THE A.R.C.

Lies turn deadly in this satirical graphic novel.

Authors Disney and Lacek and artist Dubourg’s graphic novel starts out with a solid meta-joke: The writers ask an AI chatbot to write a “forward” for the book. The bot corrects their spelling and terminology and offers a preface that explains the authors have found themselves “facing down civilization extinction” with “not a single survival bunker between us.” The novel itself, set in an alternate universe where Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the U.S. president, follows a disparate group of people on a “100% sustainable and carbon neutral” luxury cruise ship who are stricken with a mysterious neurological disease that originated at a conference in the Amazon attended by the wealthy elite. The illness has a novel presentation: It only afflicts people when they lie; when they start telling the truth, they recover. The disease has spread worldwide, claiming victims including Elon Musk, Rachel Maddow, Alex Jones, the hosts of The View, and, for some reason, Jeff Koons. The crew of the ship is determined to make an emergency landing on the island of Saint Marie, but the military there isn’t having it, leading to a horrifying result for many of the ship’s passengers. The novel is interspersed with satirical advertisements and magazine articles, including—again, for some reason—a fake interview with Timothée Chalamet; at the end of the book is a “compendium” explaining some of the references in the novel itself. The book has a strong start, but pretty quickly loses steam, becoming less of a story and more of a furious rant about the state of the world, before its bizarrely abrupt ending. The one high note: Dubourg’s artwork, which is clever, vivid, and all-around spectacular. This is a passionate appeal for truth kneecapped by its own stridency.

An unfortunately heavy-handed jeremiad.