Seven Sons
Robert Windom & Kelvin Mao, writers; Jae Lee, art; June Chung, colors
Image Comics, 2023

In an alternate timeline religious leader Nicolaus Balaak correctly predicted that on July 7, 1977, seven identical sons would be born to virgin mothers. Now, on their 21st birthday, one of these Seven Sons will be revealed as the new son of God and lead humanity into a golden age of morality, peace, and prosperity. This is a society that has been completely transformed by these religious revelations: they have a concrete reality that seems to go far beyond traditional theological considerations. The opening scene makes this clear by taking place in New Canaan (formerly Las Vegas), then shifts to The New Church of the Seven in Utah a few years earlier, where a glitzy megachurch-style service is being visited by former two-term president Jimmy Carter.

Life is no bed of roses for the titular Seven Sons (called the Jesi), despite being worshiped by many. Not only are they constantly being watched by the church (and have concerns about which of them will finally be anointed as the One), but they are also being hunted by the terrorist group Allah’s Watchmen, who understandably do not have any sympathy for this Christian-centric view of the world. When one of the sons goes incognito he begins to learn things about the religion that call everything into question: the reality of the miracles it claims to perform, the true beliefs of its leaders, and finally the origin story of the birth of the identical sons. What if the whole thing is a scam founded in science rather than the supernatural?

Somehow the big God reveal works out, despite miracle failures and a thwarted terrorist attack. The remaining Jesus even declines the crown and goes off to live as a normal human. A final clone scene leaves the possibility of a sequel, although it seems to me that this story was complete as is. Jae Lee’s art (with June Chung’s colors) tells the story dramatically, with plenty of creative panel choices and striking lighting effects.

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Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
Kate Beaton
Drawn & Quarterly Publications, 2022

In the world of superhero comics this would be an origin story: how our heroine became the cartoonist she is today. The narrative begins in 2005. Beaton was 21 years old, and came from Cape Breton, a beautiful island off the east coast of Canada, in the province of Nova Scotia. The region has been impoverished for generations, and Beaton had student loans to pay off. The place to go for a good job and the better life was the oil sands of northern Alberta: it was booming there, so off she went. She had no idea of the massive culture shock she was about to experience.

She did not have a job lined up, so she worked as a waitress before landing her first oil job as a tool crib attendant. In the fields she quickly realized that the workforce was overwhelmingly male, and she attracted an unusual amount of attention just by being a woman (especially since she always thought of her sister Becky as “the pretty one”). Not only that, but it turns out that most of the men who were hitting on her at work had a wife and children at home. When Becky joins her in Alberta, she finally tells her that she was raped: later another friend confides that she has been as well while in college. It is an ugly part of the culture that is rarely discussed. The sisters wonder if their own father could resist it if he were there.

One good thing did come from isolation. Katie (as she was known when she was in the oil sands) began publishing cartoons online, starting what was to become her career. The narrative is presented in a straightforward cartoon style, but the book is peppered with stunning drawings of animals, scenery, heavy machinery, and the Northern Lights (in her hands they make a powerful impression even in black and white). Beaton’s Afterward talks about the social issues her story brought up, paying special attention to the indigenous issues that are only mentioned briefly in the book. The book’s title comes from a 2008 incident when a couple of hundred migrating ducks landed in Canadian oil sludge and died. It was not a huge ecological disaster, but the ducks were photogenic, so it became front page news. The ducks serve as a visible symbol of the many problems that were ignored.