Disease Vol. 1
writer: Cha Jenna & Lonnie Nadler
artist: Cha Jenna
Writer: Hassan Otzman Elhou
Publisher: Uncivilized books
Publication date: September 2024
when i first started reading Disease Vol. 1I moved slowly. The book is a five-chapter work of American history, set in the Midwest and told through dual narratives: one in 1945 and the other in 1955, spanning the end of World War II and the beginning of the postwar period.
It opens with a brief moment of terror, a series of ominous silent panels suggesting a melting world. But soon the silence was replaced by violent dialogue. Our protagonists—and indeed, we as readers—are buffeted by the cruel adolescent male chatter of so-called friends. This leaves him (and us) feeling equally isolated and oppressive, alone in a situation of incomprehensible apathy. To me, this ultimately illustrates one of the core features of the book.
that’s all there is to say Disease Vol. 1 Have a smart beginning that trusts the reader to understand what is happening and why, and connect it to other ideas to come. This is an opening that shows how well done Disease Vol. 1 It is throughout. Although I started slowly, I soon found myself turning the pages involuntarily, immersed in the comic, as I usually would with a truly great novel.
Now that I’ve done it, I can confidently say Disease Vol. 1 One of the best comics I’ve read this year, it’s a truly cerebral and surprisingly horror comic, and a strong example of how high-level stories can climax in this medium. I absolutely love this comic and I can’t wait to read more (it’s coming out again with a second volume later this month).
This book was co-authored by Lonnie Nadler and jennacha, Artwork created entirely by Cha, and by Hassan Otzman Elhou (You may be familiar with this team from the excellent 2020 cosmic horror comic, There are black stars on it). These three guys did a great job at diseaseamong the best in their respective careers.
Given that this is a comic, Che’s art is the star of the show. I don’t care if this sounds exaggerated, these five chapters are a masterpiece of comic illustration. disease Detail is rich, rich, and full of period visuals that feel impeccably researched and perfectly realized, always used to enhance the atmosphere and enhance the themes (more on that later). There’s also a dichotomy in art, a tension between depicting a familiar Americana – a kid riding a bicycle next to a cornfield, baseball cards on the spokes – and distorting it, turning it all into something horrific — A dinner in which food turns into stones and needles and fantastic monster parts.
There’s also a slow visual burn. The first chapter has some hints of horror, but most of it is based in reality. A frantic woman leers through the window. A withered pedal suddenly fell from the plant. A doctor is looking at a picture of syphilis in a textbook. In the entire first part, as far as I can tell, there’s only one panel that doesn’t fit with reality. But by Part Five, our timeline is steeped in profound horror imagery, from the discovery of a gnarled brain in an autopsy to a teenager whose entire world is overrun by melting faces and ghostly insect monsters.
This all fits with the theme of the book, which at its core is a mysterious disease that can be mistaken for many more obvious illnesses. I see this as a parable aimed at identifying an obvious social pressure point. It intersects at various times with other themes such as PTSD, prisons, military profiteering, nuclear war, toxic masculinity, the wrongness of technology with destructive potential, religion, and more. But to me, this is really a book about fear, about misunderstanding the unique challenges we face without discussing them, about how we all (to some extent) experience similar things but we don’t A book about trying to face them together.
This is also reflected in the way the script blends our two narratives. In the first chapter, they are clearly delineated by the title box, which tells us what year it is. This will slowly break down and disappear. By chapter three, the two narratives have shared the page. By Chapter 4, they begin to share levels.
But the power here isn’t just the structural script. The writing is also very powerful and touching. This is a heavy book, but once you get into it, you no longer feel that way. All text will be blended in to enhance and add to the visual impact. Writing the script for this book was obviously a painstaking and thoughtful process, but also a rewarding one.
In fact, none of this would have been possible without Otsmane-Elhaou’s lettering masterclass. Despite the amount of text on the page, none of the pages feel overwhelming, not even at all. The font blends seamlessly into the story world and never takes you out of it. I found the choice of font to be particularly brilliant in a series of panels where the reader is looking through a window or curtain, creating the feeling that we are not hearing or knowing everything that is going on in our neighbours’ homes, which is not the case.
Again, I absolutely loved this book. It’s destined to be on the best comics lists of 2024 (at least mine). It’s essentially the cerebral horror comic you’ve been looking for, a deeply terrifying surprise that you won’t be able to put down once you get lost in its many layers of content.
Disease Vol. 1 Now available from Uncivilized Books.
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