The A.R.C.: A Virus That Kills You When You Lie, created by Tim Disney, co-written by Disney and JC Lacek, and drawn by Vincent Jolas Dubourg, is a head-nodding, finger-pointing, fist-pumping, guffaw-inducing wild ride of a graphic novel. The work opens with a literal black-and-white juxtaposition of "truth" and "lie" and their respective definitions--in case readers need a reminder.
Somewhere in the Amazon, the world's powerful elite gather for the Global Reinvestment for Tomorrow's inaugural international conference to solve climate change. Meanwhile, everyday families, friends, and lovers from throughout the divisive U.S. are converging for Royal Cruises' Veritas, believing they're embarking on a "100% sustainable and carbon neutral" voyage. Isolated on board, they don't yet know liars globally are dying off: Elon Musk, the Kardashians, J.K. Rowling, Donald Trump, even the Dalai Lama! Fatal Amazonian Recombinant Cytoneuropathy (A.R.C.) infections proliferate, eventually reaching the judiciously named Veritas, where the truthful, filterless few figure out the path to survival.
Disney and Lacek impressively intermingle so-called fact and alleged fiction for both shocking and comical results, brilliantly harnessing the menace of another pandemic, political and financial improprieties, rampant capitalism, social media, and AI. The appended "A.R.C. Compendium" is a riotous compilation of questionable research boasting "fact checking as established by Meta and X." French comics creator Dubourg draws in thin lines predominately saturated in color, capturing a vast cast in (hopefully) fantastical situations. That his dynamic panels eschew borders could suggest an impossibility of contagion containment. Liars beware: this terrific trio delivers a satirical adventure to remember, a prescient parable to heed. --Terry Hong