In Hans Vogel is Dead by Sierra Barnes, it is 1940 and a young Nazi pilot goes on a mission to bomb the United Kingdom – but thanks to the defensive efforts of the Royal Air Force, he doesn’t survive the endeavor.
After his plane is shot down, Vogel begins to explore the wreckage, and the forest in which he has found himself. Soon he is facing all manner of nightmarish creatures. Nevertheless, he initially believes that he has survived the aerial dogfight, and at first believes he is searching for British authorities in order to surrender himself as a prisoner of war. However, he will soon discover that no amount of bargaining will save him from his fate.
As Vogel explores the afterlife, flashbacks to his life and childhood in Weimar Germany deconstruct the foundations of fascism. In 1923, a young Vogel goes without a meal because his father is punishing him for “wasting money” after the child gave some hungry pigeons some bread, but a passerby pushing a wheelbarrow full of cash demonstrates that bank notes have no value. In 1937, Vogel and the rest of his team dig graves in the Spanish desert, but they tell themselves that the graves won’t be for the German soldiers – they tell themselves they’ll be living prosperously in Berlin within a few years.
However, as Vogel learns firsthand, the reality of fascism does not match the lies that the powerful assure their lackeys to be the case, and what is sold as an easy trip to glory instead amounts to a one-way ticket to the grave.
Hans Vogel is Dead features some extremely spooky art, drawing inspiration from fairy tales and history and then cranking the horror elements all the way up to the max.
You can follow Barnes on Twitter to keep up with the latest updates on her work, and you can support her work directly through her Patreon.