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Theth #2
Theth: Tomorrow Forever
Theth: Tomorrow Forever is here. This sequel to Theth (Best American Comics 2014) takes place in Columbus Ohio in 1990, detailing twenty year old Theth attempts to define the looming shape of the future. This cross genre comics apocalypse is like nothing else you have read. This features 186 pages of full color art, an introduction by Liana Finck, and pin ups by Finck, Jeff Test, Sam Spina and Janelle Hessig.
Paperback
First published January 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 12, 2022
Josh Bayer is one of the most exciting – and most underrated – creators working in comics today. His 2014 80-page comic Theth is a hugely powerful depiction of an alienated childhood, with uniquely dense and chaotic black-and-white artwork. Tomorrow Forever, a sequel that follows the same protagonist as a young adult, doubles the length, adds otherworldly colours, and turns the intensity up to almost unbearable levels.
As a kid, the titular character was a troubled loner. As an adult, he’s an absolute mess. An art school drop-out, he lives in poverty and filth, largely isolated from human contact, wallowing in depression and teetering on the brink of insanity. Obsessed with comics and punk rock, he fixates on his desire to be a cartoonist, holding a deluded, almost messianic conviction that he’s destined for greatness – destined to “invent a whole new type of comics” and to be “the Henry Rollins of comics art”. When he tries to put pen to paper, however, he faces a huge psychological barrier, thanks to which he usually just ends up watching inane television or losing himself in fantasies of sex and violence. On the rare occasions that he does end up drawing some comics, the results are incoherent and disturbing – plotless, unfiltered expressions of his emotional turmoil.
If I had to sum up this comic in one word, I’d definitely go with “intense”. Most of it just shows the protagonist going about his pitiful everyday existence, but this is accompanied by his volatile, relentless inner monologue, revealing his deepest, darkest thoughts and feelings. What’s more, Bayer’s rough, raw, highly expressive inks, overlaid with surreally vivid colouring, manifest his character’s personal hell right onto the page, every panel bursting with palpable anguish, rage, fear, hatred, passion, hunger, confusion…
The experience of reading this comic is heightened, claustrophobic, feverish, tense – not always pleasant – but this is vital, arresting stuff.
As a kid, the titular character was a troubled loner. As an adult, he’s an absolute mess. An art school drop-out, he lives in poverty and filth, largely isolated from human contact, wallowing in depression and teetering on the brink of insanity. Obsessed with comics and punk rock, he fixates on his desire to be a cartoonist, holding a deluded, almost messianic conviction that he’s destined for greatness – destined to “invent a whole new type of comics” and to be “the Henry Rollins of comics art”. When he tries to put pen to paper, however, he faces a huge psychological barrier, thanks to which he usually just ends up watching inane television or losing himself in fantasies of sex and violence. On the rare occasions that he does end up drawing some comics, the results are incoherent and disturbing – plotless, unfiltered expressions of his emotional turmoil.
If I had to sum up this comic in one word, I’d definitely go with “intense”. Most of it just shows the protagonist going about his pitiful everyday existence, but this is accompanied by his volatile, relentless inner monologue, revealing his deepest, darkest thoughts and feelings. What’s more, Bayer’s rough, raw, highly expressive inks, overlaid with surreally vivid colouring, manifest his character’s personal hell right onto the page, every panel bursting with palpable anguish, rage, fear, hatred, passion, hunger, confusion…
The experience of reading this comic is heightened, claustrophobic, feverish, tense – not always pleasant – but this is vital, arresting stuff.
June 15, 2023
I wanted to like it more because I hella respect Josh’s art, but I just am up to my armpits in comics about sad dudes and i am gonna vomit, not because they are sad or gross or always show their penises for no reason but because punk dudes always act like their bringing unique voices to indie comics, when like it’s so hard to not constantly read punk dudes making violent uncomfortable art. Women/trans people do uncomfortable art so much better!
I’m excited to check out the one about this characters childhood because maybe I’ll like it better
Sorry this Comic made me hate men they are just so boring. They think they’re hardcore and they don’t even bleed that much. This comic was fine.
I’m excited to check out the one about this characters childhood because maybe I’ll like it better
Sorry this Comic made me hate men they are just so boring. They think they’re hardcore and they don’t even bleed that much. This comic was fine.
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December 26, 2025huh. I spent most of the first 1/2 vaguely irritated, if intrigued... found the 2nd half - when he started actually talking to other people - more engaging. I liked the old guy in the diner - like, finally! a voice of reason around here! "There's a real world out there. And calling it a world of lies don't make it unreal."
August 14, 2023
Masterpiece of the form from the Sisyphus of comics.
I will pull myself from the wreckage and make myself and now the wreckage will at least be me.
I will pull myself from the wreckage and make myself and now the wreckage will at least be me.
February 10, 2020
Probably the best thing I'll read all year. Weird and f*cked in all the right way. Beautifully captures the ugliness and tension inside us.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews