DeForge’s point seems to be life is stupid and pointless and the ants are the humans, etc. The gay couple fight and break up and so what. And that’s what humans do, fight each other, and that’s the point, isn’t what we do all so silly, etc. The ants fight the red ants because… that’s what they do. Then the kid becomes a prophet or something to the bees and… that’s it. A similar thing happens when the kid blends the earthworm and inhales it because earthworms in this world can’t die.
The kid with the earthworm story is a lot like the Itchy & Scratchy parody of Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice where Scratchy chops up Itchy so many times Itchy becomes a vapour which Scratchy inhales and dies. Ant Colony has an interesting look to the art - it’s very colourful, the creatures are designed weirdly, with a dog face for a spider, and a cheerful limo-look to the centipede, and the ants all look like anything but ants - but DeForge’s various rambling plotlines don’t really go anywhere. This was my first Michael DeForge comic and, having now finished it, I’m not encouraged to rush back for more. A couple of gay ants have relationship troubles everyone’s bothered by the repetitive drudgery of their work and the seeming pointlessness of keeping their Queen happy a father gives bad advice to his son regarding an earthworm leading to his son becoming a prophet(!) there’s an ant-hunt to catch a serial-killing spider and war with the red ants, a neighbouring colony, begins. All of this is done with humor and sensitivity, exposing a world where spiders can wreak unimaginable amounts of havoc with a single gnash of their jaws.ĭeForge’s striking visual sensibility-stark lines, dramatic color choices, and brilliant use of page and panel space-stands out in this volume.Īnt Colony is a subversive look at Western society through the prism of anthropomorphised ants.
Underneath, though, Ant Colony plumbs the deepest human concerns-loneliness, faith, love, apathy, and more. On the surface, it’s the story of this war, the destruction of a civilization, and the ants’ all too familiar desire to rebuild. His brash, confident, undulating artwork sent a shock wave through the comics world for its unique, fully formed aesthetic.įrom its opening pages, Ant Colony immerses the reader in a world that is darkly existential, with false prophets, unjust wars, and corrupt police officers, as it follows the denizens of a black ant colony under attack from the nearby red ants. In the few short years since he began his pamphlet-size comic book series Lose, Michael DeForge has announced himself as an important new voice in alternative comics.
The debut graphic novel from a dazzling newcomer with a singular, idiosyncratic style
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