Comfortless

by Miguel Vila

Dall’autore di Padovaland e Fiordilatte l’ultimo capitolo della trilogia del Nordest, affresco catastrofico di una umanità alla deriva dove ritrovare squarci della nostra quotidianità. Un nuovo racconto corale in cui le paure e gli egoismi tracciano una mappa impietosa del vuoto dei nostri tempi.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Italy, Fiction

Hardcover

First published October 13, 2023

About the author

Miguel Vila is an Italian cartoonist, born in Padova in 1993. His first book Padovaland (2020, Canicola) won the Cecchetto prize for Breakthrough Artist (“Artista rivelazione”) at the Treviso Comic Book Festival and the Gran Guinigi Award for Best New Artist (“Miglior esordiente”) at Lucca Comics. The following year, his second graphic novel Fiordilatte (Canicola, 2021) - translated as Milky Way by Fantagraphics Books - received the Micheluzzi Award for Best Comics at Lucca. Third in his 'trilogy of the North-East' is Confortless (Canicola, 2023). He has also released Fortezza volante (Minimun Fax, 2023), written by Lorenzo Palloni. Vila's books have been published in France, Spain, Finland and the US.

Reviews

[Javier RC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Desasosiego, mezquindad moral y apocalipsis. Vila es definitivamente el Todd Solondz del cómic 🔝 🔝

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tutti i traumi sociali dal 2020 al 2023 rivissuti.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Fantagraphics Books for the digital ARC for review.

This unfortunately was not for me. I was confused through most of the stories. Every single character was insufferable and I understand that may possibly be the point (I honestly don’t know) but I need SOMEONE to root for.

I would say give it a chance if the premise interests you, as I’ve seen others really enjoy this, it just unfortunately doesn’t work for me.

[Sole]

Es buenísimo, pero quizás no era el mejor momento para leerlo.

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terzo libro della trilogia sul nord est. Più politico dei precedenti e sempre carico di quella capacità propria dell’autore di ingrandire narrativamente le meschine e morbose grettezze dell’animo umano che popola la provincia.
In questo volume, a mio gusto, la frantumazione stilistica delle tavole risulta esagerata e fa pensare che sia funzionale alla velocità di consegna della bozza all’editore. Miguel Vila è un disegnatore eccezionale e vale la pena che si prenda il tempo per realizzare tavole ampie.

[☽｡⋆ Shells (jlreads_) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comfortless reflects humanity's actions during the wave pandemic (covid) and really shows the nature– certain attitudes and perhaps an akin to spiralling because of the mandatory isolation. Not only that, it also did reflect the side effects, such as the sense of detachment from the usual norms, let alone the fear of the pandemic, hence the instinct or the desire to be let out, the anxiousness of the situation those times did put the people. It made me remember how ugly those times are and felt like it wasn't real or like an illusion if I think about it sometimes because the world did not just have a year or 2 mandatory lockdown.

Overall, this was a type of good, comfortless read reminiscing the covid pandemic. Thank you, Fantagraphics Books, for the copy via Netgalley. 3⭐️.

[Davide Bianchera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miguel Vila riesce a raccontare il disagio, le periferie, la quotidianità, ma soprattutto i nostri giorni, come solo pochi sanno fare.

[Chiarona · Rating 4 out of 5]

molto meno "difficile" di Fiordilatte, una serie di storie che si intrecciano nel tema delle restrizioni, dal Covid all'esplosione nucleare, della fuga, della repressione interiore; molto bello avere di nuovo i personaggi del libro precedente!

[Brittany · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Thanks to NetGalley and Fantagraphics for early copy for review*

This translated from Italian graphic novel is set during the pandemic. It is a realistic character study of different perspectives during that time. A lot of the characters are not likable and the art is not to my taste, but it has a highly realistic cartoon style. I recommend to those who like slice of life or want the reminder of dealing with mask.

[Carlos Giacomelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Implacable. A partir de los tiempos de la Covid, Vila se marca una distopía (muy) cercana que a su vez abraza el costumbrismo italiano. A partir de aquí, historias cruzadas (alguien por ahí menciona a Solondz, muy acertadamente en mi opinión) que sacan a relucir las carencias de la sociedad en situaciones de pandemia o crisis colectivas en general. Pero también reflexiona desde diversos enfoques, y habla sobre la resiliencia del ser humano... todo ello con un estilo visual abrumador. Genial.

[E Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

Étrange et déstabilisante, cette BD va chercher dans les détails de la médiocrité humaine à travers les grands événements historiques qu'ont été la pandémie de COVID et les catastrophes nucléaires. Je crois que l'auteur arrive assez bien à créer l'ambiance souhaitée mais je suis parfois passé un peu à côté.

[Mongeta Verda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3½⭐️ em va agradar més Dulce de leche

sobre la pandèmia, el canvi climàtic i altres catàstrofes de la humanitat

molt fan de la seva formar de narrar visualment a lo chris ware

[Gabrielle Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

*3.5* art was great, concept was good, writing was not so good (but I rounded up in case something was lost in the translation, but I think that’s unlikely and the writing is just not so good).

[Ser Togni · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Questo libro non pretende in alcun modo di fare divulgazione scientifica"
Con questo libro Miguel Vila espande le tematiche con cui avvicinarsi pruriginosamente al lettore, a questo giro partendo sempre dalla provincia veneta, allargandosi alla cronaca degli ultimi 4 anni e sfiorando l'ucronia. La prurigine di cui parla quindi si è fatta universale e (forse proprio perché parla di quello con cui tutti ultimamente ci siamo dovuti confrontare) si tratta del suo libro che mi ha trascinato di più. Comfortless è una tassonomia delle maschere con cui facciamo finta di convivere con le minacce sovrumane che assillano le nostre vite, un'analisi delle sfumature di paura, ipocondria, catarsi e resa.

[Emi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Publishing date: 11.11.2025 (DD/MM/YYYY)
Thank you to Fantagraphics Books for the ARC. My opinions are my own.

Covid is a few years behind us now, and seeing how people remember it and telling their stories (fictional and real) is very interesting to me. I will add this onto my pile of "Surprise, it's about covid". Yes I read the blurb, somehow I didn't realise.

I found the artstyle of this graphic novel really ... novel. The characters fetkt human. They were flawed, they were both sharp and soft, their emotions came across really well from the page, and the colors were really pleasing to my eyes. I know these realistic novels aren't to everybody's taste, but I really enjoyed it.

The story itself is another matter. I get the nuke/covid comparison, that's how it felt at the time, but the novel didn't really use the nuke to it's full potential. I showed up here and there, then we went to another part of the story, and it disappeared again. The timelines somehow wrap up yes, but the bomb wasn't as present as I would like it to be. The stories themselves were also just fine. I didn't dislike or like them, and some went by unresolved.

Covid is in the spotlight here, just a warning to those who still find this a very sore subject.

This graphic novel will be really hit or miss I feel. For me it was just another thing I have read. I feel no certain way about it. 3 stars.

[Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

i spent some time reading low star reviews of this book that said stuff like “uncomfortable to read!” “why would i want to read a story about an unpleasant time??”
idiotic take lmao. read the title guys. hope these morons never watch a movie about war or something.
this book has expert pacing, realistic dialogue, inspired paneling, beautiful colors, and just phenomenal drawing.
it’s paced oddly at first, in these tight 3-10 page vignettes where sometimes the relevance of the story is vague- but villa links all the stories together in these tiny throwaway lines between other characters- we see a full scene that feels irrelevant, so that we can hear other tertiary related characters gossip about it later, linking every story to the next.
the characters know each other, or at least know of each other. there’s usually only a 1 or 2 person degree of separation between characters.
it’s the point of the book, right? how community fractures, in a world changing event. linking these characters, even by a tiny thread, illustrates the point of the book. community crumbling, friendships straining.
it’s sometimes mean spirited, some characters are flawed, some selfish, some downright cruel, sometimes it reads as a horror novel, the last act definetely did.
anyway,
yeah an uncomfortable read, a frustrating read, lowkey triggering read, and one of the best comics i’ve read in a while.

[Frankkie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an aptly titled book - I picked it up because I wanted to feel uncomfortable. Vila’s raw, distorted realism works well here, especially in how the characters are drawn: exposed, warped, and deeply human in unflattering ways.

I wasn’t sure I was ready for a graphic novel set during COVID. It’s been several years since we were in lockdown, but it still feels like there’s a fresh scab over that wound. Vila leans into that discomfort, focusing on the selfish and grotesque sides of people and how far many will go to avoid inconvenience. These characters made me angry, disgusted, and sad.

I liked the bomb imagery and the comparison between nuclear fallout and our reaction to COVID. It asks that if the danger isn’t visible or immediate, does that make it safe? And if it looked more like radiation than a virus, would people behave differently? Vila suggests many wouldn’t, comfort would still come first.

I didn’t rate this higher because I was left with a lot of questions, and some threads felt incomplete. Still, I appreciated how the stories are woven together and how intentionally uneasy the book feels throughout.

(3.25 stars rounded down)

I received this book as an eARC.

[Anne Shirley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Miguel Vila’s Comfortless is a graphic novel that dares to examine the flinty edges of modern life — isolation, vanity, fear — through the lens of a disjointed, multi-character tapestry. Set in the Venetian province, the book stitches together the stories of young adults navigating the fallout of the pandemic, climate anxiety, and their own inner catastrophes. It is, in many ways, a bleak fresco of a humanity adrift, but it’s also ambitious and deeply honest.

Vila’s talent for documenting the moral vacuum of provincial life is undeniable. The artistic execution, however, is a double-edged sword. Vila employs a highly fragmented, realistic cartoon style, using complex panel arrangements and integrated visual shapes to create a sense of discomfort which becomes too pointy at times and difficult to follow through.

It ultimately leaves the reader feeling precisely what the title promises: profoundly, deliberately comfortless.

[Federica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this graphic novel from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.
I was already familiar with the author of this graphic novel, albeit only by reputation, from his two previous volumes, so I was very happy to have the opportunity to read this one. I was very impressed, both in terms of the construction of the story and the characters, and the skill of the illustrations, which I found very beautiful. It was a little strange, and even alienating at first, to see the moments of the pandemic in Italy recounted with all their anxieties and bureaucracy which, despite having experienced them first-hand, I realised I had forgotten while reading. The extreme metaphor of the pandemic continuing into nuclear war helps to express even better that sense of imminent and absolute catastrophe that was present in the early stages of lockdown (and still exists today on various fronts). Highly recommended reading.

[Theediscerning · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book from the "hey, wasn't lockdown a bit shit?" genre, which is about as edifying as all the rest. I enjoyed bits – the escalation of warfare between a woman and a neighbourhood jogger, and some of the goings-on between some of the other characters – but the spare mood of it all, with lots of silent, fragmentary images alongside the main narrative ones, and the way it kind of apologetically proves to be linked stories concerning a smaller bunch of characters than first assumed, weren't fully to my taste. Plus there's the whole reading-about-coronasniffles aspect, which I've never once actually enjoyed. After which, we get the whole reading-about-nuclear-fallout aspect, which – with its fragmented text conversations, again something I never appreciate reading – seemed a bit too off-kilter, even for what had gone before. Just not my thing – a grudging two and a half stars.

[ArianeDeTroil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un mantra durante el COVID fue "De esta saldremos mejores". No era cuestión de discutirlo porque una no tiene necesidad de ser ceniza y andar rompiéndole al resto el clavo ardiendo al que cada cual se agarra para soportar el día a día, pero era evidente que saldríamos tan absolutamente iguales como siempre.
Con su personalísimo y caústico estilo, Miguel Vila recoge en este tomo una serie de historias a medio camino entre lo cotidiano y lo sórdido en la misma línea que su anterior "Dulce de leche". Se trata de capítulos que arrancan en los inicios de la pandemia y que, aunque pueden leerse por separado, presentan un cierto hilo conductor a través de relaciones personales entre sus personajes.
Merece mucho la pena conocer a este estupendo autor italiano.

[Relena_reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the one hand, this comic did transport me back to the COVID pandemic lockdown feeling very effectively and the layout choices were really interesting. On the other hand, this friend group is a bunch of petty and immature adults--predating the lockdown--and I’m not that upset by the comeuppances that happen to them. I kept reading because I really liked Vila’s use of unique shapes and integrated panel design, but I wasn’t invested in the story by the time we moved from COVID to the completely fictional tragedy at the end. I am glad that I’ve been to Italy, though, or the depictions of the city during lockdown wouldn’t have made nearly as much sense.

Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC.

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for the free ARC!

This was my first time reading a graphic novel from another country that was translated into English. I did not like it at all. I am not a fan of the layout of many of the pages which included very small boxes-- too much on a page. There were other pages that included small pictures, either in boxes or circles and it was hard to decipher what they were supposed to represent. I did not understand the structure of the graphic novel. I could not follow some of the storylines and I had no idea if the individual stories were supposed to relate to each other. The story lines were all very heavy-- COVID, catastrophic effects from nuclear radiation, faking a pregancy, isolation. There were random depictions

I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS BOOK!

[Grouaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

les dessins sont vraiment superbes, bien dérangeants comme les personnages, le sujet. Tout est très malaisant et ça a un coté agréable. Ces jeunes italien·ne·s qui subissent le covid et qui sont ultra stressé·e·s/ ou pas et puis qui reçoivent une bombe nucléaire et qui ne changent globalement pas leur quotidien/ou si. ça représente assez bien ce qu'il s'est passé pendant la grosse période covid.
J'ai juste pas trop aimé la constructions des chapitres et j'avais du mal à reconnaitre qui était qui au fil des chapitres. Je n'ai pas compris la masse rouge qui apparaissait quand le personnage qui avait acheté des petits biscuits pour le petit dej apparassait. Il saigne du cul? Il regarde le soleil?

[Ije the Devourer of Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn’t for me. I thought the way it explored the pandemic was interesting but the artwork and format made it hard to distinguish between the characters and that slowed my reading down. That might actually be what was intended but it made the stories hard to follow. Some of the characters were unpleasant but that’s life. I had a truly unpleasant boss for two years and he would have fit into this story quite nicely. Sometimes life leads us to toxic people and the author captures the reality of that. I actually enjoyed exploring characters I couldn’t warm to but the artwork wasn’t a strong favourite of mine.

Copy provided via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Gina de Tera · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Comfortless” situa a un grup d’amics i coneguts a les portes del confinament pel COVID. Confesso que això em va fer molta mandra (tot el que és pandèmia fa mandra). A partir d’aquest moment hi ha tota una sèrie de situacions des del canvi climàtic a la violència digital, passant pel terrorisme o les relacions tòxiques, que permeten a Vila fer un retrat de la mediocritat humana (i del cunyadisme).

Gràficament m’ha agradat moltíssim! Hi ha un contrast molt fort entre els personatges, tots amb una estètica lletgista i, en algun moment anguniosa, i la els fons nets, minimalistes, plans.

[Kitsu · Rating 4 out of 5]

El talento absoluto de Miguel Vila para dibujar a las personas más horribles. Este cómic me lo ha hecho pasar bastante mal, pero me quito el sombrero ante su habilidad de hacer cretinos y la forma tan chula de componer la página.
¿Me ha gustado leerlo? No lo sé, se me hace quizás muy cínico. ¿Es un cómic exitoso en todo lo que se propone? Completamente.

[Adri Holt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Covid completely dismantled our world as we knew it. There is no going back from the pandemic that started in 2020. Many were ill, isolated, depressed, and of course, many died. An in-depth look in to how one particular province, group of people, and their decisions involving this deadly virus in its duration.

#ThxNetGalley #MiguelVila #Comfortless

[Curious Madra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thanks Netgalley and publisher for the free graphic novel.

At first I thought it was gonna be deep as it does really show hard topics like COVID, breakups, etc but the art is pretty ugly and the characters are unlikeable which made the whole thing boring to look at….

[Luca V · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nordest meets Don De Lillo