If you’re looking for something that pushes the comics medium, Assorted Crisis Events will be your jam. Thought-provoking while pushing storytelling in a 20-page comic is a rare thing, and that continues in Assorted Crisis Events #5, which is all about loops. Prepare to turn the entire comic upside down as Deniz Camp and Eric Zawadzki explore what it means to come back around.
Assorted Crisis Events #5 opens with a page that is meant to be read clockwise. At the center of the page is a young girl named Anna experiencing her parents fighting and resorting to violence. This traumatic 60 seconds ends up being a moment Anna relives millions of times. So many times, in fact, that she basically ages in her own mind. Camp is crafting a highly relatable element of all our lives – trauma is relived and doesn’t go away, especially in our youth.
From there, the story reveals a girl who can’t get over this single 60 seconds. Tied into the weirdness of the series, she literally did go through it, and getting over this is an impossible thing to do. Zawadzki draws much of this issue so that it is read clockwise, which connects the reader to Anna’s experience. On some pages, it’s the way the captions curve along the page, while in others, there’s a kaleidoscope experience.
Multiple full-page and double-page spreads are downright stunning. In a highly relatable double-page spread, Anna discusses how life is generally a series of loops, like waking up, going to school, and doing it over and over. Zawadzki conveys this through circular panels that repeat over and over with slight variants, yet showing the same walk home or eating dinner night after night. Another showstopper is the infinity symbol acting as the panels across two pages as Anna runs in one direction, yet winds up back where she started.
It’s all about trauma.
Credit: Image Comics
Peppered throughout the issue is the time-traveling man, a kind of mascot for the series, who connects all the tales together more or less. Fans of the bigger picture story will approve of more info and time-travelling weirdness regarding him. After five issues, it’s nice to see him get a little more attention. There’s also some fun nods to movies that loop, like Palm Springs and Groundhog Day.
There are some triggering elements in the story, including suicide and self-harm. That adds a heaviness that is all too real, though a bit of a shock when they do occur. In the end, the story does relate the notion that we must keep going, because things will get better, or at least we tell ourselves that.
Assorted Crisis Events #5 is a masterclass in emotional storytelling and visual experimentation, using the comic form itself to explore the inescapable loops of trauma. It’s a bold, moving issue that rewards careful reading and reinforces why this series is one of the most daring in comics today.
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