GIGS
by Mark Mosedale ; illustrated by Si Smith
Citizens struggle to subsist in a low-wage gig economy driven by an oppressive phone app.
In the not-so-distant gloomy future, giant tech companies control everyone’s lives. A phone app tells workers they must report to a job that typically involves cleaning or painting for long stretches of time. They go home to tiny apartments, contemplate their existential boredom, sleep, and wait for the next gig alert. And yet, as revealed in the six interwoven chapters of this graphic novel, spirited individuals and groups find ways to rebel. Illustrator Smith has a colorful, soft, detailed style that adds playfulness to this dark tale. And author Mosedale adds humor, hope, sarcasm, and genuine human connection to an otherwise bleak story that, at nearly 300 pages, allows the six stories to breathe and unfold in interesting, cinematic ways. We’re in no rush to get to the end because we’re given clues all along that the people in this city will find a way to make it, and we want to spend time with them to see how things pan out. An aging punk rocker sneaks outside her senior living facility to smoke joints and makes a new friend. A bike messenger delivers library books to people and invites them to secret raves. A graffiti artist paints elaborate anti-establishment works on the side of a building at night. A grumpy middle-aged private detective must learn how to play an augmented reality running game and get back in shape to hunt down a suspect. A man runs 100 miles outside the city through a desolate countryside to deliver a package of seeds. An accident in a space station filled with gig workers, which is orbiting Earth, sends the satellite crashing into the ocean, where anarchists have converted an oil rig into a floating guerrilla kelp farm with horizontal self-governance. And an unexpected delivery from a drone army could bring about a new beginning. In this world, the future is bleak but hope and ingenuity are hiding in plain sight.
Through friendship, punk rock, and teamwork, a handful of people rebel against this Orwellian future.