Surviving on Mars

An artist tries to stay above the churn of depression in this low-key lovely graphic memoir. In 2018, Eisner-nominated Graham (King City) started keeping a graphic diary “to process... the rough patches in life.” Many of the entries are nicely observed minutiae about breakfasts, coffee, and reading. These are mixed with spiky asides (“Comics will break your heart,” he writes in reference to Hip Hop Family Tree artist Ed Piskor’s suicide) and nods to the inspiration (including artists Jason and Moebius) behind the playfully erotic and loopily funny sketches threaded between the diaries. The theme of middle-aged creative despair and Graham’s self-deprecating rendering of himself as a befuddled alien spud cast a gloomy tone that can’t be overcome even by the loonier set pieces (including an account of working on a trippy porn film parody styled after Jurassic Park), self-help bromides (“Everything is a struggle, but can we enjoy the struggle?”), and winningly sincere odes to his partner. Not every piece fits, and some glancing biographical scraps will elude the uninitiated, such as the nods to online criticism Graham has faced. Graham’s random access memory style creates more mood than structure, but the atmosphere is fascinating enough to make this a rewarding if scattered read. (Sept.)