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Breathers
The air is no longer safe to breathe. A virus has been unleashed into the air, rendering it deadly to humans. People have adapted to this world, wearing respiratory masks, or "breathers," when they go outside. They have adapted and life goes on much as it did before, although, with a very real fear of death looming over their every breath.
The story of Breathers follows a small cast of individuals as they struggle to make sense of the dystopian world they live in. Among them: a detective whose addiction to the drug known as "Filter K" takes over his life. A brother and sister who, due to recent events, start to wonder if the air really is deadly, or if it's all just a conspiracy. A mother and daughter who will do anything to keep their family together. And a breather salesman who is looking to make amends for his past mistakes. They are all survivors of this virus-plagued world. They are all "breathers."
The story of Breathers follows a small cast of individuals as they struggle to make sense of the dystopian world they live in. Among them: a detective whose addiction to the drug known as "Filter K" takes over his life. A brother and sister who, due to recent events, start to wonder if the air really is deadly, or if it's all just a conspiracy. A mother and daughter who will do anything to keep their family together. And a breather salesman who is looking to make amends for his past mistakes. They are all survivors of this virus-plagued world. They are all "breathers."
426 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
14 people are currently reading
244 people want to read
About the author
Justin Madson
10 books42 followersJustin Madson is a self-taught cartoonist who has been telling stories through comic books and graphic novels for nearly two decades. Over the years he has created a number of graphic novels, including the post-apocalyptic tale Breathers, and Carbon, a supernatural mystery. Madson’s forthcomic graphic novel with Abrams/Amulet Books is Tin Man, a young adult graphic novel about unlikely friends—a tin man seeking a heart and a high schooler trying to come to terms with the death of her grandmother. He lives in a small town in Wisconsin with his wife, two kids, two dogs, and a slew of backyard chickens.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
April 9, 2024
4/8/2024: I now have in my hands the just read volume of this graphic novel by Justin Madson, the little-engine-that-could book that I began reading many years ago. Madison says it really began in 2006, he kept writing, self-publishing on his website, and now, finally, finally, Dark Horse published it as a one volume work in October 23. Just to say, that the the whole breathers/masks idea here that you can see on the cover preceded by more than a decade the pandemic. Though it is about a pandemic of sorts, infected air, and disagreements about that, seen through the eyes of several parallel stories woven through the novel. Dystopian, bleak, hopeful? Anyway, I am a fan of his work. To indie comix!!
8/6/20: I wrote this before Dark Horse published the book: I get no money from Justin for providing links to how you can buy his work, but here is his website:
http://www.justmadbooks.com/
The new publisher is: http://www.itsalivepress.com/
I post this here because Amazon (which owns Goodreads) told Elyse you could buy it from them for $900. Why so much? Because he wants to sell it via his own press and not give a cut to Big Daddy. Amazon does that to other small presses, and academic presses, because they want a complete monopoly of the book publishing market, but you are free always to buy from small publishers!
8/3/20: I have now in my hands the second and third issues of what seems to be a complete rewrite of the original book. The second two issues expand the world.
A story in issue two introduces us to a woman economically beaten down, with a daughter who carries a stuffed dragon around. The woman takes the boy along on a "job interview" and leaves her outside a dingy motel room. This woman, who is depicted as sweet and vulnerable and a loving mother, is reduced to part time sex work during this climate and economic crisis to pay the rent, and this thread is absolutely devastating. How did she get to this place? Because her husband lured her into his drug habit and they ran out of money, now a problem for hundreds of thousands.
Another thread is about a door-to-door ventilator salesman, committed but also sad. Nobody likes him or his work; he's a traveling salesman! But he's also the former addict and husband of the woman, above.
In the third issue, we meet a guy named October and his sister, Easter, who was just released from a psych hospital, bandages on both wrists, who does not use a mask at all when outside and who seems to be fine. It seems no one else is able to breathe outside maskless, and it's a law to wear a mask, though there seems to be a looming Anti-Mask League called "Breathe Free" led by a university professor and yes, all this was written before the pandemic, I swear!
I know this all sounds grimly apocalyptic, and it is, but it also has a lot of heart in it. And then there is a sudden infusion of fantasy or magical realism that enters in when Easter is outside by herself. She sees a flying dragon! Is this a psychotic vision? I think not. Magic happens! And might this dragon be related to the little girl's toy dragon? Fantasy/magic happens in this book, a thread I love.
Addition to the original review 7/26/20: I am supporting what I believe is a re-release of this comics series, which I loved in 2016, by Wisconsinite Justin Madson. What I received in the mail yesterday is a new issue #1, which has a different cover (and inside we see an alternate cover drawn by both Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt, [score, Justin! You all need to work together!] who are the two artists I associate his work most with, though he mentions several other influences and not them!) and a November 2019 print date, so some librarian can maybe figure this out, but it's the same title, different developing book. Anyway, with everyone wearing face masks (or, "breathers") it seems now eerily prescient. The air is destroyed, and a virus permeates what they are all breathing. And yet, this is the midwest, Wisconsin, people are just living their lives, though with masks on. Feels like Lemire's Ontario, with great warmth and intimacy, but also bleak. I absolutely love it.
My original review, 2/23/16: Breathers is one of my favorite graphic novels of the year, without question, and I especially love it because almost no one reading this right now knows who Justin Madson is. There's just 39 reviews of this 2011 self-published book, and you need to read it. The only reason I know about it at all is because Goodreads friends Jonathan and Laura lent me his books Carbon (a series, 2 volumes so far) and this one, his first. I am going to make sure my library system has copies of it, and now.
Breathers has the virtues of being both a sketchy indie psychological comic and socially focused sci fi! It's also not a slacker indie project, as it is an ambitious 400+ pages, with lots of intersecting stories of characters that are inviting. By that I mean we come to care about them as human beings, which doesn't always happen in these books, as you know.
The scene is this: We're in a small town in rural central Wisconsin. 3 or 4 decades ago, some nutcase apparently released some virus into the air, killing hundreds of thousands of people. Since then, people have had to wear breathing masks, or "breathers" when they go outside. Or is there a conspiracy of fear that incites people to wear the masks? A group called "Breathe Free" led by a university sociologist meets in clandestine places. They tell people: Take off your mask, breathe free! One woman actually seems to be doing this, knowing nothing of the group. [Perhaps you are familiar with the anti-masking contingent of the old US of A that opposed mask use during the 1918 Great Influenza pandemic? Or the 2020 similar movement? Nah, didn't think so! But in the new first issue, this university prof is not yet present.]
Another dimension of the story: A long time ago a group of scientists conducted a series of experiments on children to see if they could develop a serum for the effects of the airborne virus, apparently failing miserably, causing untold suffering, but this woman, who breathes air without a breather when she is outside, had been one of the kids experimented on by these scientists. Is she an anomaly? Is she just taking longer to die? An echo of Srtanger Things child-experimentation here.
We get to know and care about her and several other people who cope or fail to cope in various ways with the crisis, which also seems to be an economic crisis. Some take drugs. Some seem lost. Some cling to each other. Some seem to adapt pretty well, but there's an air of anxiety and fear and worry throughout. There aren't a lot of laughs in this book, but there is warmth where it can be found, friendship, love. And some madness.
Just an aside: You can tell it is rural Wisconsin because all of the people are white, working class, mostly. I lived there for awhile; if I were living there I wouldn't mention it, but living in Chicago, I notice it. Just noticing, not criticizing. But it's really just a story about the world they all live in.
And then, surprisingly: dragons, magic. A single mother who has "hooked" a few times to support her and her daughter is involved in a murder, requiring her to leave her daughter with her own mother. The girl has a toy dragon, which she at one point "releases" into the world to find her mother. The dragon agrees to do this for the girl, flying out of grandma's attic. At one point the woman thinks she sees a flying dragon. So, there we are: Magic in a sci fi indie novel, and it works really well.
Okay, that's not quire right, maybe. The dragon doesn't really come alive. Kids talk to their toy animals, right? They become friends with them, and so in the fantasy dimension of this story, the dragon talks back to the girl. He agrees to fly to find the mother. And the mother "sees" the dragon at one point. This may be magical realism, in a way, but it is also an emblem of their relationship, their deeper connection, the love between the mother and daughter. It's beautiful. Who can see dragons? People who are special, who believe in magic in a horrific time. People who love. So maybe in a way the dragon really does come alive. Do you tell a kid that it can't come alive? What kind of person would you be if you shattered anyone's imaginary world? You wouldn't, right, not if you know a child (okay, except when we tell them there is no Santa Claus!).
Is there hope for this dystopian future small town in Wisconsin? That's one basic question of dystopian fiction, I suppose: we face a frightening future; can we survive? Well, the various separate stories come together to help you answer that question, in Breathers. It's a dark story in many ways that (and I've said this before, in my review of Carbon) reminds me of the black and white sketchy indie work of Jeff Lemire, with also that humane heart of Lemire. The world is at its worst a terrible place, but even then there is a child that talks to her dragon and her mother who knows why that is important to acknowledge, to embrace, for her daughter and herself.
There's also a kind of poetic evidence of despair I see and like a lot, wisps of darkness floating around one character, Marsh, for instance. There's also wisps of hope, leaves, floating white apparitions that help us see there is more than just darkness, there are rich and often anguished spiritual dimensions that are always present. Love. A love of a mother and daughter. Love of a brother and sister. Romantic love is hard but possible.
I really like it very much.
Check it out here: http://www.justmadbooks.com
There's a preview, and I think some of it can be found online, but support the guy, buy it from him!
8/6/20: I wrote this before Dark Horse published the book: I get no money from Justin for providing links to how you can buy his work, but here is his website:
http://www.justmadbooks.com/
The new publisher is: http://www.itsalivepress.com/
I post this here because Amazon (which owns Goodreads) told Elyse you could buy it from them for $900. Why so much? Because he wants to sell it via his own press and not give a cut to Big Daddy. Amazon does that to other small presses, and academic presses, because they want a complete monopoly of the book publishing market, but you are free always to buy from small publishers!
8/3/20: I have now in my hands the second and third issues of what seems to be a complete rewrite of the original book. The second two issues expand the world.
A story in issue two introduces us to a woman economically beaten down, with a daughter who carries a stuffed dragon around. The woman takes the boy along on a "job interview" and leaves her outside a dingy motel room. This woman, who is depicted as sweet and vulnerable and a loving mother, is reduced to part time sex work during this climate and economic crisis to pay the rent, and this thread is absolutely devastating. How did she get to this place? Because her husband lured her into his drug habit and they ran out of money, now a problem for hundreds of thousands.
Another thread is about a door-to-door ventilator salesman, committed but also sad. Nobody likes him or his work; he's a traveling salesman! But he's also the former addict and husband of the woman, above.
In the third issue, we meet a guy named October and his sister, Easter, who was just released from a psych hospital, bandages on both wrists, who does not use a mask at all when outside and who seems to be fine. It seems no one else is able to breathe outside maskless, and it's a law to wear a mask, though there seems to be a looming Anti-Mask League called "Breathe Free" led by a university professor and yes, all this was written before the pandemic, I swear!
I know this all sounds grimly apocalyptic, and it is, but it also has a lot of heart in it. And then there is a sudden infusion of fantasy or magical realism that enters in when Easter is outside by herself. She sees a flying dragon! Is this a psychotic vision? I think not. Magic happens! And might this dragon be related to the little girl's toy dragon? Fantasy/magic happens in this book, a thread I love.
Addition to the original review 7/26/20: I am supporting what I believe is a re-release of this comics series, which I loved in 2016, by Wisconsinite Justin Madson. What I received in the mail yesterday is a new issue #1, which has a different cover (and inside we see an alternate cover drawn by both Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt, [score, Justin! You all need to work together!] who are the two artists I associate his work most with, though he mentions several other influences and not them!) and a November 2019 print date, so some librarian can maybe figure this out, but it's the same title, different developing book. Anyway, with everyone wearing face masks (or, "breathers") it seems now eerily prescient. The air is destroyed, and a virus permeates what they are all breathing. And yet, this is the midwest, Wisconsin, people are just living their lives, though with masks on. Feels like Lemire's Ontario, with great warmth and intimacy, but also bleak. I absolutely love it.
My original review, 2/23/16: Breathers is one of my favorite graphic novels of the year, without question, and I especially love it because almost no one reading this right now knows who Justin Madson is. There's just 39 reviews of this 2011 self-published book, and you need to read it. The only reason I know about it at all is because Goodreads friends Jonathan and Laura lent me his books Carbon (a series, 2 volumes so far) and this one, his first. I am going to make sure my library system has copies of it, and now.
Breathers has the virtues of being both a sketchy indie psychological comic and socially focused sci fi! It's also not a slacker indie project, as it is an ambitious 400+ pages, with lots of intersecting stories of characters that are inviting. By that I mean we come to care about them as human beings, which doesn't always happen in these books, as you know.
The scene is this: We're in a small town in rural central Wisconsin. 3 or 4 decades ago, some nutcase apparently released some virus into the air, killing hundreds of thousands of people. Since then, people have had to wear breathing masks, or "breathers" when they go outside. Or is there a conspiracy of fear that incites people to wear the masks? A group called "Breathe Free" led by a university sociologist meets in clandestine places. They tell people: Take off your mask, breathe free! One woman actually seems to be doing this, knowing nothing of the group. [Perhaps you are familiar with the anti-masking contingent of the old US of A that opposed mask use during the 1918 Great Influenza pandemic? Or the 2020 similar movement? Nah, didn't think so! But in the new first issue, this university prof is not yet present.]
Another dimension of the story: A long time ago a group of scientists conducted a series of experiments on children to see if they could develop a serum for the effects of the airborne virus, apparently failing miserably, causing untold suffering, but this woman, who breathes air without a breather when she is outside, had been one of the kids experimented on by these scientists. Is she an anomaly? Is she just taking longer to die? An echo of Srtanger Things child-experimentation here.
We get to know and care about her and several other people who cope or fail to cope in various ways with the crisis, which also seems to be an economic crisis. Some take drugs. Some seem lost. Some cling to each other. Some seem to adapt pretty well, but there's an air of anxiety and fear and worry throughout. There aren't a lot of laughs in this book, but there is warmth where it can be found, friendship, love. And some madness.
Just an aside: You can tell it is rural Wisconsin because all of the people are white, working class, mostly. I lived there for awhile; if I were living there I wouldn't mention it, but living in Chicago, I notice it. Just noticing, not criticizing. But it's really just a story about the world they all live in.
And then, surprisingly: dragons, magic. A single mother who has "hooked" a few times to support her and her daughter is involved in a murder, requiring her to leave her daughter with her own mother. The girl has a toy dragon, which she at one point "releases" into the world to find her mother. The dragon agrees to do this for the girl, flying out of grandma's attic. At one point the woman thinks she sees a flying dragon. So, there we are: Magic in a sci fi indie novel, and it works really well.
Okay, that's not quire right, maybe. The dragon doesn't really come alive. Kids talk to their toy animals, right? They become friends with them, and so in the fantasy dimension of this story, the dragon talks back to the girl. He agrees to fly to find the mother. And the mother "sees" the dragon at one point. This may be magical realism, in a way, but it is also an emblem of their relationship, their deeper connection, the love between the mother and daughter. It's beautiful. Who can see dragons? People who are special, who believe in magic in a horrific time. People who love. So maybe in a way the dragon really does come alive. Do you tell a kid that it can't come alive? What kind of person would you be if you shattered anyone's imaginary world? You wouldn't, right, not if you know a child (okay, except when we tell them there is no Santa Claus!).
Is there hope for this dystopian future small town in Wisconsin? That's one basic question of dystopian fiction, I suppose: we face a frightening future; can we survive? Well, the various separate stories come together to help you answer that question, in Breathers. It's a dark story in many ways that (and I've said this before, in my review of Carbon) reminds me of the black and white sketchy indie work of Jeff Lemire, with also that humane heart of Lemire. The world is at its worst a terrible place, but even then there is a child that talks to her dragon and her mother who knows why that is important to acknowledge, to embrace, for her daughter and herself.
There's also a kind of poetic evidence of despair I see and like a lot, wisps of darkness floating around one character, Marsh, for instance. There's also wisps of hope, leaves, floating white apparitions that help us see there is more than just darkness, there are rich and often anguished spiritual dimensions that are always present. Love. A love of a mother and daughter. Love of a brother and sister. Romantic love is hard but possible.
I really like it very much.
Check it out here: http://www.justmadbooks.com
There's a preview, and I think some of it can be found online, but support the guy, buy it from him!
March 22, 2013
Guys, this book is friggin awesome.
I'm into both indie comics, and sci-fi, and this is a rad conglomeration of both.
Plus, there is a grey area in the story between the imagined and the real-- there is a place for dragons in this dystopia. That's friggin rad.
I found myself captivated by this book and charmed by its characters, charmed by the visual execution of the characters, (so charmed in fact that I had a bit of a hard time feeling wholly negative towards the sinister characters-- a flaw? a plus? a sacred lesson in human empathy??)
I also felt like the whole predicament of a humanity unable to walk outside without a breathing mask (for the air is now toxic) was really well thought-out in all its various aspects: from vague rumors of what breezes once smelt like when rain was coming, to the fact of a gas mask becoming also an obscuring of the social face, to the issue of how the poor and developing nations would have to deal with the need of a mask (although I didn't see how the homeless would cope, in this story--) and even to how the mask seeps into the subconscious, such that you mistake a mask-less person for a ghost on first sight... Imagine how it would be, if you grew up completely unable ever to leave the indoors without a breathing mask on, and suddenly one day you were cured of the need, and could walk outdoors, maskless... It would be weird on so many levels. I so appreciate that the author thought deeply into this, deeply into the fact it's been 40 years since people could breathe the air and what technological and social changes have happened along the way and that there are "retro" types of masks now et al... I really appreciate that this book gets down into the deep psychological levels of ordinary humans like you and I and how we'd be in our little lives if everything was the same but we could not safely breathe the air outside.
I really highly recommend this book-- I think it is thinky and thought-worthy, thoughtful and sympathetic and sweet... I think it draws out empathy from you for every character and even the villain, as if they were a different species or as if you were the different species and you were looking on their struggles with special distance of eternal difference. And I so like that it is diving into the very real, very frightfully real threat of the air being unbreathable one day, and how this would make our already complicated-enough lives exponentially more complicated, dangerous, and difficult. It is a good warning, a warning that fits in organically with the rest of our every-day sensations: not over the top, not under the radar of regular perception: just so real that you can easily see our current society sliding in to a new way of doing things in a drastically changed world.
I'm into both indie comics, and sci-fi, and this is a rad conglomeration of both.
Plus, there is a grey area in the story between the imagined and the real-- there is a place for dragons in this dystopia. That's friggin rad.
I found myself captivated by this book and charmed by its characters, charmed by the visual execution of the characters, (so charmed in fact that I had a bit of a hard time feeling wholly negative towards the sinister characters-- a flaw? a plus? a sacred lesson in human empathy??)
I also felt like the whole predicament of a humanity unable to walk outside without a breathing mask (for the air is now toxic) was really well thought-out in all its various aspects: from vague rumors of what breezes once smelt like when rain was coming, to the fact of a gas mask becoming also an obscuring of the social face, to the issue of how the poor and developing nations would have to deal with the need of a mask (although I didn't see how the homeless would cope, in this story--) and even to how the mask seeps into the subconscious, such that you mistake a mask-less person for a ghost on first sight... Imagine how it would be, if you grew up completely unable ever to leave the indoors without a breathing mask on, and suddenly one day you were cured of the need, and could walk outdoors, maskless... It would be weird on so many levels. I so appreciate that the author thought deeply into this, deeply into the fact it's been 40 years since people could breathe the air and what technological and social changes have happened along the way and that there are "retro" types of masks now et al... I really appreciate that this book gets down into the deep psychological levels of ordinary humans like you and I and how we'd be in our little lives if everything was the same but we could not safely breathe the air outside.
I really highly recommend this book-- I think it is thinky and thought-worthy, thoughtful and sympathetic and sweet... I think it draws out empathy from you for every character and even the villain, as if they were a different species or as if you were the different species and you were looking on their struggles with special distance of eternal difference. And I so like that it is diving into the very real, very frightfully real threat of the air being unbreathable one day, and how this would make our already complicated-enough lives exponentially more complicated, dangerous, and difficult. It is a good warning, a warning that fits in organically with the rest of our every-day sensations: not over the top, not under the radar of regular perception: just so real that you can easily see our current society sliding in to a new way of doing things in a drastically changed world.
April 25, 2021
3.5 stars. After I read the first 2-3 issues I was feeling like this was kind of bland. However, once I read the next few issues, I found myself getting into to it more. So for the past 40 years I believe, everyone has been wearing breathers. A virus was released years ago and now no one goes outside without a mask for fear of dying. There’s multiple stories running at once here, all in this same world. You have a mother and daughter story where the mother has done something crazy and is now on the run. You have a brother and sister where the sister has never worn a breather growing up and was told she was sick. There’s a cop who is hooked in with some messed up stuff who seems very dangerous. All these stories have been slowing building up in a nice fashion. I’m now interested in seeing what comes next. I’m invested to where I now care what happens to some of these people. This definitely wouldn’t have worked for me if I had read these individually as they were coming out. I probably would have dropped it. But since I gathered up the first 5 issues and read them at one sitting, it gave the story time to stretch its legs and hook me in. Looking forward to seeing how this goes. I believe this is the halfway point and there are five more issues to go.
July 15, 2023
(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Edelweiss. Content warning for rape, drug addiction, depression, self-harm, suicide, and violence. Caution: this review contains minor spoilers.)
-- 4.5 stars --
Forty-six years ago, a scientist named Fencer created a deadly airborne pathogen in a lab - and then released it into the world. Though he just died in prison (at the ripe old age of 89, natch), the dystopian world he created endures. As does humanity: though the air is no longer breathable, people have adapted with the help of "breathers," or respiratory masks that allow them to go about life much as they once did. (Buildings and some vehicles are outfitted with complex ventilation systems.)
BREATHERS follows a cast of regular people as they go about their regular lives: dating, grieving, battling drug addition and depression, trying to keep their kids fed and housed during an economic depression. There's Juliana, a single mother, former drug dealer, and sometimes sex worker, who finds an already tight budget squeezed even thinner when her daughter Mara breaks her arm. Jacob is a traveling breather salesman who is haunted by the memory of his missing wife Emily. Corrupt cop Marsh is addicted to a drug called "Filter K," which causes dementia, violent behavior, and psychosis. October - Tobey for short - tries to juggle a budding relationship with Huck and his sister Easter's depression and suicidal ideation. Easter, meanwhile, suspects that she alone can breathe "fresh" air; this search for meaning brings her to the BARD Institute, and memories she had long buried.
And then there's Piper, Mara's stuffed dragon, into which she's apparently breathed life. Piper can talk, fly, and slay the baddies. If breathable air is the tradeoff for sentient stuffed animals, I just might choose this 'verse. (Plus there are no gas-guzzling cars, so double points.)
Though BREATHERS was conceived, written, and originally released well before the COVID-19 pandemic, reading it through this lens really lends additional dimension and meaning. One of the many subplots focuses on Professor Barnes and the "Breathe Free" movement, a cult-like group that peddles conspiracy theories - chief among them that the virus is a hoax; the air, perfectly breathable. Since Easter's special abilities seem to bolster this claim, I devoured BREATHERS with no small amount of trepidation. Though it felt like the narrative was going in an anti-masker, COVID-denial direction at times, luckily this doesn't prove to be the case. The way that Madson handles the "Breathe Free" storyline is just *chef's kiss* masterful. It's amazing to think that he wrote it pre-COVID, since it dovetails so seamlessly with *gesticulating wildly* everything that's going on in the world in the here and now.
Likewise, all of the disparate plot lines weave together like a beautiful tapestry, as the characters' lives intersect in various ways. I found Juliana's, Jacob's, and Easter's journeys particularly compelling. Easter's struggle with depression - and to find a sense of meaning - resonated something fierce.
But the pièce de résistance has got to be Piper. A talking dragon in a scifi dystopia? Need I say more?
-- 4.5 stars --
Forty-six years ago, a scientist named Fencer created a deadly airborne pathogen in a lab - and then released it into the world. Though he just died in prison (at the ripe old age of 89, natch), the dystopian world he created endures. As does humanity: though the air is no longer breathable, people have adapted with the help of "breathers," or respiratory masks that allow them to go about life much as they once did. (Buildings and some vehicles are outfitted with complex ventilation systems.)
BREATHERS follows a cast of regular people as they go about their regular lives: dating, grieving, battling drug addition and depression, trying to keep their kids fed and housed during an economic depression. There's Juliana, a single mother, former drug dealer, and sometimes sex worker, who finds an already tight budget squeezed even thinner when her daughter Mara breaks her arm. Jacob is a traveling breather salesman who is haunted by the memory of his missing wife Emily. Corrupt cop Marsh is addicted to a drug called "Filter K," which causes dementia, violent behavior, and psychosis. October - Tobey for short - tries to juggle a budding relationship with Huck and his sister Easter's depression and suicidal ideation. Easter, meanwhile, suspects that she alone can breathe "fresh" air; this search for meaning brings her to the BARD Institute, and memories she had long buried.
And then there's Piper, Mara's stuffed dragon, into which she's apparently breathed life. Piper can talk, fly, and slay the baddies. If breathable air is the tradeoff for sentient stuffed animals, I just might choose this 'verse. (Plus there are no gas-guzzling cars, so double points.)
Though BREATHERS was conceived, written, and originally released well before the COVID-19 pandemic, reading it through this lens really lends additional dimension and meaning. One of the many subplots focuses on Professor Barnes and the "Breathe Free" movement, a cult-like group that peddles conspiracy theories - chief among them that the virus is a hoax; the air, perfectly breathable. Since Easter's special abilities seem to bolster this claim, I devoured BREATHERS with no small amount of trepidation. Though it felt like the narrative was going in an anti-masker, COVID-denial direction at times, luckily this doesn't prove to be the case. The way that Madson handles the "Breathe Free" storyline is just *chef's kiss* masterful. It's amazing to think that he wrote it pre-COVID, since it dovetails so seamlessly with *gesticulating wildly* everything that's going on in the world in the here and now.
Likewise, all of the disparate plot lines weave together like a beautiful tapestry, as the characters' lives intersect in various ways. I found Juliana's, Jacob's, and Easter's journeys particularly compelling. Easter's struggle with depression - and to find a sense of meaning - resonated something fierce.
But the pièce de résistance has got to be Piper. A talking dragon in a scifi dystopia? Need I say more?
August 11, 2015
Read years ago when it was in five separate volumes, stapled together by Justin and mailed with awesome postage art! Now I have the "officially bound" graphic novel, and it's just as beautiful/devastating/original as I remember.
September 2, 2024
Imagine a world where the fresh air is polluted by a deadly virus, and anyone who breathes it in dies in seconds, so you need to wear a mask (breather) before going outside. Enter a cast of flawed characters whose paths will cross throughout the story. Add a little conspiracy that the air is actually just fine, but the evil government wants you to think the opposite. And have your mind blown by the fact this was written way before the COVID pandemic.
The art is not spectacular, but the modest coloring fits the atmosphere perfectly. And for those who were complaining about the characters looking alike, I believe the author gave each character a very specific feature/outfit to make sure you won't get lost. If that doesn't help you, you should probably pay more attention.
It's a 4.5* book for me, but I'll go with the 5* rating to give it a tiny bit more praise because it deserves more attention.
The art is not spectacular, but the modest coloring fits the atmosphere perfectly. And for those who were complaining about the characters looking alike, I believe the author gave each character a very specific feature/outfit to make sure you won't get lost. If that doesn't help you, you should probably pay more attention.
It's a 4.5* book for me, but I'll go with the 5* rating to give it a tiny bit more praise because it deserves more attention.
March 4, 2024
Amazing small scale human stories in a dystopian world. If you read it, remember that it was written in 2011. This is important when your see that it predicts the personalities and factions for a pandemic caused by an airborne virus.
December 28, 2023
Did not like the art style. Everyone has a hunch. Why? All the characters look so similar too. The colours were too grey. The hand lettering gave me a headache, so hard to read the dialogues because his handwriting isn’t really legible. Why not just use a regular legible font jeez. The story wasn’t much to write home about either. There were way too many “End”s at the end of every chapter that I was solidly confused for the first few until I realised these were probably individual issues that have now been compiled into a single volume.
Now that I’ve written all this out I’m still not sure why I’m giving a 3 ⭐️ rating. I would prefer to give 2.5 maybe? Like solid effort. Good read if you have a couple hours to spend? Don’t expect anything mind blowing though. Pretty mid 🤷🏻♀️
Now that I’ve written all this out I’m still not sure why I’m giving a 3 ⭐️ rating. I would prefer to give 2.5 maybe? Like solid effort. Good read if you have a couple hours to spend? Don’t expect anything mind blowing though. Pretty mid 🤷🏻♀️
January 3, 2024
Interesting story, but hard to follow as many of the character's look alike.
November 21, 2023
The most striking thing about this masked adventure is the fact that it was written something like a decade before public masking became a reality, in that eerily prescient way fiction sometimes can anticipate the world.
As a book, it didn’t really wow me either with its plot or its art. Which for a graphic novel isn’t optimal. It’s interesting enough, but much too long, with a disjointed, occasionally confusing narrative. Some of the confusion stems from the fact that all the characters kind of look alike – the art is cartoonish in features but colored, some of it has to do with the fact that it reads like it was done as separate entries and not cobbled together smoothly enough.
But the writing itself is pretty good. The story is character-driven and engages attention that way. There are a lot of separate strands that the author manages to weave together cohesively in the end. So all in all, it’s a perfectly decent read. Not great, but few things are. User milage may vary.
As a book, it didn’t really wow me either with its plot or its art. Which for a graphic novel isn’t optimal. It’s interesting enough, but much too long, with a disjointed, occasionally confusing narrative. Some of the confusion stems from the fact that all the characters kind of look alike – the art is cartoonish in features but colored, some of it has to do with the fact that it reads like it was done as separate entries and not cobbled together smoothly enough.
But the writing itself is pretty good. The story is character-driven and engages attention that way. There are a lot of separate strands that the author manages to weave together cohesively in the end. So all in all, it’s a perfectly decent read. Not great, but few things are. User milage may vary.
September 14, 2024
I'm guessing it's more of a "time is a flat circle" thing than a weird coincidence that Breathers is a novel written between 2006-2011 about having to wear masks every time you step outside to prevent catching a deadly virus, and that the novel didn't get wide-release until 2021. At this point, even the most outlandish dystopian fiction is always just inevitable history if you wait a few years.
I liked Breathers. The execution of the concept was cool, and the fact that it was told non-chronologically and sometimes obtusely led to an engaging reading experience. I gotta be honest, though, I didn't care much for the artwork. It's a personal thing, though; I think Justin Madson is a talented artist, I just don't like his aesthetic.
I liked Breathers. The execution of the concept was cool, and the fact that it was told non-chronologically and sometimes obtusely led to an engaging reading experience. I gotta be honest, though, I didn't care much for the artwork. It's a personal thing, though; I think Justin Madson is a talented artist, I just don't like his aesthetic.
September 18, 2024
The graphic novel is especially intriguing for its exploration of whether a worldwide virus that’s forcing survivors to depend on breathing masks is real or if it’s a manipulation, raising questions about truth and trust in a crumbling society. (Not like that sounds like post-pandemic real life or anything. 🤥)
It’s big and thick but worth the time if you like the genre.
This is my second Madson book of the month and he’s a creative force and master of the independent graphic novel game. It will not be my last. I thought it could have used some editing-some of the characters were hard to tell apart, although yeah maybe could be due to the masks! So yeah, that’d be the missing fifth star.
It’s big and thick but worth the time if you like the genre.
This is my second Madson book of the month and he’s a creative force and master of the independent graphic novel game. It will not be my last. I thought it could have used some editing-some of the characters were hard to tell apart, although yeah maybe could be due to the masks! So yeah, that’d be the missing fifth star.
August 15, 2024
Beautiful book! I loved the world that was created here and each of the characters that we follow through this read. I enjoyed the individual stories that each were going through that wound together over the life of this book. This story felt a little more relevant today because of recent events with masks and pandemics and that amplified this story and how it resonated with me a bit. The created world here felt both fantastical and bleak at the same time. Overall, I really dug this book and I’d for sure read more by this creator in the future.
March 29, 2025
This book was like a constipated dump. Your happy you got a nugget out but was it worth 30 mins on the toilet?
It was so so very long and DULL! Great character building, but Way to many character's then possibly needed. And he built up every single one of them.
Interesting story though. The writer claimed he wrote this before the pandemic and if so wow. Truth is though, people lie unnecessarily and often. 🤷🏽
Worth reading if you’re stuck somewhere. This will definitely hold you over until you get wifi back.
It was so so very long and DULL! Great character building, but Way to many character's then possibly needed. And he built up every single one of them.
Interesting story though. The writer claimed he wrote this before the pandemic and if so wow. Truth is though, people lie unnecessarily and often. 🤷🏽
Worth reading if you’re stuck somewhere. This will definitely hold you over until you get wifi back.
June 6, 2025
For a story that was published in 2010, this graphic novel sure echoed the anti-mask, conspiracy theories that erupted when the Covid pandemic broke out.
The individual characters looked too similar to each other so I had a hard time fully empathizing with them and differentiating them from the others. The palette was more of the melancholy, gloomy color range so it didn't really grab my attention.
But the story was interesting enough and easy to read. You can zip through this in one sitting.
The individual characters looked too similar to each other so I had a hard time fully empathizing with them and differentiating them from the others. The palette was more of the melancholy, gloomy color range so it didn't really grab my attention.
But the story was interesting enough and easy to read. You can zip through this in one sitting.
October 27, 2024
Ihan mielenkiintoinen konsepti: ilmassa on ollut viimeiset 40 vuotta tappavaa virusta ja ulkona on pakko käyttää hengityssuojaimia, jotta ei kuole. Mutta olihan tämä nyt vähän turhan pitkä sarjis ilman, että mitään oikein tapahtuu tai selitetä. Etenkin se lohikäärmejuttu oli aika absurdi. Käsinkirjoitetuista teksteistä oli välillä vaikea saada selvää.
November 29, 2023
I like the melancholy of the book and the more positive certainty that humanity can endure anything, but the ending's time jump was poorly done and left me a tad confused. It felt like a chunk at the end was missing.
May 14, 2024
This was a confusing read that had a powerful message, but the execution felt lacking. It dragged for too long in the beginning and then rushed to a quick conclusion for the last bit. I'm disappointed :(
July 18, 2024
Interesting story. Though there were some confusing parts that didn't make sense immediately, the pieces came together at the end. I enjoyed the several twists, art style, and integrated storylines.
Also, amazing how this was written pre-covid!
Also, amazing how this was written pre-covid!
July 17, 2025
A solid gritty dystopian that follows multiple individual everyday people in town that at times can feel a bit slow, but overall intertwines their stories in an interesting way. Crazy this was 10 years before Covid. Even when its "over", the scars remain.
June 8, 2018
The art was beautiful. But the story kind of drug along in some areas.
December 4, 2023
Reminiscent of Jeff Lemire but not quite the same emotional punch. Still, it was an engrossing story I thoroughly enjoyed.
December 20, 2023
ZAJEBISTE CZYTAJCIE TO PANOWIE
January 16, 2024
interesting read while living through a pandemic!
January 16, 2024
First graphic novel for me. The writing is okay. The illustrations were fun the first half. Be sure to stick around for the Afterword.
September 25, 2024
Fantastic story and art. I really enjoyed reading this and would like to read more stories from this world.
March 28, 2025
Great concept and thought out characters. However the art style, jumping between characters and character design made it hard sometimes to follow who-was-who.
May 6, 2025
this being written like a decade before covid is craaaaazy work
July 7, 2025
I got tangled a bit with who’s who but it’s a great graphic novel. The concept is interesting and I still enjoyed reading it
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