All the Cameras in My Room

by Michael DeForge, Tom Devlin (Editor)

Razor-sharp short stories from the greatest contemporary comics stylist

Michael DeForge has been dissecting the comics visual language for more than a decade and continues his creative winning streak with his tenth book for D&Q and second collection of short stories, All the Cameras in My Room.

The prolific cartoonist’s hilarious and horny approach to comics fiction never disappoints. In “Figure Skating,” a star athlete’s impossible feats captivate the world, turning a simple skater’s rotation into a catalyst for national paralysis. While in “Holiday Special,” a narrator tells us about his favorite Christian holiday special that bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain bald-headed-boy-and-his-dog classic. No matter the conceit, characters in All the Cameras in My Room stretch and flatten and spiral around each other and burrow deep into the folds of a reader’s brain.

Deforge’s stories break down how we consume pop culture, interrogate our relationship to star power and recontextualize our nostalgia into a shared mythology, cementing his place as the most consistent and beguiling cartoonist working today.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Short Stories

200 pages, Hardcover

Published April 21, 2026

About the author

Michael DeForge lives in Toronto, Ontario. His comics and illustrations have been featured in Jacobin, The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Believer, The Walrus and Maisonneuve Magazine. He worked as a designer on Adventure Time for six seasons. His published books include Very Casual, A Body Beneath, Ant Colony, First Year Healthy, Dressing, Big Kids, Sticks Angelica, Folk Hero and A Western World.

Reviews

[Vartika · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Michael DeForge's full-length graphic novels, but this collection of short stories – his second – didn't quite have the bite of Holy Lacrimony or Familiar Face for me. That being said, DeForge's tongue-in-cheek commentary on mass culture, surveillance and performance is still second to none. I liked "Bugged", " Boy Band", "Larry Seedyseed" and "The Organizer" a lot, and wish I had liked "Holiday Special" and "Librarian Simulator" more. The fold-out opener "The Spins" – which I read as a commentary on the likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos disguised as a parable about a figure skater names Jess Axels– is the collection's unmistakable crowning glory, a gentle reminder of the wry skill DeForge is known for (I also love that Drawn & Quarterly actually secured a blurb from an Olympic ice dancer for it). Good stuff, even if it's not the best stuff.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael DeForge has been getting a lot of press lately as a wunderkind of the comics scene, and a profile of All the Cameras in My Room in the New York Times got me interested in this book specifically.

DeForge has a loose and almost liquid visual style that is quite different than those of his contemporaries, who often show clear influences from the Marvel Comics tradition and especially from the Japanese manga tradition. So it is rewarding to discover a comics creator who is doing something uniquely his own. The several short stories that make up this collection are unabashedly not for children (depictions of masturbation are something of a core DeForge device), and that combination of dreamy visuals and earthy storylines generally works quite well.

On the down side, several of the stories in this collection are pretty forgettable, despite DeForge's undeniable talents. But then there's "Holiday Special", a twisted homage to the several animated children's specials that have become seasonal staples over the years, with "A Charlie Brown Christmas" being the most direct reference. In DeForge's re-working, the show is called "The Etty and Lou Holiday Special", which is notorious for "its infamously morbid second act, the source of decades of children's nightmares." Short version: Lou (a cat) goes to hell and encounters Stygian versions of other characters from the show.

This could have been simply a warped nod to those familiar TV specials of yesteryear, but DeForge takes things further, and his "Holiday Special" explores the lingering effects of those "decades of children's nightmares", which go in some unexpected directions. It's completely bonkers, but DeForge has such complete authorial control that he makes it work wonderfully, and this story alone makes All the Cameras in My Room into something worth reading.

[Luke Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd already read like 90% of these stories from MD's Patreon, but I'm glad I own them in a physical collection now :)))) Great stuff as always !!

[Lindy Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

yay:
- a little fucked up and weird
- some of them were funny or interesting

nay:
- i’m not sure if this is a far side comic type thing where the humor or commentary is just the absurdity of it or if i’m missing actual content beyond the surface (some of them i think i can gather but idk what i’m supposed to take away from holiday special outside of “haha weird”)

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I actually like the pacing and range that's made possible in DeForge's longer works vs this collection of shorts. It's hard not to delight in how bonkers these stories are: a customer service rep who takes "service" to the next level, a computer game where you become a librarian, a tale about Universal Studio monsters, a riff on the Peanuts holiday TV special, a story set at the Midieval Times chain, a character who helps reforestation by spreading his seed in the woods... When I started writing this review, I actually thought I was going to rate it a little lower (mainly because I think the subdued mood from the final, somewhat longer story was stuck in my head), but looking back through these reminded me of how funny, horny, and offbeat this collection is. Just trying to describe it feels delightfully ridiculous.
DeForge ahead, friends!

[Comix 4 All · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Comics Librarian, I’m always excited to recommend books that expand what comics can do, and All the Cameras in My Room by Michael DeForge is a great example. This collection of razor-sharp short stories shows off DeForge’s remarkable ability to bend comics form into something playful, unsettling, and deeply original. With full-color artwork and a strong sense of visual experimentation, it’s an excellent choice for readers who enjoy indie comics, graphic novels that challenge expectations, and stories that stay with you after the last page.

[Alicia Zavala · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe the horniest collection after lacrimony which was sullen in a far away sort of horny that was more tender than unabashed. Library Simulator is my actual literal job and I think that was my second favorite strip after this call is being monitored. I enjoyed the differing illustrative styles for each story, like a new world to wade through. I never finished the birds but this felt really new and exciting like when I found Lose #6 in a Eugene used bookstore in 2017.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun collection of short comics. Pretty dark themes overall. I especially liked these stories: Christmas Special (a traumatizing Charlie Brown alternative) and Library simulator (game concept based on being a librarian, sorting books, fun UIs).

[mari · Rating 5 out of 5]

michael deforge, you have such a fun mind. i’m so glad you share it.

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Micheal DeForge never fails to deliver! Clever, witty, always hilarious and absurd, and even erotic. A mirror reflecting back at us what we are often afraid to look at or talk about in our world. The narratives makes us question what it's like to live with surveillance, parasocial relationships, mistrust, nostalgia, and mortality. What a trip!

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5, rounded up.

A mixed bag, comprised of 15 shorter works, rather than the longer ones DeForge has been doing lately. SOME of these are great, amongst his best work - others are either too short to make much impact, or meander or peter out halfway - the final story 'The Facilitator', which is a quarter of the whole, being the most egregious offender.

[Charles Sanford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is so exactly my shit

[Chris Brook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Also finished last week but never logged. My seventh DeForge. Actually liked this a smidge more than others he's done because it's a bit of an anthology of sorts, lots of far out, disconnected stories. Made it a bit easier to jump in fresh with each one. If I could give half stars I'd probably go 3.5 for this one.

[Brittany Hudson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps the strangest thing I’ve read. I’m not sure I followed or understood the point of most of the stories…but maybe that was the point?

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

All the Cameras in my Room (April 20206) by Michael DeForge might be something like the twentieth book--including early, short-form books of all kinds--I have read from this incredibly prolific Canadian artist, almost all of which I have rated four or five stars. Is there anything really new here to merit four or five stars? Not really. But is there anything here to indicate it is not inventive, interesting, weird, and insightful? Not really! It's a collection of shorts. He remains a kind of icon of a certain kind of alt digital surrealist comix.

I love that cover and color and that title, which points drolly to one central theme of some of the stories, The Surveillance State we now live in. Eerie, scary of course, but engaging. Other themes are queer desire, the digital landscape, things he has done before. I always have in mind as I read that DeForge worked as a designer for six years at Adventure Time Comics, so I always see the continuation of a youthful playfulness going through it all. And smart-ass humor, and political satire. Then there's this little stapled pamphlet with a weird story in it you can find in an envelope inside the front cover! That's born of youthful playfulness, too, of course. Though don't let me mislead you, if you are buying Komics for Kiddies, I don't think so. Naught bits abound. But it has the energy of a kid in it.

*Bugged is a surveillance one, where all the tech in our hands and ears and eyes is shaping our lives by recording, analyzing and finding new things for us to be interested in through elaborate algorithms. But I already knew all that, you say? True, but it needs saying and playfully and he is the man to do it.

*This Call is Being Monitored is about a bored phone co. guy and his sexual fantasies as he does this boring job of trying to get your money from you. Dark adult humor?

*All the Cameras in my Apartment is a two-pager about just that, how we are being surveilled constantly through electronics, see above.

*Holiday Special may be DeForge smiling at Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang and all their holiday specials, as he does his own snarkily funny alt-version with nightmares, dragons ghosts and so on.

*Universal Studios Monsters is fun and weird and tied amusingly to (lightly! not graphically!) playing around with sexual fantasies re: monsters.

*Medieval Times is about a guy working at a restaurant chain named this. So, there's knights and jousting, and so on.

* Larry SeedySeed is repopulating (or thinks he is repopulating?) the planet somehow with his, uh, . . . seed. A satire on a very sculpted male body-type guy--with ridiculous abs. I think it is about how our self-image may be deeply (and again, weirdly) related to our view of (or non-prioritizing of) the environment. Silly self-absorption.

*The Organizer is a kinda noir Dracula zombie ninja? office organizational story--I know! What on Earth?!--the longest and most elaborate and most original. This may seem like a weird comment, but the genre-bending here reminds me of Jason's work, as he draws on things like horror stories or the Three Musketeers to have fun.

DeForge is rarely warm and cuddly and never just cute. He's insightful and smart and funny. I think many people may be put off by his cynicism and snark and cold surrealistic visions, but not me, I guess. I seem to keep reading him, as he is never boring, and there's all this endless invention, sci-fi, fantasy, whatever comes into his head. Though I never seem to list him as one of my favorite artists, I admire him for his energy and boundless creative spirit.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Michael DeForge's latest collection of short comics, diverse in tone, form, and scope. (One comic is even a little stapled zine tucked into a pocket on the cover) Nevertheless, there is a theme of cynical state surveillance across a number of the comics here.

The final story, "The Organizer," is the most substantial in the collection. Graphically subdued from the whimsy of most of the other comics here, it has a bit of Charles Burns to it, delivering the tortured nihilism of a 3-letter agency infiltrator navigating left-wing militant groups.

My favorite comics graphically were "Universal Studios Monsters," "Non-Profit," and "Medieval Times," all of which let DeForge experiment with expressionist anatomy pushed to the extremes, with horny monster-fucking, cat-motorcycle hybrids, and Medieval-Times-but-Dark-Souls, respectively.

Even the shorter, stupider stories here mostly have some bittersweet element that really lingers with you. Michael DeForge's sense of humor is so informed by his commitment to left-wing radical politics, both in the big picture way those ideas shape one's outlook on life and the many obnoxious details of actually navigating those communities.

[Estibaliz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately (for me), this is more 'Holy Lacrimony' than 'Birds of Maine'.

Fortunately enough, there was enough humanity, and even some hints of endearment, to make it at least stand out from the crowd, and be over average.

DeForge's art surely is distinct enough, and in this volume we get a good sample of his different styles, especially when it comes to color palette.

Of course, as it is the case in any anthology, which is what this volume is, the quality of the stories is not uniform.

But I just have to give some extra credit for that bonus story in mini-zine format, 'The Spins', feature as a detached add-on inside a little pocket in the inner cover. Crossing my fingers so another library patron doesn't decide to keep it, because it is one of the best stories.

3.25

[moxie · Rating 5 out of 5]

just in time for pride month <3 michael deforge's stories are funny, sad, hot; they capture the anxieties in relationships, jobs, activism, society. his grotesque art style and absurd premises speak to the anxieties, or euphorias, of body transformations. my favs here are Universal Studios Monsters and Medieval Times :)

[Willow Gelphman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn!! didn’t expect him to be so solid at short stories. Feels true to his other work, the freaky, kinky, funny, and political in equal parts, but also hits those points in new and satisfying ways. Can’t possibly pick a favorite but special s/o to “universal studio monsters” for being all those things AND having incredible character design & artwork

[August Driussi · Rating 4 out of 5]

DeForge has done it again! This collection of short stories exploring the contemporary artist's condition through his beloved themes -- organizing, queer desire, and the digital landscape -- continues to cement his position on the cutting edge of comics.

[P. Henry]

Favorite story was the dracula one

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some out there short story comix by Michael DeForge. He worked on Adventure Time so think that type of art with some sexual themes mixed in. I didn't care for it.

[Hope Oladipo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of (if not the) first comic books I have read. Was different than I expected, but I overall liked it. Happy I tried something new!

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way DeForge is both very funny and silly while also saying a lot about the way we live is top teir short story writing to me.

[Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I❤️Michael DeForge and can’t wait to read every single one of his works

[Erick Mertz · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the weirdest, most unique and strange collection of stories I've ever read. Can't wait to read the next one (and the next one).

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

michael deforge can do no wrong

[Jacob Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another instant classic by the best to ever do it

[Avery Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think my favorite was Holiday Special, but it's a hard choice. Really creative illustrations, and I like the way the stories meander and don't resolve cleanly.

[James Quadros · Rating 4 out of 5]

DeForge has entered his horny era.