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The Desert Prophet
An offbeat climate parable about a disillusioned apocalyptic prophet in a desert full of saints, sinners, and beasts.
"Perfection . . . A work of genius." —Steven Peck, author of A Short Stay in Hell
"The sun is darkened...The moon is turned to blood..."The Desert Prophet knows that the world is ending—and that it’s our fault. But even as seas rise and the earth shakes, no one is listening. So why preach at all? The Desert Prophet shakes the dust off their feet and puts an end to their voice of warning.
But resigning your calling as apocalyptic prophet is not so easy. The Desert Prophet must cross a desert full of saints, sinners, and beasts to climb the Mountain and justify their choice to the Desert God. Now the Desert Prophet must fully reckon with the consequences of their resignation, and what it means to live a moral life in a world that seems to be ending.
"Perfection . . . A work of genius." —Steven Peck, author of A Short Stay in Hell
"The sun is darkened...The moon is turned to blood..."The Desert Prophet knows that the world is ending—and that it’s our fault. But even as seas rise and the earth shakes, no one is listening. So why preach at all? The Desert Prophet shakes the dust off their feet and puts an end to their voice of warning.
But resigning your calling as apocalyptic prophet is not so easy. The Desert Prophet must cross a desert full of saints, sinners, and beasts to climb the Mountain and justify their choice to the Desert God. Now the Desert Prophet must fully reckon with the consequences of their resignation, and what it means to live a moral life in a world that seems to be ending.
180 pages, Paperback
Published September 5, 2025
1 person is currently reading
20 people want to read
About the author
Camilla Stark
2 books2 followersCamilla Stark is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer who makes work about light & dark, life & death, and love & fear. She lives in Provo, Utah with her husband and very small son.
See more of Camilla's work online at camillastark.com or on Instagram at @camilla.stark.art.
See more of Camilla's work online at camillastark.com or on Instagram at @camilla.stark.art.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
November 4, 2025
I’ve been waiting my whole life for the Mormon Goth Aesthetic to have its moment — this graphic novel is the Manifesto. I backed this project on Kickstarter and have been following the artist for a couple of years. The finished project is beautiful. It’s special. Filled with scriptural references and parallels, a warning voice from the desert dust inviting the reader to real life action. I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time. We live in a world where we are constantly fearing the end. Maybe it can’t be stopped, but we all have to live our lives anyway.
How will YOU choose to respond to the end of the world?
How will YOU choose to respond to the end of the world?
December 2, 2025
This book is a delight! It's ecotheology with a touch of Nietzsche and a dose of the gothic. It's a love letter to the planet in the age of anthropogenic climate change, addressed especially to the desert and wagering that earth's arid corners are perhaps not so lifeless as we might suppose. Part Mormonism, part Little Prince, part idiosyncratic fascination with the past lives of sun-bleached desert skulls, this book will haunt me--in all the very best ways--for a long time.
November 27, 2025
4.5/5
Quite well done, I found it to be an enjoyable read and I would certainly recommend it!
It's greatest strength is that it hits for me as an environmentalist reader as much as a Latter-Day Saint reader, and I feel like it does a fantastic job of using themes from LDS culture and theology to talk about coping with impending climate crisis. A lot of LDS theology addresses the challenge of maintaining faith in situations that parallel climate anxiety/nihilism today, this book pointed this out in a way I honestly hadn't considered before. It's a combination that is incredibly original and well executed.
Overall, I was very impressed by how it manages to hit religious themes and topics in a way that feels natural and relatable, you have to read it to see it but again, quite well done.
Aesthetically, quite well done as well. The illustration style feels fitting for the experience of night walks in the Western desert.
Graphic novels are typically not my genre but I found this one really holds its own and I look forward to seeing what the author does next!
*** Disclaimer ***
I supported this project on Kickstarter, but I believe this review is a fair assessment, I'd certainly still recommend it otherwise
Quite well done, I found it to be an enjoyable read and I would certainly recommend it!
It's greatest strength is that it hits for me as an environmentalist reader as much as a Latter-Day Saint reader, and I feel like it does a fantastic job of using themes from LDS culture and theology to talk about coping with impending climate crisis. A lot of LDS theology addresses the challenge of maintaining faith in situations that parallel climate anxiety/nihilism today, this book pointed this out in a way I honestly hadn't considered before. It's a combination that is incredibly original and well executed.
Overall, I was very impressed by how it manages to hit religious themes and topics in a way that feels natural and relatable, you have to read it to see it but again, quite well done.
Aesthetically, quite well done as well. The illustration style feels fitting for the experience of night walks in the Western desert.
Graphic novels are typically not my genre but I found this one really holds its own and I look forward to seeing what the author does next!
*** Disclaimer ***
I supported this project on Kickstarter, but I believe this review is a fair assessment, I'd certainly still recommend it otherwise
November 28, 2025
I adore this book.
The intersection of religious, gothic, environmental, and social elements were perfectly woven together.
I feel like I have walked in this world that Camilla has made (because in a sense, I kind of have living in Utah), and that I know all the characters personally.
As an avid lover of the desert, anything gothic, religious intrigue, and art, this is a book I’m glad I have read, and will continue to reread over and over!
The intersection of religious, gothic, environmental, and social elements were perfectly woven together.
I feel like I have walked in this world that Camilla has made (because in a sense, I kind of have living in Utah), and that I know all the characters personally.
As an avid lover of the desert, anything gothic, religious intrigue, and art, this is a book I’m glad I have read, and will continue to reread over and over!
December 11, 2025
The first time I saw the draft for The Desert Prophet was in 2019, when Camilla sent a rough pdf for me to peruse and share my thoughts. It was immediately obvious to me that I was looking at something unique and special. I have been following the project ever since and it is with absolute joy that I finally received my own copy of the final published version in the mail today, a work of art and literature that transcends genres and belief systems and swirls together into what is a remarkably simple, remarkably complex, and remarkably human story about how each of us reacts to the end of the world.
I don’t know when I became a pessimist or if I’m still becoming a pessimist, but I’m afraid to say that at some point in my life I did weave a little chrysalis of cynicism around my caterpillar psyche and have, probably, over the last few years, begun to poke my wet insectoid antennae out into the cool air of the world around me and to take those first trepidatious steps as a fully formed butterfly of despair. The world is ending. I think that’s clear. Sure, the world has ended before and will probably end again in the future but it’s definitely ending now, as we speak. The world has always been ending. It’s been a doomed project from the start.
In The Desert Prophet the world is ending because of greed and consumption and climate change. So is ours. And more. Take your pick. If you don’t agree that one particular thing is bringing about the end of humanity, I am certain you can find a different one that’s more to your liking. I suppose there’s probably never been a point in human history when that wasn’t basically true. Wars, plagues, mutually assured destruction, and so forth. Okay, so what?
The temptation of the so-called righteous (whether or not they really are) during the world’s perpetual ending is first to preach, I think, and then, when they are inevitably rejected (because no one wants the world to end but nobody wants to change), to throw down your tablets or staff or sit under the shade of your vine and say, “Fine, go to Hell and see if I care.” I’m not particularly righteous but have occasional aspirations in that direction and the temptation to simply give into despair and wrap yourself in the warm, weighted blanket of apathy is ever-present. You want a better world for your children and everyone else says they want that too and yet collectively we always seem to just make things worse or if we somehow make things better we find some way of poisoning society with our surplus. The Desert Prophet is a story written by someone who understands and has felt the pull to dust off their feet and withdraw from the world as it proceeds on its heedless way to Hell and then made the decision to reject that pull.
But it takes effort. It takes realization. It takes enough love to douse the flames of frustration at the world around you. It takes learning lessons from every good and bad character we meet in our own desert wanderings. It takes realizing that when you reject humankind, you are rejecting yourself because you are a part of that human family and you don’t get to make the decision not to be (and if you do, you are dislocating yourself from your place in the Universe). Camus once said, “He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.” We should aspire, then, to be holy fools. It’s easier to reject. It’s easier to walk away. It’s easier to pretend you’ve done all you can do and you no longer owe these people anything. But, “...what about those you could have saved had you continued preaching?”
The Desert Prophet is an incredibly beautiful work of art, with images that evoke a lonely night in the Great Basin spent sitting by a campfire and watching the fluid shadows draw strange figures against the canyon walls. You will meet characters, fair and foul, that you will fall in love with on nearly every page. You will put yourself in the Desert Prophet’s skeletal shoes and take each step of her journey with her, peering at the night through the empty sockets of her skull. You will meet the Desert God face-to-face and you will need to answer their questions. Then you will close the book and you will make the conscious decision to pick up your staff, walk back out of the desert, and keep preaching, because each strange little skeleton you meet in the wilderness is a child of the Desert God and you might, through your preaching, save just one of them.
I don’t know when I became a pessimist or if I’m still becoming a pessimist, but I’m afraid to say that at some point in my life I did weave a little chrysalis of cynicism around my caterpillar psyche and have, probably, over the last few years, begun to poke my wet insectoid antennae out into the cool air of the world around me and to take those first trepidatious steps as a fully formed butterfly of despair. The world is ending. I think that’s clear. Sure, the world has ended before and will probably end again in the future but it’s definitely ending now, as we speak. The world has always been ending. It’s been a doomed project from the start.
In The Desert Prophet the world is ending because of greed and consumption and climate change. So is ours. And more. Take your pick. If you don’t agree that one particular thing is bringing about the end of humanity, I am certain you can find a different one that’s more to your liking. I suppose there’s probably never been a point in human history when that wasn’t basically true. Wars, plagues, mutually assured destruction, and so forth. Okay, so what?
The temptation of the so-called righteous (whether or not they really are) during the world’s perpetual ending is first to preach, I think, and then, when they are inevitably rejected (because no one wants the world to end but nobody wants to change), to throw down your tablets or staff or sit under the shade of your vine and say, “Fine, go to Hell and see if I care.” I’m not particularly righteous but have occasional aspirations in that direction and the temptation to simply give into despair and wrap yourself in the warm, weighted blanket of apathy is ever-present. You want a better world for your children and everyone else says they want that too and yet collectively we always seem to just make things worse or if we somehow make things better we find some way of poisoning society with our surplus. The Desert Prophet is a story written by someone who understands and has felt the pull to dust off their feet and withdraw from the world as it proceeds on its heedless way to Hell and then made the decision to reject that pull.
But it takes effort. It takes realization. It takes enough love to douse the flames of frustration at the world around you. It takes learning lessons from every good and bad character we meet in our own desert wanderings. It takes realizing that when you reject humankind, you are rejecting yourself because you are a part of that human family and you don’t get to make the decision not to be (and if you do, you are dislocating yourself from your place in the Universe). Camus once said, “He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.” We should aspire, then, to be holy fools. It’s easier to reject. It’s easier to walk away. It’s easier to pretend you’ve done all you can do and you no longer owe these people anything. But, “...what about those you could have saved had you continued preaching?”
The Desert Prophet is an incredibly beautiful work of art, with images that evoke a lonely night in the Great Basin spent sitting by a campfire and watching the fluid shadows draw strange figures against the canyon walls. You will meet characters, fair and foul, that you will fall in love with on nearly every page. You will put yourself in the Desert Prophet’s skeletal shoes and take each step of her journey with her, peering at the night through the empty sockets of her skull. You will meet the Desert God face-to-face and you will need to answer their questions. Then you will close the book and you will make the conscious decision to pick up your staff, walk back out of the desert, and keep preaching, because each strange little skeleton you meet in the wilderness is a child of the Desert God and you might, through your preaching, save just one of them.
November 12, 2025
A strange, ultimately optimistic, and clearly very personal journey presented in a visually striking medium that scratched my itch for the macabre and different. It’s a quick read that makes for a long think. I won’t attempt to comment with any detail on the religious or spiritual aspects of the book, because I think they deserve more eloquence and nuance than I could give them without further consideration. Suffice it to say they felt pertinent, novel, and possibly profound. The Little-Prince-esque narrative structure seems appropriate for a similarly succinct, similarly beautiful, and similarly poignant work.
Obviously, highly recommended.
Obviously, highly recommended.
December 2, 2025
This book is a can’t miss experience!
Have you ever felt helpless? Like all the efforts you’ve put forth, trying to make the world a better place, could never really make a difference? That’s where the Desert Prophet begins his story. “Desert Prophet” is a philosophical journey set in a climate apocalypse. When I first picked it up, I noticed the hand-inked images and the quirky characters. But as I read, I saw myself in the story. It was a beautiful, almost ritualistic experience, to follow the Desert Prophet on his excursion to visit the mountain of God. This is a story of how to find hope in a world that sometimes feels hopeless. Everyone should read it.
Have you ever felt helpless? Like all the efforts you’ve put forth, trying to make the world a better place, could never really make a difference? That’s where the Desert Prophet begins his story. “Desert Prophet” is a philosophical journey set in a climate apocalypse. When I first picked it up, I noticed the hand-inked images and the quirky characters. But as I read, I saw myself in the story. It was a beautiful, almost ritualistic experience, to follow the Desert Prophet on his excursion to visit the mountain of God. This is a story of how to find hope in a world that sometimes feels hopeless. Everyone should read it.
January 1, 2026
The Desert Prophet is a beautiful book, in both its artwork and how thoughtfully it was made. The hardcover feels special in a way that makes you want to keep it on your shelf and come back to it. I sent the paperback to my niece, an aspiring artist, and she immediately loved both the look and the story.
I originally backed the The Desert Prophet on Kickstarter and received both the hardcover and paperback through the campaign. The book offers some much-needed catharsis at a time when it often feels like there isn’t much we can do about everything going wrong in the world, and it is a reminder that our choices still matter, even if they matter only to us.
I originally backed the The Desert Prophet on Kickstarter and received both the hardcover and paperback through the campaign. The book offers some much-needed catharsis at a time when it often feels like there isn’t much we can do about everything going wrong in the world, and it is a reminder that our choices still matter, even if they matter only to us.
December 5, 2025
I looooove weird niche religious stuff and this one made me Feel a lot more than I anticipated. I connected with the artistic rendition of the lone and dreary wilderness and even though I have chosen to stop practicing religion Like That myself in the real world, I felt very weirdly Seen by the characters and the depiction of the Desert God. A really lovely introspective read that is applicable to anyone who is trying their best here at the end of all things.
October 29, 2025
The Little Prince for our modern anthropocenic era. A moving exploration of the ways in which we react to feelings of powerlessness and discouragement when the world’s trajectory seems to be spiraling downward out of our control. A surprisingly hopeful allegory for our time, one I will return to in future moments of climate (or civic) anxiety.
November 5, 2025
Latter-day Saints do write literature and create art. This is The Little Prince steeped in Latter-day Saint theology. I read the whole thing in the same hour I opened the package, my seven-year-old son following along, just as engrossed.
November 12, 2025
In the immortal words of Hozier “if the (desert god) ever did speak, she’s the last true mouthpiece” I really enjoyed the message of “the desert prophet”. We all have a part to play and something we can do. The art style is awesome, and I love all the ties to the desert and Great Basin.
December 12, 2025
The brilliance here is in the details. The story, the art, the symbolism, subtle humor, the messages that have you pausing and reflecting, and feeling something. Loved experiencing this one. Can’t wait to share it with others.
November 5, 2025
purchased on Kickstarter, after having attended a panel at the San Diego Comic Con in 2024.
A fun quick read with some deep messages. Very happy to add it to my graphic novel collection!
A fun quick read with some deep messages. Very happy to add it to my graphic novel collection!
November 7, 2025
This book is short in length but long in ideas. I will be reading it again and thinking about it for a while!
The art is wonderful: imaginative and evocative.
The art is wonderful: imaginative and evocative.
November 22, 2025
Wickedly imaginative, and a great "Voice" from the Desert. Bravo!
December 15, 2025
this goes so incredibly hard. exceptional all around.
December 28, 2025
A graphic novel about worrying about the health of the planet at the end of days, when no one wants to listen. Gorgeous art and a succinct but profound story, a modern allegory.
January 1, 2026
Hopeful.
January 6, 2026
A wonder, a gem, a visual feast, a soothing balm to my worldworn soul. I will reread this throughout my life.
January 6, 2026
I really enjoyed this book! It was very thought provoking and beautifully illustrated. It really made me think and consider what I am doing for the world. Loved it!
January 13, 2026
Beautiful, hopeful and resonant. This story touched me to the core. The future of Mormon art is in good hands.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews