusional beliefs that we are at the centre of everything. Something that is echoed in ‘Genesis’, as a strange blight outside of our control begins to destroy all life on Earth.
What is very notable here is the way in which Alarcon continually adapts her cartooning style to the different tonal needs of each story. Style and presentation move from wordless tales that still speak volumes, deep conversational pieces that pose difficult questions, and shorts that bind their messages up in the allegorical and the visually metaphorical. From grim realism to humour embedded with a sense of the hopeless this is a quietly powerful examination of our toxic relationship with self-inflicted oblivion.
Sofia Alarcon (W/A) • Conundrum Press, $25.00
Review by Andy Oliver
Arts funding cuts have hit Conundrum Press hard this year. To help with their running costs this year they have a Crowdfundr campaign here complete with bargain offers on their back catalogue.
