Today’s excerpt from Miguel Villa’s forthcoming graphic novel, Comfortless, starts with a brilliant setup — a person hiding around the side of the building starts livestreaming another person, without their knowledge or consent — and then takes you on a journey from there.
I won’t spoil the excerpt (which you can read below) by saying much more than that, but I did want to note that it drew me in with the first page and brought me rapidly through the action to its inevitable conclusion — and now Villa’s new book, which is due out this November via publisher Fantagraphics, is at the top of my list of most-anticipated books for the year.
You can read the description of the book from the publisher’s listing below, and then check out the excerpt at the bottom of the page. If you’re anything like me, you’ll enjoy it — it’s dark and weird and cringey and compulsively readable. Enjoy!
From the publisher: “This book makes no claims to scientific validity and is in no way intended for informational purposes.” So declares Miguel Vila in the outset of his new graphic novel, Comfortless, a taxonomy of the masks with which we pretend to live, executed with the precision of a master sociologist. It collects a kaleidoscope of weaving character studies, united by the ways vanity, jealousy, and selfishness manifest via fear, vice, and lust. Giorgia ends her relationship with Eva because she thinks her fling with Nic has resulted in her pregnancy. Nic has a secret to reveal to Daniele, but he can’t express it. Stella meets Daniele and tells him about the strange events they have experienced in recent years. Simone attends a New Year’s Eve party knowing that he is positive for Covid.
Set in the Venetian province of Italy, the themes Vila addresses are global. Comfortless is a catastrophic fresco of a humanity adrift, where fears and selfishness draw a merciless map of the emptiness of our times.
Comfortless by Miguel Vila is due out November 11 from Fantagraphics
