By Sofia Alarcon. Published by Conundrum Press. Softcover, 150 pages, Colour, 2025. A first collection of graphic stories about climate change and eco-anxiety. Coined by Elizabeth Rush, “endsickness” is a term that describes our modern malaise and severe anxiety over the end of the world. For Alarcon, It’s also a shorthand way of describing our culture’s current obsession with all things dystopian and apocalyptic. Climate change is often referred to as a hyperobject: so large in scope and scale that it’s difficult to see or understand the entirety of it. In Endsickness, each story attempts to counter that challenge by taking a close look at the individual quandaries of living in a society that seems at odds with itself, unable to face the existential threat looming on the horizon. “Sofia Alarcon packs a generous amount of wicked comic wit into this wry and earnest exploration of an existential anxiety we should all find very familiar today. Endsickness manages to make us laugh out loud even as it stares unflinchingly into the cosmic horizon, the void that capital and consumerism have left waiting for us just down the road.” — Sami Alwani, award-winning comic artist and author of The Pleasure of the Text “Sofia Alarcon’s haunting collection of eco-parables perfectly expresses the surreality of existing within a world on fire. Alarcon’s vignettes take us from primordial ooze to candy-colored dystopias, imbuing each scene with biting humor, psychedelic mark-making, and social satire. Endsickness might be a travelogue for the damned, but at least the apocalypse will be beautifully-drawn.” — Ali Fitzgerald, comic artist and New Yorker columnist About the Author Sofia Alarcon is a multi-disciplinary artist originally from Guatemala and now based in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. She graduated from NSCAD University, where she pursued her interests in film, textiles and drawing. After taking a long hiatus to raise her kids, she returned to art-making through comics and cartoons. In 2021, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, she began self-publishing her one-person anthology series: Endsickness. Endsickness #1 was nominated for a Broken Pencil zine award and two Doug Wright awards, and Endsickness #2 was likewise nominated for a Doug Wright Award. She is still busy raising her kids, but she hopes to keep making comics whenever she has some free time. Endsickness (the completed anthology) is her first book, published by Conundrum Press. Publication Details ISBN 9781772621075150 pages, 10 x 7 inchesFull colour, trade paperJune 2025
