Comics for a Strange World: A Book of Poorly Drawn Lines

Comics for a Strange World is a compilation of comics from Reza Farazmand’s online series, Poorly Drawn Lines. Farazmand’s style is deceptively simple–most of the comics have no more than four panels, and he uses a no-frills drawing style that often hides incisive commentary.

Broadly, the book examines the absurdities of everyday life from a slightly removed, more objective perspective. Farazmand considers things like materialism, misplaced social priorities, and the existential dread of living using common or common-adjacent (some of the characters are talking ghosts and animals) characters, settings, and interactions. In one comic featuring a man talking to a fly, for example, the man declares his desire to live a quiet life surrounded by loved ones, to which the fly responds, “That’s funny. I want to gorge myself on a mountain of sh*t and die on a windowsill.” It’s through these simple, slightly absurd interactions that Farazmand manages to slyly critique the things many people take for granted about their lives and lifestyles.

Comics for a Strange World is cheeky, endearing, and at times laugh-out-loud funny. For a chance to laugh at life’s distressing banalities, I couldn’t recommend Comics for a Strange World more.