Oli from The Gulf

Sara Wiseman as Valerie Wells in The Gulf s2

Out this week: The Gulf (Tundra Books, $12.99): 

Adam De Souza is the creator of the wonderful, Ignatz-nominated webcomic Blind Alley, which has been on hiatus since November — most likely because he’s been working on The Gulf, his new graphic novel about four friends searching for a commune they read about on an island off the coast of Vancouver.

See what else is arriving at your local comic shop this week

The Gulf of Finland

from The Gulf, by Adam de Souza

Haven’t seen anything about @kumerish’s The Gulf on my dash yet, which is a shame because it's fantastic and I have so many positive things to say. I discovered Blind Alley in the summer of last year and found it so charming and smart and kind, I had really high hopes for The Gulf but was still so impressed. The illustration is of course incredible, and I love the generous use of landscape to set the mood of the story, but the writing is where this book really stands out for me. As an elder Gen Z in their early 20s, I'm about 10 years younger than the milennial demographic that this book will really hit home for, but I have never related more to a character than I have to Oli, and have never felt more seen, my feelings more affirmed, by a book that is already in my favorite writing medium. It made me realize what I was missing and I am so excited for this book, Adam de Souza, and all the future Millenial and Gen Z comic writers, because I've been reading other people's stories for so long, and this one reminds me of my own.

Somewhere off the Gulf of Mexico.

Sara Wiseman and Alison Bruce

THE GULF [Series 2, Episode 4]

The Gulf: A Novel

By Rachel Cochran.

Design by Joanne O’Neill.

OFF TO EARLY MORNING MARKETING AND TO GET THE MOST RECENT BOOSTER...DOWN THE SEAWALL ALONG THE GULF...SOMEWHERE OFF THE COAST OF TEXAS...

The Gulf is out in 2 weeks!

Around me right now 💙🌊🏖💙

The Gulf Stream (1899) Music & Ambience

Freedom?

I am laying in a hotel bed because I moved out of my apartment a week ago. In a couple of days, I will be flying out of this city.

Though unlike when I left Philadelphia, I don't feel like I am leaving a home. Though I am not returning to one either.

I was born in a semi-open gulf state and lived there until I turned 19 and moved to the U.S. for an education. By the time I had graduated undergrad I felt like the dream that America represented was only that. A dream. Perhaps it existed. perhaps I needed more DNA segments related to Europe. But alas.

I decided perhaps it existed in Australia, only to find that what had driven me away from the U.S. existed in an even stronger sense here.

Do not feel bad for me, I had a luckier birth circumstance than most.

Where I am returning to is not innocent of the sin of racial prejudice. And the way it is practised is most likely much more insidious and disheartening. For what is hidden can hardly be confronted.

But my lack of Europeaness and my total embrace of my Arabness isn't the whole story of why I am leaving. I thought that by living in the "west" that I'd gain certain liberties. Instead, I had lost more.

The fingers that people point at the Arab world, saying "look at how regressive they are!" without realizing that they too are taking part in that regression. But instead of doing it through governance, they enact it through corporations and capital investors.

I mean, free speech, just not when it impacts our advertisers or threatens an expensive lawsuit.

People are stuck in a loop of brainwashing themselves. They want to appease their capitalist masters while simultaneously wanting to become them. Fighting tooth and nail to "climb to their level." Silencing themselves.

Come on! Get a grip. You are not free.

Ashar Valley, AlUla