Not A Place To Visit

 

Earth Day is coming up soon, and I could think of no better book to review at this time than this great collection of visual essays Not A Place To Visit. All of the works in these pages explore the environment and how people have transformed it (usually for the worse). All of these essays have some basis in the author's experiences, from his childhood in Colorado, when he lead a privileged life due to his parents both being employed by the petroleum industry.

To his later life when he takes on all sorts of jobs, including working on a paddlewheel cruise ship on the Columbia River, catering to wealthy tourists.

Among the many topics he covers in these essays are the effects of fracking, dams, earthquakes, and floods. He also looks at the impact of industry on the salmon population and California’s Salton Sea. The illustrations are straight-forward and bold, a combination of black & white and color images rendered in pencils. They suit the text passages very well, and both combine to convey a train of thought about how changes in the western United States reflect those in the entire country and also the world. 

All of these considerations have serious implications for the future of how people will have to adapt, but I also appreciated how the past is not shown to be simply "the good old days." Humans have always had some sort of impact on the Earth and its ecosystems, only that the affordances of contemporary technology have hastened and heightened these effects. Also, there are certain trajectories that are tied to capitalism, with those from lower SES groups feeling the brunt of pollution and environmental change. This book is not only informative, it is important for our potential future on Earth.

Not A Place to Visit was created by T. Edward Bak. He has created a number of comics over the past decades, with many appearing in prominent anthologies and sites like The Nib. He has also worked on a longer work, Wild Man, The Natural History of Georg Wilhelm Steller. He speaks about his many comics projects in this expansive interview.

The reviews I have read about this book have been positive. Publishers Weekly called it a "quiet but inspiring dispatch." John Seven wrote that he appreciated Bak's combination of commentary and science and opined that this book "is an excellent primer to where he might be headed and I hope he gets the chance to move further in that direction because I think comics could benefit from his voice." This book is currently rated 4.04 (out of 5) stars on Goodreads.

Not A Place To Visit was published by Floating World Comics, and they offer a preview and more info about it here. Bak also has a Patreon here.