THOUGHT BUBBLE MONTH 2024! Last year as part of our Thought Bubble coverage here at Broken Frontier I took a detailed look at Erika Price’s Disorder collection of comics. I described that powerful exploration of dysphoria, identity, transness and the self-destructive as “an exceptionally evocative manipulation of the language of comics and a haunting reminder of its connective power in sharing lived experiences with an audience.” Replete with body horror symbolism and visceral visual metaphor it was undoubtedly one of the most affecting pieces of work I read in 2023.
For Thought Bubble this year Price will be debuting the first volume of the print collection of her Patreon comics series Worms. More narrative-based than some of her previous work Worms begins with a retrospective retelling of how the controversial and possibly sinisterly-motivated appointment of a new Pope Sixtus VI would have immense repercussions for both those within Vatican City and those outside its walls.
Our protagonist is a young priest called Eulogius Eley who, in the wake of these events, realises he is having a crisis of both faith and conscience. This is only exacerbated by rumblings of corruption within the Vatican, rumours of physical brutality, and a brooding otherness seeping into the very fabric of their surroundings. It’s a highly atmospheric set-up with Price returning again and again to the visual symbolism of decay and putrescence to emphasise the ominous foreshadowing that permeates each page.
Price’s visuals are as intense, overwhelming and sometimes almost overbearing as ever. Every panel is meticulously detailed and shaded in depiction, echoing the sense of doom that Eley and his colleagues are feeling with a scratchy and raw style that feels at once cold and unforgiving but also grotesque and exaggerated as well. Where Price goes next with Worms remains to be seen (though her Patreon backers will get a head start on that) but this is a tantalisingly dark opening collection of chapters.
Erika Price (W/A) • Self-published
Visit Erika Price’s online store here
Review by Andy Oliver
Erika Price will be at Table D27 in the Redshirt Hall at Thought Bubble.
Thought Bubble 2024 runs from November 11th-17th with the convention weekend taking place on the 16th-17th. More details on the Thought Bubble site here.
Read all our Thought Bubble 2024 coverage so far in one place here.
Art by Rocío Arreola Mendoza
