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Everywhere Antennas
A poetic novel that plumbs the depths of self-doubt and technological fatigue
Julie Delporte's Everywhere Antennas is a deeply affecting, sparely constructed novel, equal parts Walden and The Bell Jar . Told in the first person, it offers diary-like entries from an anonymous narrator who is undergoing a nervous breakdown and struggling to hold together a failing relationship. In soft, flowing colored pencil, Delporte shows her narrator coming to terms with a rare and misunderstood sensitivity to the radiation emitted by the televisions, cell phones, and computers that permeate urban life.
On each page a few words are paired with an image or two, conveying a moment or a thought simply but effectively. Over the course of the book, the anonymous narrator moves from place to place, looking for solutions to her melancholy in the countryside via isolation and in the city with friends, sometimes turning to medication for answers. Throughout, her emotional and intellectual landscape receives as much attention as her physical surroundings.
Everywhere Antennas is the portrait of a woman caught in the margins, struggling to balance the demands of technology and modern life with the need to find meaningful relationships and work. Roughly hewn figures, sketched in pencil crayon on brightly contrasting backgrounds, populate the pages of this flowing, emotive work. With Everywhere Antennas , Delporte proves herself a master craftswoman of heartbreakingly personal, beautifully literary graphic fiction.
Julie Delporte's Everywhere Antennas is a deeply affecting, sparely constructed novel, equal parts Walden and The Bell Jar . Told in the first person, it offers diary-like entries from an anonymous narrator who is undergoing a nervous breakdown and struggling to hold together a failing relationship. In soft, flowing colored pencil, Delporte shows her narrator coming to terms with a rare and misunderstood sensitivity to the radiation emitted by the televisions, cell phones, and computers that permeate urban life.
On each page a few words are paired with an image or two, conveying a moment or a thought simply but effectively. Over the course of the book, the anonymous narrator moves from place to place, looking for solutions to her melancholy in the countryside via isolation and in the city with friends, sometimes turning to medication for answers. Throughout, her emotional and intellectual landscape receives as much attention as her physical surroundings.
Everywhere Antennas is the portrait of a woman caught in the margins, struggling to balance the demands of technology and modern life with the need to find meaningful relationships and work. Roughly hewn figures, sketched in pencil crayon on brightly contrasting backgrounds, populate the pages of this flowing, emotive work. With Everywhere Antennas , Delporte proves herself a master craftswoman of heartbreakingly personal, beautifully literary graphic fiction.
112 pages, Paperback
First published May 6, 2014
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535 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 112 reviews
December 4, 2016
This is sort of minimally done, sketching with some colorful watercolor touches, a fictional journal of a young woman who seems to be quite depressed, certainly unstable, though she thinks she has the answer to why she is suffering: Electromagnetic radio waves (transmitted via antennas), based on something she hears on the news. Everything is falling apart for her; her boyfriend helps her get meds for depression, but this relationship not surprisingly is tenuous.
Delporte does the lettering in a kind of flowing cursive, like a journal, working around the visuals, which are not contained in panels, giving things an open feel, Emotions are the center of the project. The effect is of an actual woman journaling her decline. She gets out of the city and things are a bit better for her, she's healed a bit by nature, but she is still in trouble. The effect is personal and maybe more painful because it feels accessible and real, she's communicating with us, it's deliberately unsophisticated to help us get close to this woman and understand her better.
This is my second reading of Everywhere Antennas. When I first read it, more than two years ago, I was relatively new to what I might call art comics, but this fits. I thought it was good and personal and a little affecting, maybe in part because I too was hearing about radio waves, computer and cell phone waves, and what their effect may be on our health, a little bit (though I was and still am typing this on a computer, with my cell phone right here, so I am not SO freaked out by these things. This is a story of a young fragile, sensitive woman and her struggles with the modern urban world. The more I read it, the more I like it, actually.
Delporte does the lettering in a kind of flowing cursive, like a journal, working around the visuals, which are not contained in panels, giving things an open feel, Emotions are the center of the project. The effect is of an actual woman journaling her decline. She gets out of the city and things are a bit better for her, she's healed a bit by nature, but she is still in trouble. The effect is personal and maybe more painful because it feels accessible and real, she's communicating with us, it's deliberately unsophisticated to help us get close to this woman and understand her better.
This is my second reading of Everywhere Antennas. When I first read it, more than two years ago, I was relatively new to what I might call art comics, but this fits. I thought it was good and personal and a little affecting, maybe in part because I too was hearing about radio waves, computer and cell phone waves, and what their effect may be on our health, a little bit (though I was and still am typing this on a computer, with my cell phone right here, so I am not SO freaked out by these things. This is a story of a young fragile, sensitive woman and her struggles with the modern urban world. The more I read it, the more I like it, actually.
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April 11, 2015This is a beautiful, minimal book about a girl suffering from a variety of mental health issues. She's centered it upon being unable to function well in a world of antennas and radioactivity and chooses to live a simple life off-grid. The art is outstanding and dreamy, and the writing translates quite well. This story really resonated with me, but less on the radioactivity sensitivity and more on how the main character -- who is unnamed -- suffers from a really debilitating depression that doesn't lead to suicide but rather to a restless unquiet.
There's also a nice undercurrent here about that space between what you think you want and where it is you have to figure it out what happens when you realize that isn't what you want.
There's also a nice undercurrent here about that space between what you think you want and where it is you have to figure it out what happens when you realize that isn't what you want.
September 24, 2019
I don't usually see graphic novels that are drawn with only colored pencils, so aesthetically, this was wonderful to flip through. With mostly bright colors and sketches of nature & animals, I had a lovely time absorbing the artwork.
The story itself is quite sad, as you are following the narrator through what looks like their mental breakdown. There are talks of her being sensitive to electromagnetic radiation, which was interesting because I've never really heard about that before. She concludes that her only option is to become somewhat of a nomad and either couch surf with friends or live in various cabins in the woods. We get a look into her mental space once she has isolated herself from technological society, and how she's slowly figuring out what her next steps in life might look like.
I don't know if this would be for everyone, but I did think it was an intriguing little read. It made me think more about my own technology usage versus how much time I choose to be "unplugged" so to speak. This was also super fast to get through. It took me about 20 minutes from start to finish, so if you want a quick read this will definitely fit the bill.
The story itself is quite sad, as you are following the narrator through what looks like their mental breakdown. There are talks of her being sensitive to electromagnetic radiation, which was interesting because I've never really heard about that before. She concludes that her only option is to become somewhat of a nomad and either couch surf with friends or live in various cabins in the woods. We get a look into her mental space once she has isolated herself from technological society, and how she's slowly figuring out what her next steps in life might look like.
I don't know if this would be for everyone, but I did think it was an intriguing little read. It made me think more about my own technology usage versus how much time I choose to be "unplugged" so to speak. This was also super fast to get through. It took me about 20 minutes from start to finish, so if you want a quick read this will definitely fit the bill.
August 9, 2022
Very frustrating to read about someone having the same experiences, and then blame it ALL on radio waves... ?
I know these things aren't beneficial to our well-being and could disbalance stuff, but wait a minute! Our lives and bodies are damn complex.
We seem to forget that our body is strong and build to heal itself. Human as we are, we just do everything to test it to its limits. We are fighting cancers every day as a matter of speaking.
So first and foremost, let's check what can be fixed internally before we try to combat the external big stuff.
Still changing, evolving and learning every day but the following things helped ME tremendously :
(everyone is different so take it or leave it as you please)
- Cut the Carbs (including fruit) (they make you fat & old, fuck up your body water management, give you ADD, are addictive, etc.)
- Don't fear Fats
- Sleep the right amount at the right time
- Walk!
- Reduce Chronic Stress (the hardest part for me, but if you do the 4 things above properly, this normally goes down automatically)
And don't take stuff too seriously (including yourself).
7 years ago I couldn't concentrate enough to read even one sentence.
Today I can read à volonté! And because I like it, not because I fancy to be a "bookish person".
Another thing: Exercise can indeed reduce stress, but you can't outrun a bad diet/lifestyle (tried it & failed...)
I know these things aren't beneficial to our well-being and could disbalance stuff, but wait a minute! Our lives and bodies are damn complex.
We seem to forget that our body is strong and build to heal itself. Human as we are, we just do everything to test it to its limits. We are fighting cancers every day as a matter of speaking.
So first and foremost, let's check what can be fixed internally before we try to combat the external big stuff.
Still changing, evolving and learning every day but the following things helped ME tremendously :
(everyone is different so take it or leave it as you please)
- Cut the Carbs (including fruit) (they make you fat & old, fuck up your body water management, give you ADD, are addictive, etc.)
- Don't fear Fats
- Sleep the right amount at the right time
- Walk!
- Reduce Chronic Stress (the hardest part for me, but if you do the 4 things above properly, this normally goes down automatically)
And don't take stuff too seriously (including yourself).
7 years ago I couldn't concentrate enough to read even one sentence.
Today I can read à volonté! And because I like it, not because I fancy to be a "bookish person".
Another thing: Exercise can indeed reduce stress, but you can't outrun a bad diet/lifestyle (tried it & failed...)
December 19, 2015
2.5 stars;
I picked this up randomly at my library and I REALLY wanted to like it, but this graphic novel just fell really flat for me. First and foremost, I found it confusing. Sometimes the author wrote little snippets of her thoughts - like a diary - but the format didn't work for me. The timeline and locations and what exactly was going on (aside from her mental health struggles) came off as really unclear. While I could feel and relate to the main character and her struggles with technology and depression, her other issues were not conveyed well. She writes of a breakup, but we barely know her partner - he was introduced in a sentence, talked about in maybe two or three sentences and pictures and that was it? I didn't really care or connect.
However, I did really enjoy the style of this graphic novel. I loved the colored pencil and how the drawings looked like I was reading directly from Julie Delporte's personal notebook. The minimalist style and the contrast of color and white really worked well. (Sidenote, what was that whole black and white, speaking animal part about? It was very confusing and I felt it didn't fit in at all).
I picked this up randomly at my library and I REALLY wanted to like it, but this graphic novel just fell really flat for me. First and foremost, I found it confusing. Sometimes the author wrote little snippets of her thoughts - like a diary - but the format didn't work for me. The timeline and locations and what exactly was going on (aside from her mental health struggles) came off as really unclear. While I could feel and relate to the main character and her struggles with technology and depression, her other issues were not conveyed well. She writes of a breakup, but we barely know her partner - he was introduced in a sentence, talked about in maybe two or three sentences and pictures and that was it? I didn't really care or connect.
However, I did really enjoy the style of this graphic novel. I loved the colored pencil and how the drawings looked like I was reading directly from Julie Delporte's personal notebook. The minimalist style and the contrast of color and white really worked well. (Sidenote, what was that whole black and white, speaking animal part about? It was very confusing and I felt it didn't fit in at all).
March 13, 2021
Really beautiful, but I didn’t really ~get it~
August 20, 2021
This unique graphic novel follows a young woman suffering from a rare hypersensitivity to electromagnetic radiation – generated by power lines, phones, the internet, and suchlike. Plagued by illness and frustrated by a lack of understanding and belief in her condition, she feels increasingly compelled to seek out ever-rarer “white zones” (remote areas undisturbed by radio waves). But in a society typified by a need for constant connectivity, this isolation will inevitably impact her relationships and career.
In terms of the prose and visuals, the book reads very much like a diary. The loose, fragmented style is sparse on detail and structure, with large jumps of time between certain entries, but it feels raw and unguarded in its expression. This informal, choppy, yet vibrant approach says a lot about our narrator’s mindset despite the book’s brevity.
Offering insight into a rare condition and an excellent depiction of the anxiety and fatigue that can come with modern life, this is at once a window into a specific viewpoint and a sweeping look at the consequences of irreversible urbanisation. It asks us to consider those who, for whatever reason, may be pushed aside in our quest for unchecked technological advancement, and at what cost we should prioritise our own health.
In terms of the prose and visuals, the book reads very much like a diary. The loose, fragmented style is sparse on detail and structure, with large jumps of time between certain entries, but it feels raw and unguarded in its expression. This informal, choppy, yet vibrant approach says a lot about our narrator’s mindset despite the book’s brevity.
Offering insight into a rare condition and an excellent depiction of the anxiety and fatigue that can come with modern life, this is at once a window into a specific viewpoint and a sweeping look at the consequences of irreversible urbanisation. It asks us to consider those who, for whatever reason, may be pushed aside in our quest for unchecked technological advancement, and at what cost we should prioritise our own health.
July 30, 2023
Covering the span of 14months, it’s the visual diary of a woman (24) cartoonist in uni affected by radioactivity sensitivity (the residual electrical/radio signals we are always surrounded by) who moves from France to northern Quebec to heal within and without. Months later, she returns to France still struggling to find purpose and battle loneliness. Within a month, she sees: “I’ll have to leave again. It’s obvious. find a future. A simple life”. She finds herself on a farm for a while, one where the owner refuses to microchip her lambs. “microchips. electromagnetic fields. they’re all part of the burden of modernity we haven’t chosen.” She ends up living a more nomadic life but feeling a bit better, trying to avoid antennae, and looking forward to the day when she can find one lance and “find a life for myself.” A unique graphic novel, well-draw, that leaves as much of a haunting residual malaise - etched with the potential for hope - as the electromagnetism surrounding us should.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 5, 2019
The somewhat simplistic color pencil work in this slim work has a disarming charm to it. Delporte's main character is caught in a kind of depressive loop that the doctors seem to be diagnosing in reverse (not realizing it's her recurring headaches making her depressed). Is it the modern age as cause? Is she one of those unlucky few who are allergic to the radio waves most of us blindly waltz through every day? Believing in one's own sanity may be the biggest effort of all when confronted with chronic, undiagnosed illness. These days, there are far too many people who will identify with a story like this..
May 26, 2019
I don’t know how she captures such depth of feeling in the sparest of writing, and drawing. Her art is completely unfussy. She is able to convey
e v e r y t h I n g with only a few hand written words and colorful lines and splotches. I am in love with her books.
I wish I could read French as many of her stories are not translated. I hope that changes. I may buy them anyway because they are precious, beautiful.
e v e r y t h I n g with only a few hand written words and colorful lines and splotches. I am in love with her books.
I wish I could read French as many of her stories are not translated. I hope that changes. I may buy them anyway because they are precious, beautiful.
May 15, 2018
lovely & charming
September 15, 2020
Soome raamatukogus on mitu koomiksiriiulit!
May 12, 2021
La manière de manier le crayon de Julie Delporte m’a toujours ému et su remuer quelques choses en dedans de moi. Encore une fois, j’ai adoré.
November 24, 2021
exactement ce que j’avais besoin de lire en ce moment - ça m’a vraiment touché et les dessins de Delporte sont toujours si belle, ça m’inspire d’aller faire du dessin au plus vite
January 26, 2022
makes me want to grab my color pencils and just walk to the nearest patch of grass and draw
April 28, 2025
A minimal solitude quiet book that should be read in one sitting. I picked this up after enjoying her other graphic memoir, this women’s work, but didn’t enjoy it anywhere near as much. The graphic novel consist of a small glimpse into a short period of the authors life seen through diary entries and coloured pencil drawings. Not horrible but don’t expect much.
September 25, 2025
Très paisible comme roman graphique, de super belles illustrations de nature avec de belles réflexions.
April 29, 2020
Beautiful art that lends itself to the quietly meandering prose accompanying it. In this book, a young woman struggles with sensitivity to the electromagnetic pulses that surround her in modern daily life. Perhaps this sensitivity is a metaphor for her depression, perhaps it stands alone.
March 5, 2023
Un phénomène de plus en plus documenté qui mérite d'être abordé.
J'avais mal en même temps que le personnage principal. Elle a su trouver les mots et les dessins pour me toucher.
J'avais mal en même temps que le personnage principal. Elle a su trouver les mots et les dessins pour me toucher.
March 13, 2015
Very minimalist but brightly coloured in coloured pencil (aside for one section done in just regular pencil). The narrator is not feeling at all well and comes to decide that it's because she is sensitive to electrical fields. She spends time in the natural world but separated from others and the only way to keep in touch is to use said fields.
It's told in diary form and certainly makes you appreciate and hate isolation at varying points. I'm not sure how I feel about the whole electromagnetic sensitivity thing (I really haven't heard anything one way or the other about it) so that at least made it an interesting read. I really enjoyed the art a lot more, however.
It's told in diary form and certainly makes you appreciate and hate isolation at varying points. I'm not sure how I feel about the whole electromagnetic sensitivity thing (I really haven't heard anything one way or the other about it) so that at least made it an interesting read. I really enjoyed the art a lot more, however.
March 26, 2021
If anything, Everywhere Antennas is even more striking than Delporte's first book, Journal (2013, Koyama Press). Her gorgeous colored pencil drawings are a constant aesthetic delight, and I love that she allows her taped over patches and corrections to be visible to the reader, adding an organic, lived-in feel to the pages. Bonus: my review of her last book is blurbed on the back cover, so the publisher has good taste in blurbs as well as authors.
July 22, 2016
I fell in love with this book, those pencil illustrations and the story. It kind of sticked with me.
For more :
http://patriciavpicard.wix.com/lesbel...
For more :
http://patriciavpicard.wix.com/lesbel...
June 30, 2014
Beautiful. Loved it. Couldn't put it down.
October 4, 2014
Such a beautiful, aesthetically honest (one commenter wrote "guileless") book. Gentle, with artwork that knows the page effortlessly. I look forward to any other work by Julie Delporte.
September 29, 2017
Quiet vignettes drawn in pencil crayon.
August 28, 2023
3.5
Delporte was accutely aware of feelings and how to draw them. The colored pencil art and writing (and taped in collages) gave this book a soft, almost gentle vibe. It felt sensitive to the touch--which I think was purposeful. It was sometimes hard to follow events or characters but maybe that was purposeful too. The format of diary entries created the confusion, but it was accurate to the reality of journals. We rarely mark every day and very few of us introduce characters or places the way fiction does. We don't need to tell ourselves who so-and-so is or how they entered our lives. They just are. In writing this review, I rethought how the format worked with the disconnect between the narrator and reality.
There's a very real feeling of burnout on the pages that I can relate to (and probably many other readers) and the desire to go somewhere where you cannot be found. To live on the land, with the animals, drawing and avoiding all gadgets. This book is even dated in how intrusive phones have become. Back in 2014, I used my phone and laptop often, but it felt less demanding. Today, I'm constantly exhausted by my phone. I find myself leaving messages unopened for days until I gather the energy to continue the conversation. I will start routines on apps then get out of sync, then overthink and become frustrated with said routine and the constant reminder I'm behind on it. I don't know how to disconnect from it. That being said, I have the privilege not to need to: this being the primary issue for the narrator of the book.
Technology can be salvation but it can also be a cage that we never entered, but was instead dropped upon us all. We have watched the cage be built around us and only now that it's closed do we feel the need to escape. I am so tired of being available.
Delporte was accutely aware of feelings and how to draw them. The colored pencil art and writing (and taped in collages) gave this book a soft, almost gentle vibe. It felt sensitive to the touch--which I think was purposeful. It was sometimes hard to follow events or characters but maybe that was purposeful too. The format of diary entries created the confusion, but it was accurate to the reality of journals. We rarely mark every day and very few of us introduce characters or places the way fiction does. We don't need to tell ourselves who so-and-so is or how they entered our lives. They just are. In writing this review, I rethought how the format worked with the disconnect between the narrator and reality.
There's a very real feeling of burnout on the pages that I can relate to (and probably many other readers) and the desire to go somewhere where you cannot be found. To live on the land, with the animals, drawing and avoiding all gadgets. This book is even dated in how intrusive phones have become. Back in 2014, I used my phone and laptop often, but it felt less demanding. Today, I'm constantly exhausted by my phone. I find myself leaving messages unopened for days until I gather the energy to continue the conversation. I will start routines on apps then get out of sync, then overthink and become frustrated with said routine and the constant reminder I'm behind on it. I don't know how to disconnect from it. That being said, I have the privilege not to need to: this being the primary issue for the narrator of the book.
Technology can be salvation but it can also be a cage that we never entered, but was instead dropped upon us all. We have watched the cage be built around us and only now that it's closed do we feel the need to escape. I am so tired of being available.
April 16, 2020
I love Delporte's deft, emotive drawings. She uses a mixture of coloured pencil and collage to create little vignettes on the small, often overlooked moments in life. Echoing that, this book is about concentrating on the here and now, and appreciating the beauty in small things. Similar in theme and tone to her more recent graphic novel, This Woman's Work, this short comic has a strong emotional arc, but no real plot. The unnamed narrator is suffering from headaches and unexplained pain, and comes to the conclusion that she is suffering because she's exposed to too much radiation due to technology. She travels into nature and works on farms to be free ftom the modern world. But it's not a preachy book, or a book that imposes a particular narrative on how we should engage with the world: it's a subtle story about a gradual self-reliasation. I really enjoyed it: I sink into Delporte's artwork, and I find her minimal text and use of colour to be emotionally satisfying and moving. It doesn't have quite as much depth as This Woman's Work, but I still found it very compelling.
August 4, 2022
I thought this was going to be a different type of graphic novel. Instead, it reminded me of a less wordy Bechdel or a travelogue of hiking or being in the outdoors. This is a novel of connections and missed connections and disconnections.
I'm left with the feeling that the narrator is more disconnected with themselves but still searching. I guess this doesn't have to be about sensitivity to electrical waves and that could be seen as a convenient metaphor for modernity.
In some ways, I think that we all have to grapple with the way modern life strives to keep us apart. There are hints on how simpler living also keeps us from connecting in some ways. I don't think there is an easy answer for loneliness or the lack of connection.
I'm left with the feeling that the narrator is more disconnected with themselves but still searching. I guess this doesn't have to be about sensitivity to electrical waves and that could be seen as a convenient metaphor for modernity.
In some ways, I think that we all have to grapple with the way modern life strives to keep us apart. There are hints on how simpler living also keeps us from connecting in some ways. I don't think there is an easy answer for loneliness or the lack of connection.
January 11, 2020
I almost quit reading this book halfway through. While I enjoyed the illustration throughout, I was having a hard time weaving all the moments in the story together. It's written in a sporatic diary style. But once I dropped my expectations on how a story should be constructed I began to appreciate the fleeting nature of each entry. They were written like unfinished thoughts, which we all experience. It was more a collection of themed moments and emotions. With awesome illustration on colored pencil. I don't see that used as a medium in a lot of print books and I really appreciated it.
September 7, 2022
"Microchips. Electromagnetic fields. They're all part of the burden of a modernity we haven't chosen."
The artwork and the colors are beautiful. And while it is about someone who believes she is sensitive to electromagnetic radiation, what it's really about is the oppressive nature of technology in our modern world. And keep in mind, this story takes place twelve years ago. Things have only gotten worse since. The protagonist seeks a life of simplicity and separation from a modernity that makes her physically ill.
The artwork and the colors are beautiful. And while it is about someone who believes she is sensitive to electromagnetic radiation, what it's really about is the oppressive nature of technology in our modern world. And keep in mind, this story takes place twelve years ago. Things have only gotten worse since. The protagonist seeks a life of simplicity and separation from a modernity that makes her physically ill.
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