Metadoggoz
MetadoggozCartoonist: Bérénice Motais de Narbonne
Translator: Montana Kane
Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Publication Date: March 2026
I had this thought over and over again while reading Bérénice Motais de Narbonne’s new book, Metadoggoz: this comic goes hard. Which is to say that waiting past nearly every page turn is the possibility of detailed and intricate two-page spreads, spreads that clearly must have taken the cartoonist a lot of work to draw. This commitment to going hard (my clumsy phrasing) on every page is perhaps the first thing that will jump out at readers who pick this one up, with imagery in its first chapter that ranges from an especially detailed laundromat to a spread wherein riot police clash with the attendees of a raucous rave.
But there is, of course, a lot more to this book than that. The first line is, significantly, “Whoa…the city’s on fire.” And that’s a tone setter for much of what follows.
Billed on its back cover as “a cyberpunk fairy tale” and “an imaginative exploration of race, class, and belonging through the lens of youth culture and science-fiction” Metadoggoz almost feels like Narbonne took the spirit of the now-classic Jodorowski-Moebius graphic novel, The Incal, and ran it through a modern blender, resulting in a socially passionate book liable to send its characters (along with you, dear reader) on a psychedelic trip at any time. And it’s going to look great while doing anything and everything, with its fun character designs, its thick inks, and its perfect usage of white spaces.
I found myself also feeling addicted to Narbonne’s cityscapes, craving more and more of them as the book went on, even more so than advancing the action. There’s an almost Terry Gilliam-esque oppressiveness to what the city has become here, as well as a powder keg feeling that it’s all about to come down on its youth.
Genre-wise, you’ll find primarily sci-fi, but Metadoggoz is also not without touches of horror and moments of erotica. There’s a poignant, and, frankly, quite jarring bit where I think the main character might have been sexually assaulted by technology personified. Or if the encounter was consensual, the character is ultimately left deeply shook and a bit afraid.
This all speaks to a deeply interesting piece of cartooning, one that I feel confident in saying will be unlike anything else you or I read this year.
Metadoggoz is out in March via Drawn & Quarterly
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