Secret Life

by Theo Ellsworth (Illustrations), Jeff Vandermeer

An uncanny and eye-opening journey into a mysterious building, adapted from a short story by Jeff VanderMeer

To the west: trees. To the east: a mall. North: fast food. South: darkness. And at the centre is The Building, an office building wherein several factions vie for dominance. Inside, the walls are infiltrated with vines, a mischief of mice learn to speak English, and something eerie happens once a month on the fifth floor. In Secret Life, Theo Ellsworth uses a deep-layered style to interpret Nebula award-winning author Jeff VanderMeer’s short story. What emerges is a mind-bending narrative that defamiliarizes the mundanity of office work and makes the arcane rituals of The Building home.

When his manager borrows his pen for a presentation, a man is driven to unspeakable acts as he questions the role the pen has played in his workplace success. The despised denizens of the second floor develop their own tongue, incomprehensible to everyone else in The Building. A woman plants a seed of insurgency that quickly permeates every corner of the building with its sweet, nostalgic perfume.

With deft insight, Secret Life observes the sinister individualism of bureaucratic settings in contrast with an unconcerned natural world. As the narrative progresses you may begin to suspect that the world Ellsworth has brought to life with hypnotic visuals is not so secret after all; in fact, it’s uncannily similar to our own.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Horror, Science Fiction, Comics Manga

184 pages, Hardcover

Published September 28, 2021

About the author

Theo Ellsworth is a self-taught artist and storyteller who grew up in the mountains of Montana. He developed his art while wandering the United States in a motor powered vehicle. He is uncommonly fond of clouds, monsters, trees, and impossible objects. He is prone to fits of whimsy, and his mind is filled with preposterous notions, yet he still manages to come across as semi-normal. He now lives in Portland, Oregon with a witch doctor and a slightly evil cat, and spends as much time as possible making comics, art zines, and imaginary phenomenon. He also helps run the Pony Club gallery, which he co-founded. He has replaced his motor powered vehicle with a two-wheeled, human-powered contraption.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

An adaptation by Theor Ellsworth of a short story by sci-fi writer Jeff VanderMeer about an office building. Once a forest, now a building alienatingly divorced from nature, but. . . vines live in the walls, and mice. And when the building vacates, nature will take over. But not so fast: the vines are growing, slowly, taking over. Descends into surrealistic horror, which might be amusing and not altogether surprising to those of us who associate office work with The Decline of Civilization.

I would have liked to see the amazing artwork in large canvasses in some gallery or oversized book--some of them seems a bit cramped here, and I am so fond of his work, which seem here like intricate woodcut illustrations. There's a touch of black humor here and a kind of odd, alt-comix style that I wouldn't have thought fit with VanderMeer's approach, but I think it works.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Plot

This is nearly impossible to summarize except to say that if you have ever worked in a cubicle surrounded by VERY weird characters, you may have had nightmares like this before. Picture watching The Office while the entire cast is tripping on acid and you won’t be far off.

The Artwork

Theo Ellsworth is a self-taught savant. Every centimeter of (almost) every panel is filled with detail. In fact, there is so much detail here, so much visual intensity here, that your eyes can’t help but linger. This is artistry that falls somewhere between psychedelic and schizophrenic, and it is perfectly suited for VanderMeer’s narrative.

[Moira Macfarlane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vervreemdend. Angstaanjagend. Psychedelisch.
Claustrofobisch!

En een magnifiek stuk tekenwerk 👌🏻

'To the west: trees. To the east: a mall. North: fast food. South: darkness. And at the centre is The Building' The Building met zijn 5 verdiepingen en een kelder, een kantoor vol mensen die er elke dag werken gevangen in het systeem, de overheersende bureaucratie en pikorde binnen de muren.
Een enorm indringend werk, het tolde behoorlijk in mijn hoofd en de beelden hadden me in hun greep, ik kon me er maar moeilijk van losmaken. Ook als dat niet meteen zo lijkt 'it does make sense'. Is dit de wereld waarin we als mens willen leven en ten ondergaan?

'Outside the conference room an hour passes. No one knows how much time passes inside.'

Voor een inkijkje: https://www.instagram.com/p/CWh-ywmgHf2/

[Mike]

I read this (extraordinary) adaptation in galleys--I'll wait till it's published to give a proper review.

[Shaun Winters · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was selected by my roommate. I liked the intrinsic detail that went into the artwork and enjoyed that it was about work life, but that is about it. I did not like the narrative for the most part. It was being subversive, which at this moment of my life just wasn't enjoyable. I think for other graphic novel fans, they would enjoy the way it presents its connection to the world. I just couldn't get into it, except in very minor parts.

[Laurent De Maertelaer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Naar een verhaal van Jeff VanderMeer: bevreemding verzekerd, dus. Zeer sterk tekenwerk, met een Rapidograph Rotringpen op bristolkarton, dat de psychedelische inhoud perfect vormelijk weergeeft.

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great pen drawings in this book. I LOVE the art. The story was very odd to me. I didn't really like the transitions between the different threads of story. I finished it because I did want to see how things ended. It felt like a fair representation of life. Feeling trapped, finding an outlet, finding adventure, resigning oneself to the inevitable and life continuing.

[Megan Kirby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this Jeff Vandermeer adaptation by Theo Ellsworth--a top read of my 2021. These interweaving parables about office life--with spooky Vandermeer twists--come to absolute life under Ellsworth's pen. I find most graphic adaptations to be a little dry. In Secret Life, the way the text and the illustrations play together illuminates both sides. Ellsworth's understanding of visual balance make each spread a total delight. The diversity of page layouts keep everything visually interesting. I couldn't wait to turn each page. After I finished the book, I turned to the front and paged through again, just to appreciate the poetry of the images.

An absolute stunner!

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Without reading the original, this seems like a challenging story to make an adaptation of, but I think this does well, the feelings of unease and strangeness carry over, the art is weird but striking. This is about a unusual building which is at times a funny satire of office work and at other times a mind-bending bizarro world that nature takes back over.

[Abhineet Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellsworth's art is memsmerizing in a beautifully grotesque kind of way. He's able to express the nature of a character through the shape of the lines he draws within their face. This line work, also present in the environments, creates an otherworldly atmosphere that perfectly fits VanderMeer's surreal world. All in all the stories here are super cool and weird in the best way possible.

[Al · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the belly of the
machine kind of book!
Whimsical and scary.

[Diego Dotta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I admire the artist's patience in drawing all those intricate details. The graphic novel feels like a surreal coloring book for adults. I was even tempted to paint some of the pages myself. :p

[Banana Potato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeff and Theo combining forces to collectively push down on my chest with that feeling of "Hey you know this thing we're all subscribing to? This system of walled-in alienation? Yeah, that's not natural!" and I love them for it. Following the mice into the great abyss as we speak.

[Viv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic art, eerie atmosphere, gave me Welcome to Nightvale energy, oddly funny at some points, I read it in one sitting.

This reminds me of a poem I read a few years ago called "Ghost Dance" by Sara Littlecrow-Russell which ends with this:

Each time it rains,
I go out to the sidewalk,
Where the tree roots
Have broken the concrete
Listening to the water’s whispering:

“It is coming soon.”

This book really feeds the existential feeling of the earth swallowing you, like laying down in the woods and realizing the overpowering nature of nature. Very enjoyable. I think a healthy dose of fear of nature is due every now and then. The only reason this isn't 5 stars is that it was somewhat hard to follow, but overall I really like the mysterious ominous tone.

[Cristina Alves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Publicado originalmente com imagens em https://osrascunhos.com/2021/12/17/se...

Jeff Vandermeer é daqueles autores que sigo há alguns anos, muito anos da adaptação do seu livro a cinema. Conheci-o como um autor de New Weird, que criava várias obras na cidade de Ambergris com homens cogumelo e fungos por todo o lado. Depois da trilogia Aniquilação, li dois dos livros da fabulosa trilogia Borne. As obras de Jeff Vandermeer conseguem ser sempre originais, com elementos e abordagens extraordinárias, ainda que contenham, quase sempre, uma escrita densa que pode afastar alguns leitores.

Este Secret Life traz-nos a adaptação, para banda desenhada, da história de Jeff Vandermeer com o mesmo nome e recorda-me, nalguns elementos, The Situation.

A história

Como seria de esperar de um livro de Jeff Vandermeer, a história não é linear, oscilando entre diferentes focos e perspectivas em torno de uma companhia que ocupa vários pisos de um mesmo prédio. Cada piso parece uma facção, contendo uma dimensão própria de funcionários. A história ora se centra numa determinada função, ora numa determinada personagem.

Crítica

Jeff Vandermeer deixou, há muitos anos, a vida de escritório para se tornar escritor. No seu livro, The Situation, usa esta vivência como uma catarse dessa vida , colocando personagens fantásticas como trabalhadores de escritório, com um claro paralelismo com algumas figuras típicas que costumam popular o mundo corporativo.

Este Secret Life segue um pouco esta linha, mas usa pessoas com aparência humana que são transformadas, lentamente, em figuras surreais devido à vivência no escritório. Algumas são evidentes referências ao mundo corporativo – uma caneta roubada que era valorizada por um empregado, um manager que trabalhava longas horas e se descobre viver no escritório, uma pessoa que espera longas horas para fazer uma rápida tarefa banal.

Pouco a pouco, cada uma destas pessoas ultrapassa o limite da normalidade de um escritório normal, criando-se situações surreais que serão típicas do estilo New Weird do autor. Aqui ainda se encontram contidas, com fortes raízes na realidade e, como tal, com um maior paralelismo com o que conhecemos – um paralelismo que é ainda mais interessante para quem trabalha num escritório e conhece a realidade corporativa.

Em termos visuais é uma banda desenhada um pouco experimental, mas que combina bem com o tom estranho (e por vezes, também experimental) de Jeff Vandermeer. Não existe um único padrão para a forma como as páginas se apresentam, sendo que as texturas vão sendo compostas por diferentes padrões detalhadamente desenhados. O resultado é curioso, e por vezes, muito bom, para quem gosta deste tipo de desafios visuais.

Conclusão

Secret Life é uma boa leitura que poderá ser apreciada sobretudo por quem conhece o trabalho de escritório, ou por quem conhece o estilo de Jeff Vandermeer. Para quem não conhece a narrativa do autor poderá ter momentos de alienação, sendo que tais momentos são proporcionados propositadamente.

[Kit Charlton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ellsworth's maximalist style makes for a suffocating setting--every bit of vacant space in the uncanny office building is covered in pen scribble and other texture. The overlapping features of individuals in a crowd is such an effective way to depict a mindless, hivemind-like crowd of corporate drones who, in the bounds of this story, genuinely seem to have no personal agency. The messages of the story are relatively straightforward, particularly the vine that infiltrates and purifies the office. However, there are also some more textured themes here, like corporate work being comfortable but ultimately unfulfilling, contrasted with manual labor that is denigrated/disrespected and subject to the tyranny of bosses, but seems to leave more of an individual's humanity intact. Theo Ellsworth and Jeff Vandermeer seems to be a natural collaboration and I'm glad that their talents could combine for this work.

[K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't pick this up because of the original, I'm not a big fan of Vander Meer to be honest, too many words to not quite make a point, or to make opposing and yet ambiguous points in the same work - so I found this adaptation much better suited to my taste. The overwhelmingly detailed art filled in all the words the other guy would have written, instead we get to feel them, see the vines takes over, the blurring of lines, man vs. man vs. nature, searching for the source of something, the notes to ourselves lost in the mix, the ones hired to keep it tidy adhering to the code of silence and feigned ignorance. Who is in charge here? does it matter anyway?

And though I've only given 3 stars for my personal taste I'm considering recommending it to my teacher friends for classroom discussion. Odd isn't it.

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many of us probably imagine our work offices to be a form of purgatory. Now imagine if instead of water coolers and printers, we have corpses stuffed in cabinets or mutating vines spreading through the ducts. That's what "Secret Life" is - a series of interconnected vignettes featuring a healthy dose of office humor mixed with body horror.

From the snippets of Ellsworth I've seen in anthology books like NOW, I've always been impressed, but "Secret Life" demonstrates his capabilities on a more comprehensive work. The pen work by Ellsworth is immaculate. The panels are bursting with detail, providing a series of grotesque and strange images that play off of the odd narrative spun throughout the book. Easily one of the more bizarre books I've read in recent years.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

The vine or the office consumes us all.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Secret Life is a strange, endearing graphic novel which blends 'Kafkaesque' functionary/office purgatory with 're-wilding' and sometimes jarring, sometimes unappealing, sometimes pleasing visual art. The story, which starts off bizarre and confusing, melds into a fabric replete with dark humour, social critique, insight, and engaging oddity. It's essentially a trippy parody of life in an office building with a get-back-to-nature message winding through it (in several senses). Death, horror, mystery, religious undertones, and radical enlightenment also feature, as do references and symbolism which may or may not be understood by sane readers not from Florida or Montana.

4.2 Stars



Thoughts

- a very funny look at a man who has his very personal pen, closely-associated with his sex life and his wife, beyond being HIS pen, stolen by his boss. The man kills his boss, as many have fantasized in the past
- a neat look at Custodian life, and a marvelous introduction with the Head Custodian
- a neat look at a forgotten employee in a rubber-stamp job in some forgotten corner. She is so bored and alone she learns the language of the building's mice and communicates English to them
- What does it all mean, the viny plant that is? Beyond it being a breath of fresh air literally, a call to nature, the power of nature, a view of something else or something more... it also nourishes and drops fruit. It comes bearing fruit. It spreads its message, its natural state, its simplicity of living -- yet it also takes over, covers, restricts, impedes, dominates. Those who eat of its fruit are lost, and can never go back to their previous, boring, pointless realities. Now they are given new purpose -- to live anew! To spread the word! To bear fruit themselves! To go back to the land! To be creative! To see in colour and vibrancy! The custodian goes in search of the source, at one point he finds the true light of the outdoors with a vision of nature and birds -- and he backs away, returning to darkness and the embrace of the viny plant. Eventually, he finds the source, which turns out to be a woman who he falls instantly in love or madness with. So, love is the source, the answer. Or woman. Or partner. Or sex.
- I don't get the 'Shadow Cabinet'. They are 'The Board', the 'Administrators', the Board of Directors, the 'Higher Ups', whatever. They kind of just disappear though. They aren't Frogmen, are they? There only seems to be the one frog man...
- The Frog man/mimic is eventually found out. He is DIFFERENT. He is beaten, but later he is followed. People resist change, fear the unknown/difference, fear and belittle 'The Other', particularly the smaller, simpler, more constrained, less experienced, their minds are

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly imaginative and weird. I love when people play with the concept of bringing absurdity and outlandishness to such a sterile and predictable place as the common corporate office. This book felt light, even though it was dealing with pretty odd and semi-dark matters like mind control, hopelessness, and nature reclaiming itself. Possibly just because the animation style was so cartoonish and fun. It also had quite a bit of material that felt pretty tongue-in-cheek though. I’d be interested to read the original story to compare. Overall this was a quick fun read though and I really liked it. Vivid images that will stick with me: the plant growing throughout the building, a man living off the plant in the ceiling, nice communicating and reporting to a woman, a floor of people who only human and click like beetles, a frog man being exiled for his strangeness, and night custodians resenting day custodians and merely waiting for them to leave. Fun stuff.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dystopian reminder that entropy is a stronger force than order and that—try as humanity might to tame, poison, or eliminate what it doesn’t like—nature will triumph over our pewling efforts to subdue it. Ellsworth’s hyper-detailed drawings imbue Secret Life with the claustrophobia deserving of settings consisting of a building, its rooms, cubicles, and ductwork. In the enormous building—where work and life are barely separated—different self-generating castes evolve for those living on different floors, each at odds with the others. The rationality of human endeavors prohibits recognition of its inherent inanity, courtesy of unexamined bureaucratic assumptions informing its definition. How can nature not triumph?

[boofykins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read Secret Life by Jeff VanderMeer but I have read a couple of his books from the Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy. If I hadn't been aware that this was an adaptation of a Jeff VanderMeer book, I would have described it as VanderMeerian. Very cool. Very weird. Very bleak. Very comforting. Very beautiful.

[CJ Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unnerving exploration of corporate life with wonderful illustrations added. Jeff Vandermeer is one of my all time favorites, so I was really delighted with how much Theo Ellsworth’s illustrations fit with the mood of the novella. The grotesque and beautiful are both capture really well. I especially liked the characters’ unnatural draw to the natural world after it being hidden for so long, and how nature finds a way. Really liked the Vine chapter and the mimic chapter, but even the really short vignettes work really well, like the man who dies inside of his desk. It’s impressive how well established the world is even through really minimal descriptions and the art style itself and interconnected ness of all the stories really help highlight the underlying horror of life in the company.

[Robert Hudder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like a Soviet era Republic science fiction filled with paranoia and hope; a parable written in another language and translated, each of these chapters feels like a full short story. Mystery peeks around each corner and in some ways, each chapter is better read as a separate piece.

Dream like and pregnant with meaning, the black lines seem almost scratched onto the page. The building never needs more understanding and any attempt to fill in the detail wipes away the previous clawed meaning.

Is this an allegory? Is this a lifeforce cutting through the drabness of capitalism, coded messages seeping through the characters, the actions and the ultimate ending? It is both strange and common. A dark and hopeful piece that I am glad to have read.

[Dessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very weird office noir, deeply unsettling and confusing in places, so aka very vandermeer. I would have liked more of a central narrative — this felt a bit like sideways stories from wayside school in the way each story centred on a specific space within the school, which was cool but at times a little scattered. Tbh not my fave vandermeer or d&q but I think I might write something about the office gothic or office uncanny one day so I might keep it on my shelves for exactly that reason. Also something really unexpectedly poignant and touching about the note at the back that says it was mostly drawn during Covid lockdown in 2020. What a strange time that seems, now. This book as product of a Covid coping project (endearing, respectful)… idk, feels like I should salute it.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richly and gorgeously illustrated, poignant and surreal, and flavoured deeply with classic VanderMeer imagery and themes. I found it really spoke to me. I was fortunate enough to grow up off-grid in the bush. And unfortunately enough to trade that in for the city. After spending a decade working for government departments in various soulless high-rise buildings, and now purchasing an acreage of ex-farmland to partially rewild, this book has come to me at exactly the right time. Now I just need to take a cutting of the vine. This was a book I didn’t know I needed in my life but one I think I will revisit often. It’s beautiful and I truely loved it. Absolutely five stars.

[Gabriella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the art, of course - always love Theo Ellsworth's work. But the story was a bit strange and confusing to me, especially at first. I'm glad I stuck it out and kept reading, it had me hooked at a certain point.
I am still confused by the man with violet eyes...and that boardroom of people with skull masks. What was their deal?
The custodian with artist parents and circus performer grandparents (fun little backstory suited to that free-thinking character) and the plant lady, and the mice lady, were really interesting characters and I really liked the plot for each of them.

[Morvling Bookink · Rating 5 out of 5]

Right now I really need to be reading a cushy romance and not some serious mindfuck stuff but wow this book was something amazing.
The art was so detailed, with little droplets of meaning here and there and extra bits, that distorts the reality.
I want to iterate that I have no idea what this book was about but I think I know I bit about what it means. It's about not only obvious climate change but the painful truth of reality, what leads us to being so blindfolded and so blindsided by certain issues, capitalism, the facade of society being normality but it's actually a hypnotic and dangerous both physical and social place to be in.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! I was at the launch event and it was glorious to hear these two very imaginative artists talking about the overlap between their work. Earthy, mesmerizing and a very comforting fable. Somehow comforting and disturbing at the same time... which is maybe the only kind of comfort that can be available in the midst of a global pandemic and ongoing economic + ecological crisis. This book touches on all of that in the way only a complex fable can. Thanks Theo and Jeff! I feel consoled, and I don't even know why.