Synopsis
Everything is changing–
– but everything is also exactly the same. Ingken can’t ignore it: ice caps stained brown from forest fires, pipeline construction, drought… the whole world somehow persists despite the slow erosion of stability.
After a trip to Paris, Ingken returns home ready for a break from drugs. Their supportive partner, Lily, is flushed, excited about a new connection she’s made. Although Ingken wants to be happy for her, there’s a discomfort they can’t shake. Sleepless nights fill with an endless scroll of images and headlines about climate disaster. A vague dysphoria simmers under their skin; they are able to identify that like Lily, they are changing, but they’re not sure exactly how and at what pace. Everyone keeps telling them to burn themself to the ground and build themself back up but they worry about the kind of debris that fire might leave behind.
From: Drawn & Quarterly
Notes on This Title
The main character of this title comes out as nonbinary over the course of the story. They are in a relationship with a trans lesbian.
Awards
None.
Reviews
“This is a book that requires multiple readings because there is so much one can take away from it. ” (Source: Broken Frontier)
“[T]he spare use of language speaks to a set of unarticulated ambivalences regarding a complex situation, rather than a simplistic authorial perspective.” (Source: The Comics Journal)
““Firebugs” paints a portrait of complex relationships, identity, and a world slowly embarking on a path of destruction.” (Source: The Harvard Crimson)
“This is a quintessential story of queer millennial malaise.” (Source: Publishers Weekly)
“Nino Bulling’s graphic novel is an intimate portrait of a character who can’t bring themself to risk change, while hating how it feels not to.” (Source: Xtra)
Interviews
None.