Assorted Crisis Events returns this week after an excellent first issue. An anthology of one-shot series exploring a different character each issue means it’s an easy pickup for casual readers. This week, Deniz Camp and Eric Zawadzki explore the life of a man who works in a slaughterhouse, but reality bends and questions everything.
Calling Assorted Crisis Events #2 trippy is an understatement. The issue unfolds through creative formatting, plotting, and character study as if our main character is unstuck from time. The story opens with a scream as a raptor approaches a person on the ground. We then cut to a young boy screaming in terror at a raptor in a museum, who rushes into his mother’s arms. We turn the page, and with the panel structure identical, we see the same boy is now a man holding his elderly mother at his father’s funeral. Right off the bat, the reader is off their guard as rules surrounding time and space are off the table.
As the story progresses, jumping across different ages for our main character, the gutters literally fill with blood. It starts at the top of the page with blood dripping down a bit more with every page turn. There’s something deeper going on here begging for multiple reads.
As far as the plot goes, our main character’s father died at work in a slaughterhouse. The son gets a job there to make ends meet, but he seems to be going in and out of reality while there. His manager walks him through the steps in killing cows with glee, adding to the surreal nature of the story. How can a man take joy in the killing of cattle?
Themes of life, death, and survival run rampant in the issue, from the main character’s dangerous trek into the country to his need to acquire a job so he can feed his child. Depending on your interpretation, it all culminates in a happy ending.
Social commentary continues in the series. Our main character’s family is poor and trying to make ends meet in a capitalist society where safety on the job is far from a priority. There’s also the thread regarding killing animals, and while it’s not hammering the message of veganism, it certainly crossed my mind when the poor cows got a bolt to the head.
Note the blood in the gutter at the top.
Credit: Image
Something missing in this issue that was far more present in the first is whether things are actually happening or not. The dinosaurs, for instance, are drawn as if they are phantoms or ghosts. We see the damage they do to the main character’s coworkers, so it must be real, but it still had me questioning things. The last issue seemed to have localized time and space displacements, whereas here it almost seems like they are tethered to the main character. Maybe that’s the point, but I found myself confused about what was happening and wanted a little more structure to the weirdness of it all.
That said, Zawadzki does an incredible job making all hallucinations make sense. Things could go off the rails easily, but through layout design and a play with contrasts, you’re never confused about what is happening. He’ll make you feel for the cows, feel like you’re right there with the protagonist, and hate the corporation that put him through it. That’s a win.
Assorted Crisis Events #2 is a mesmerizing, emotionally raw entry in the anthology series that blends psychological horror with social critique. While it doesn’t offer the same narrative clarity as the debut issue, it more than makes up for it in bold storytelling and visual innovation. It’s a challenging read, but one that rewards attention and introspection.
You must be logged in to post a comment.