Sometimes when it comes to social commentary in comics – and in any medium to be frank – humour can be far more effective than more heavy-handed moralising. Belgian-Mexican creator Émilie Gleason proves this in kuš! comics’ mini kuš! #131 (titled ‘Animal Denial’) in an irreverent take on animal rights issues. The back cover blurb for this one is a little misleading as it implies a pro-carnivore agenda with what I assume was intended as playful humorous misdirection. But intention seems to have perhaps been a little lost in translation here. However, what we do get is an appealingly cheeky evisceration of the meat-eating lifestyle with a true social relevance.
Gleason begins by introducing us to a man at a party whose dissatisfaction with the lack of meat options sends him on a strange dietary odyssey. One that starts with him attempting to eat a dog live in the street, and will take in the cold hard facts of his fleshy consumption as he bounces from abattoir to horse blood farm to intensive farming environments along the way.
It’s a morbid fantasy world (the (anthropomorphised talking slaughterhouse is a particularly memorable sight!) that is nonetheless replete with the realities of the unforgivable casual cruelties of our animal-abusing world. From the hideousness of mutilating animals to further accommodate their imprisonment and abuse, to the realities of what sausage eaters are actually consuming, Gleason uses the pointedly bleak humour of ‘Animal Denial’ to make her point again and again.
Gleason’s art is eye-catching in its busy, frenetic vision. There’s a kind of grotesque brutalism to her pages which is both appropriate and pertinent given the subject matter. ‘Animal Denial’ also extends its message to the effect that society’s consumption of meat has in environmental terms. We should be thankful, as ever, that the mini kuš! range exists as a platform for minicomics work like this that might not otherwise find as extended an audience.
Émilie Gleason (W/A) • kuš! comics, $7.95
Review by Andy Oliver
