I’ve been looking more closely at the work of Carta Monir after I saw her live reading of one of her comics at the TCAF Alt Comics 10 event organized by publisher 2dcloud. I was thoroughly impressed with her short webcomic Don’t Wanna Close My Eyes.

In Don’t Wanna Close My Eyes, Scott, a high school student, is reluctantly attending his high school graduation. He’s unsure he wants to attend because the end of the world is set for midnight as a giant asteroid is heading directly for Earth and is set for impact during the night and he’s not sure this is what he should be doing with his final night. Scott is struggling with the fact that the whole world is being driven mad by their impending doom. During the party, he struggles to connect with people, with friends or people he’s attracted to and find out what he should be doing with his final moments. How do you fit in in the end of the world?

It’s a much deeper tale than this though. There’s a bittersweetness to this story. It’s explored with the uncertainty of our protagonist, with the people around him reacting to this end of the world, but also within himself. It explores the confusion experienced by teenagers concerning their own sexuality, and discovering what it means for them. The tragedy of the tale is that under other circumstances, our protagonist Scott would have time to sort through his feelings, but he doesn’t have that luxury with the impending impact. He’s confused about his own feelings in a world that is barely holding it together. This urgency, uncertainty and fatality all makes for a riveting comics

You can read the whole comic over at Carta Monir’s website and take a look at her other phenomenal comics