Alienation

The global climate and wildlife as we know it has been completely wiped out, fossil fuels have run dry, and we live in a total corporate monopoly. But worst of all, Elizabeth and Carlos are bored] Alienation, Ines Estrada's debut graphic novel, introduces us to a powerfully exquisite and chilling near future that doesn't seem too far-fetched, where virtual reality affects our diets, sex lives, and nightly dreams. Drawn in hazy grey pencil and printed in blue pantone ink, Alienation focuses on Elizabeth, an erotic dancer in cyberspace, and Carlos, just fired drom the last human-staffed oil rig, as they attempt to keep their romance alive. The couple is anxious about dangerous cyber stalkers and malfunctioning brain implants ('Googleglands'), but they also can't forget to go grocery shopping and fix their spotty internet service. When the realisation hits them that their bodies are full of artificial organs and they live almost entirely online, they begin to question what being human actually means. Do our ancestral, or even animal, instincts eventually kick in, or are we transcending the limits of our bodies? When an unecpected pregnancy is caused by a hack in the Artificial Intelligence, Elizabeth, and the readers, must decide if the child is the next step in evolution or a glitch that wll wipe out humanity once and for all.