Into the Suburban Sea

Abstract

For my senior project, I’ve written and drawn a sci-fi comic. The basic plot outline is that a wanderer breaks into an abandoned suburban house in search of food, water, and shelter, only to be met with a dormant smart-house. On a symbolic level this comic is about the struggle to remain a person while eking out existence in a system which seeks to convert everyone into a consumer. The protagonist breaks into this house in desperate search of tangible objects to aid their survival, only to be confronted by an advertisement protocol that’s coded their starvation as a craving; their ailing health as a boo-boo; their plummeting body temperature as some chills; and their rummaging as the perusing of a potential buyer. As much of a psychological toll as it takes on the protagonist to consistently be forced idealizations of the “perfect suburban life” that they'll never have, they have no choice but to play along. Going with the tour allows them to ascertain the house layout faster, and on a more subliminal level it gives them a semblance of human connection. This is where the story happens: in a lonely corner of modern industrial ephemera, following a wandering vagrant as they negotiate their role in this space.