Rescue Party! A Graphic Anthology of COVID Lockdown

Trapped in the COVID lockdown, what did people yearn for afterwards? Fowler, owner of Brooklyn’s Desert Island comics shop, put out a call on Instagram: “Please send comics visualizing your ideal future in a utopian world after we survive this.” Hundreds of colorful imaginings poured in from indie cartoonists worldwide, all one nine-panel page as specified, and bursting with boisterous, wildly creative fantasies. In a nod to the film Groundhog Day from Minneapolis, a jerk realizes his “jerkiness” isn’t working and becomes a nicer, helpful person. From India comes an illustrated rhyme, ending with “I’ll meet my favorite tree / And hug and breathe mask-free.” A Houston cartoonist reenvisions Dennis the Menace as “Li’l Oligarch,” a parasite who learns to fend for himself after losing his wealth. Some especially creative efforts show a single image extended over the nine panels, each supplying part of the narrative. A meaty foreword from comics scholar Hillary Chute cites the power of art to imagine a better world.