Just a few days remain in the I Feel Doomed! Vol. 1 comics anthology Kickstarter campaign, and The Beat can reveal an exclusive sneak peek at one of the stories contained in its pages.
Launched earlier this month by curator Joseph Karg and published under his imprint Soup Drunk Princess, I Feel Doomed! collects more than 20 stories tackling the unique and horrifying intersections of the climate crisis, the housing crisis, the student debt crisis, fascism, isolation, burnout, and more.
Among them is “Where Is My Faithful John?” written by Olivia Balcerak and illustrated by Rustam Hasanov. The comic reinterprets the fairytale “Faithful John” from the Brothers Grimm.
“It’s a brutal little story. A loyal servant overhears three ravens predicting the future. He learns that his king is doomed three separate times and that the only way to save him is to intervene without explanation. If he ever reveals what he knows, he will turn to stone—” Karg told The Beat.
“Rustam Hasanov and Liv Balcerak have made something really special for the comic anthology I Feel Doomed! They’ve interpreted this story and taken several creative liberties that make it feel equal parts like a fairytale and also a story ripped from our own headlines,” Karg continued. “It’s one of the most ambitious and beautiful pieces in the book, and we’re so excited to share some of it with you.”
Check out a preview of “Where Is My Faithful John?” below.
I Feel Doomed! also features work by Claudio Acciari, Jonathan Edwards, Chris Bivins, Danielle Corsetto, Dustin Harbin, Adam Ford, Jake Reeves, and Claire Seckler.
“We all process our feelings in profoundly different ways. Some of us laugh in the face of despair. Others draw, write, build, or hide. But no one escapes the need to make sense of a world that feels like it’s slipping apart,” Karg said in the project’s announcement.
“This project is a collection of short stories and images that don’t deny that feeling; they hold it up to the light. I hope that, as readers move through these vignettes of doom, they’ll recognize parts of themselves in the hopeful, absurd, or darkly funny moments that surface between the cracks,” he said. “Doom itself is universal, but how we all respond to it is deeply personal.”
I Feel Doomed! Vol. 1 is available through Kickstarter until Saturday, February 28 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
