Description

In a fluid recollection of events in her life, Cathy Hannah grapples with what it means to be an adult in modern America in her minicomic series, Alas. In her 30’s, Cathy feels like she should have “being an adult” figured out by now, but she sees her failings more easily than her successes. She can’t find a steady job, or a steady relationship, and can’t figure out how her peers have figured it out. Different story lines ebb and flow into each other in this ongoing, complex, and emotional autobiographical comic.

In this issue, Cathy recounts her memories of the morning of September 11, 2001. In this story and another in this issue, she navigates complicated romances. In several of this issue’s vignettes Cathy is both hopeful and concerned for the wellbeing of future generations…as well as her own. We also see Cathy’s dad, when he was still a teenager, arriving in Vietnam, to fight an enemy he doesn’t know in a land he doesn’t understand. This issue also includes an unsettling page of portraits labeled “Heroes of mine who have committed suicide,” with no further explanation.