Firebugs

by Nino Bulling

Actually, everything is perfectly okay. Ingken is together with Lily, who seems to be content with herself and her life. Ingken on the other hand is struggling a lot. Set against the background of global climate change, Ingken is searching for a self-­determined identity, a new name, for the things that can remain as they were and those that have to disappear. What is it that makes us humans? Do we have to burn everything down in order to define ourselves anew? Or can we also hold on to some things?

“‘The World Is On Fire’—your own and the real one out there. Bushfires rage in Australia and Ingken’s world is thrown off balance. The ecological threat interweaves with fears of change. On this fluid journey to oneself, everything falters and yet is connected. What can we hold on to when we don’t know yet how everything might feel right?
I like Nino Bulling’s way of illuminating complex situations and anchoring them in political dimensions. For me, it becomes great comic art through the fine nuances in the gestures and the vivid sceneries. Whether it’s a wild party night, a rural idyll or inner torment, the mood immediately jumps from each page into your own thoughts. That’s what I read for.” Gesine Claus, Strips & Stories, Bookshop for Graphic Novels, Hamburg

The comic is co-published with Colorama and part of Nino Bulling’s contribution to documenta fifteen.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Queer, LGBT, Transgender, Fiction, Bande Dessinée

156 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2022

Reviews

[CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great slice-of-life graphic novel about a 30-year-old queer person from Berlin moving verrrrry sloooowly through some gender feels and navigating a longterm relationship. As per the title, there's a lot of metaphorical and literal fire in the book. Ingken, the protagonist, is going through a crisis, trying to figure out where they land in their own transness. Their girlfriend Lily, also trans, tells Ingken to burn themselves down and build a new self back up. Ingken isn't so sure about this metaphor, particularly as the story is set during the Australian bushfires of 2019/20 and they can't stop doomscrolling. Lily and Ingken also observe some firebugs on a summer night out in the country, wondering about insect reproduction and sexuality.

I don't read a lot of fiction by European authors or set in Europe, and Firebugs was an interesting window into a certain queer party scene in Berlin and also (briefly) Paris that's very dominated by drugs. There's no judgment on this or on anything else in the novel -- the tone is very much "this is what's happening, isn't it interesting" with no hints of morality or right or wrong, even when it might seem obvious someone is "behaving badly."

The art is bold black and white with pops of red. The spreads of queer dance parties are especially cool. There were also some very spot-on expressions on Lily and Ingken's faces when they were having relationship talks and disagreements. Almost too real!

[cam · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'ai mis longtemps avant de penser à un commentaire parce que malgré mes quatre étoiles, je n'avais rien de particulier à dire sur cette BD qui pourtant ne m'a pas laissée indifférente. C'est en en parlant à une amie que cela m'est venu : c'est juste une histoire. Pas de récit explicitement politique qui a pour vocation d'impulser une réflexion chez le.a lecteurice et qui résulterait en une lecture particulièrement émotionnelle ; bien que cela soit toujours politique de mettre en avant les existences et les corps lesbiens et trans, il m'a semblé qu'il s'agissait simplement de l'histoire d'un personnage qui tente d'articuler ses questionnements avec sa relation amoureuse. Juste une histoire dont j'ai aimé le rouge qui tranche sur les pages noires et blanches, parce qu'on a pas toujours envie de se prendre la tête.

[Sarah Cavar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oof. This story ached, pulling at my polya trans dyke heartstrings like few other graphic novels have. What an honest and uniquely rendered (I’ve never read a GN with an art style like this before, and I love it) story of lives in transition - amid climate collapse and amid the slow fall of a once-secure relationship and sense of identity. Bulling perfectly encapsulates both the anxieties and possibilities of building new selves out of the charred remains of our familiar habits, and the complex growing pains attendant to transitions too often portrayed as uniformly positive/liberating.

[Nacie]

Such lovely illustrations. Love the way people move and the bunches of flowers. The artist has a real sense of body language and fullness/folding of living things. Makes sense it was with colorama first. Berlin is a very strange place and the scenes of queer nightlife and characters in this did not change that impression. Always enjoy messaging about agency- the choice to do something, or the choice to not.

[I. Merey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just the artwork itself was a 5/5---this art is sooo up my alley. Some of the pages, I would just stare at them for a while, before moving on. I love the composition, the effortless fluidity---this art was so free, I could feel the scenes breathing. I love how this artist depicts people, but also the scenery shots were just fucking great. All soft curved lines and motion and splashes of black and slashes of red in fields of white. I also enjoyed the physical material of the book. The layout and print was done with careful consideration and this will sound very nerdy but reading this was a great sensory experience. Some of the pages felt more rough--some were almost glossy. All had a nice weight to them, which gave the volume a certain richness, while the drawings felt more zine-y. All around perfect design.

The story is simple, but compelling. A not-too-young, not-too-old queer in a loving relationship with a trans woman, starts to question their own gender identity. While they seem drawn to transmasculinity, something keeps them from taking steps to move closer to their goals. Their lack of inertia starts to strain the relationship, and their partner starts to get closer to another partner, who is more secure in themselves. I like the little casual Trans Moments--parties, partner juggling, feelings, the awkwardness of parental misgendering, random queer funsies cattiness that ends up cutting. In the backdrop, the main chara's anxiety is further aggravated by climate change news.

This was a quiet, beautifully drawn snapshot.

[Janina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bei jedem Dussmann-Besuch suche ich mir ein Buch aus, von dem ich noch NIE gehört habe, und kaufe es mir. Dieses Mal war es dieses hier und ich fand es echt super. Der Zeichnungsstil war für mich etwas gewöhnungsbedürftig, weil ich das so nicht oft sehe, aber nach und nach hat das immer mehr zur Geschichte sowie dem Berliner Flair gepasst. Mir hat auch gefallen, wie divers der Cast an Charakteren und wie realitätsnah das Verhalten der Personen war.

tw/cw: Mikroaggressionen in Bezug auf Gender Identity, Klimakatastrophe (Erwähnungen)

[Elisa Gomez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Novela grafica deliciosa, yummy
Me encantó el arte, los tema de genero y eco ansiedad mencionados
Ligeramente deprimente pero que buena novela grafica la verdad

[maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely loved the illustrations in this book and the emotions were portrayed expertly through them as well as the dialogue
a very real story about a queer couple

[Lucille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Also gonna make this review later. The art was great, loved how the lines changed in legibility as drugs entered the chat. Wish there was more, the story felt like it ended without enough having happened.

[Sandrine Bourget-Lapointe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Belle découverte. Bien apprécié les personnages, mais le scénario est un peu faible.

[Paulinchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich glaube ich habe Grafic Novels für mich entdeckt. Diese war künstlerisch unfassbar gut gemacht. Die Story war super queer, und viele der struggles waren voller Weltschmerz und Identitätsfragen. Ich war teilweise bisschen verwirrt weil die Szenen ohne Kennzeichnung geswitcht haben und hab deshalb manchmal bisschen gebraucht um die Story zu verstehen. Fand's aber sehr außergewöhnlich und mal was anderes und das hat mir gut gefallen

[Elizabeth A · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the premise better than the execution. Set in Berlin, this is a slow meditation on the main character's gender identity exploration. The illustrations are sketchy line drawings, and while I liked the mood evoked by the illustration style, this one didn't land in a way that has stayed with me.

[King]

Beautiful cartooning, intriguing premise and characters but it didn't quite make the landing at the end for me

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A meditation on gender identity and renewing oneself. Ingken is going through a crisis and explores ideas like "Do we have to burn everything down in order to define ourselves anew ? Or can we also hold on to some things?"

The artwork was okay, a bit hard to follow at times. The drunk/drugged out party scenes were pretty neat with distorted figures.

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loved this so much!

[nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh man, i was not expecting this book to resonate with me so much, but the relationship between two people experiencing transness and romance in different ways—being trans through changes both physical and not, love in forms of monogamy and polyamory—was told in such a non-malicious but equally non-victimising way, just a pressing need for change of some kind, of ANY kind, and that hit very hard.

the backdrop of climate change anxiety was a really cool way to contrast action vs inaction vs what is in your control, in everything going on out there and everything going on in someone navigating their identity. i really really enjoyed this!

[Stilljumping · Rating 5 out of 5]

It connects the search for indentiy and questing of gender and the cascading crisis with our search for new ways to life and organize as society, with our questioning of capitalistic logics and dynamics.
"Do we have to burn everything down in order to define ourselfs anew ? Or can we also hold on to some things?"
We can ask this questions for gender and Climate in the same way. How can we change from a toxic system ? How to transfrom and transition ? Can hold on to things or do we have to deconstruct everting ?

[Solly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was nice, a graphic novel about a 30yo coming out as non-binary, and struggling with their transition and their relationship with their trans polya girlfriend. The ending was a little too abrupt for my taste but this had some panels that tugged on my heartstrings and made me relate to the MC. The art was pretty cool as well!

[Sésame · Rating 3 out of 5]

j'ai beaucoup aimé le dessin et l'utilisation du rouge, évidemment j'ai aussi été touchée par l'histoire (c'est-à-dire que je partage littéralement l'entièreté des caractéristiques démographiques des personnages principaux donc bon). cependant je trouve que c'est une bd qui confond un peu dire les émotions et les explorer. au final j'ai eu l'impression de beaucoup rester en surface et ça m'a pas du tout remué comme ça aurait pu le faire et j'en ressors du coup un peu frustrée

aussi ça c'est une frustration bête mais quand tu as un titre mystique mais que le titre n'est pas prononcé dans le livre ça frustre..... mais peut être j'ai juste raté le moment où iels le disent.....

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the way Ingken's thoughts about their gender and transition were discussed. It felt so realistic and it also showed the difficulties it had for their relationship. I personally did not love the art style (everyone looked angry all the time, which sometimes did not fit the situation) and I would have liked the story to have a bit more structure , instead of consisting of seperate conversations.

[Isabella Schepisi · Rating 4 out of 5]

a short slice-of-life graphic novel about a queer person questioning their life: their drug use, their identity, their relationships, etc. the novel compares this struggle with their changing life and identity to a climate fire, and the main character questions what remains after a big transition. is it just the ashes of a fire?

[Kira]

Enjoyed this! Love reading a T4T story that feels so grounded and real. Beautiful art and line work. The ending was a bit abrupt for my taste, and I would’ve appreciated a sense of more subtext simmering beneath the main action. Still, glad I read it and glad it exists!

[Chris Brook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Catching up on graphic novels here. This one was published by Drawn and Quarterly in February this year. Very hard to figure out what I was getting into here based on the cover but this does a good job of combining queer themes with a heavy dose of fear and uncertainty around climate change.

[William Hambides · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the characters and art style even if it took me awhile to figure out what was happening in some panels. I think it ended too soon and abruptly. Could’ve stayed with the story for a bit longer to see them navigate the messiness of transitions in multiple ways.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really sad, thoughtful book which I quite enjoyed, though I wish there had been a bit more to it--maybe more lingering on the ending. I also wondered what this would have looked like as a written text rather than a graphic one; there were parts here where I yearned for more introspection into the main character's perspective, an interiority to which we have limited access given the format of the story.

3.5/5

[Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

So delighted that I randomly picked this up from the library. Such a beautifully drawn graphic novel that often quite painfully captures the overwhelming stage of early transition and navigating life as queer and trans.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful emotive lines, I adored the use of the red (obviously), I loved how gestural and intimate it all felt.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 ⭐️'s

[ash | songsforafuturepoet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never had I seen my life and that of my loved ones represented so accurately in a graphic novel. Weird deja vu feelings, lots of tears, then stayed in bed for the whole day. In a good way.

[°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ blumenimherz ･:*࿔.ೃ⋆❀° · Rating 5 out of 5]

>>> but what is with the ending? i need a sequel