The Meat
Maybe it’s because most of us who read comics are, to one
extent or another, nerds. Or maybe it’s simply the unintended consequence of college kids
having discovered back in the sixties that Jack Kirby and psychedelic drugs are incredibly potent when mixed. Regardless of the cause, comics have always had a
philosophical appeal. There’s even a division of labor in terms of
philosophical focus within the field: superheroes and sci-fi deal with
cartoonish metaphysics, while indie comics explore existential problems.
Unfortunately, ennui has been the
preferred subject matter of indie creators—particularly the mind-numbing minutiae
of the average comic artist’s apparently boring life.
Primal angst and existential uncertainty, along with heavy doses of evolutionary sociology and architectural theory, drives Tom Kaczynski’s
collection Beta Testing the Apocalypse (Fantagraphics).
But unlike most "smart" indie comics, Beta Testing manages to actually be smart. And good. Really good.
Kaczynski’s collection is not easy to describe, so I’ll steal his description: “Short bursts of science-fictional pulp built on uncertain
architectural foundations loosely threaded with apocalyptic fever dreams into
an unstable theoretical assemblage.” Beta Testing, however, does not read like an unstable work. Kaczynski’s stories all touch upon a broad overriding theme: the fragility of
civilization in the face of the primordial drives of humanity. Condominiums, the
art of soundproofing, modernist architecture. These are but fleeting psychic
barriers, holding back the atavistic urge that lurks within us
all.
The subtle artwork strongly complements the complexity of
the stories. The thin lines, sharp angles, and rigid geometry of Kaszynski’s
work—a product, no doubt, of his architectural background—brings a clarity and
simplicity that expertly balances the abstractness of the themes at the heart of Beta Testing the Apocalypse. There’s a
good deal of Dan Clowes in the artwork. But I am not sure if this is a good or a bad thing.
Of the Beta Testing’s
stories, the longer ones stand out, particularly “Million Year Boom”—a
satirical take on marketing rhetoric in the midst of a Lovecraft-lite
cult—and “976 Sq. Ft.,” an exploration into gentrification-induced psychosis.
The best of the collection is “The New,” an original novella drawing together architecture, archaeology, and mythology in a manner reminiscent of the DC’s post-Code horror
comics of the seventies.
I’m not a philosopher. I have never developed the skills—or maybe
the patience—that becoming a student of philosophy requires. At the same time,
I don’t want to be overly modest. I teach social theory, after all. I know more
about pragmatism and phenomenology, about existentialism and postmodernism than
most non-specialists. But I don’t spend my weekends thumbing through Being and Time. Kaczynski's
philosophical explorations, however, are subtle, his lyrical text only rarely falling
into jargon. Kaczynski clearly knows what he’s talking about, though his work
never seeks to lecture. The stories in this collection are accessible and
relatable. One doesn’t need to have read Žižek to grasp Beta Testing’s themes and criticisms. One only needs to have only gone
apartment hunting.
The Math
Objective Score:
8/10
Bonus: +1 for
reminding us how close we are at every moment to Thunderdome
Penalties: None
after two readings.
Objective Score:
9/10