Outbreak Diaries

by Jason Turner

Outbreak Diaries is an autobiographical series of diary style comics that take place from early in the COVID-19 Pandemic through to 2021 when vaccines were being widely distributed. The story is told from the perspective of a household where both members were working in essential services throughout the duration of the pandemic. This story presents first-person experiences from a frontline worker and his thoughts and impressions of the changes in the world, more specifically Vancouver. This memoir is very personal yet relatable.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Memoir

184 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2022

About the author

Canadian cartoonist, born in Manitoba and currently living in Vancouver. He is most well known for the graphic novel True Loves, which he collaborated on with his wife, Manien Bothma. True Loves, originally serialized in weekly installments online at Serializer, was published in 2006 by the Vancouver-based New Reliable Press. A second volume of True Loves is currently being serialized at Serializer and will be published in 2009, also by New Reliable Press.Prior to True Loves, Turner self-published dozens of minicomics, the first being in high school: The Roadhouse Stickler. Turner started publishing comics online in 2000 to much acclaim, most notably from cartoonist and comics theorist Scott McCloud, who lists Turner as one of his top twenty favorite cartoonists currently publishing work on the internet.

Turner is a member of the Crown Commission, a collective of Canadian cartoonists. He has contributed work to several anthology books, including Elf World, The Stick Figure Anthology, and several volumes of You Ain't No Dancer.

In 2007, True Loves was nominated for the Vancouver Public Library One Book, One Vancouver award.

Reviews

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 4 out of 5]

While being tightly focused on a few square blocks in Vancouver, in and around Dude Chilling Park, there's still a universality to how COVID shocked everyone and changed the basics of living for the survivors.

http://pussreboots.com/blog/2023/comm...

[Allan Olley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a series of six panel per page comics about the author's experience of the COVID-19 pandemic March of 2020 to September of 2021. Originally posted on-line soon after the days being depicted (and most of the pages are still available on the author's blog). Generally each page covers a day and the entries are daily from March 17th, 2020 to July 20th, 2020, with a few comics from before and after that and a few where 2 pages or more cover a day. Each panel tends to have a top section full of text that may comment on the news of the day or something else rather than the comic illustration in the rest of the panel. Sometimes multiple panels depict a series of events, or two or three panels will depict one incident and the rest another, sometimes each panel is of disparate events making the action a montage.

This is a simple telling of one man's experience and thoughts over the course of the pandemic, responding to fears of the virus, various lockdown measures and the attitudes that come up as others interact with these same things. It also contains some of the personal events of the author's life. He worked at a British Columbia liquor store and his wife worked as a hospital nurse. There is also a lot of commentary on politics including personalities like Donald Trump and Ontario Premier Doug Ford and especially ongoing protests such as the black lives matters protest. The narrator is generally sympathetic to left wing protesters and unsympathetic to right wing politicians and protestors.

The art is relatively simple but conveys well a sense of basic emotion and personality of the people depicted. The thoughts seem cogent and the reactions heartfelt, but there is no broader narrative, themes or theory tying things together. I think this has strengths in reminding us and informing us what life was like in the pandemic for actual people (I don't live in BC and don't drink so I had no idea what liquor stores were like during the pandemic, much less in BC). Since the author is from Ontario originally and he and I seem to have vaguely similar political sympathies perhaps I find it easier to relate to him than others would. Some of his experiences and the incidents he mentioned reminded me of my own pandemic experience.

Overall a nice little memoir of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The publication seems well made and I noticed one misprint on page 132 the date is given as "Aug 13 2021" but given the sequence of the page in the book it should be "Aug 31 2021", otherwise I saw no problems with the text or images.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good perspective on the first year-ish of the pandemic. So, occasionally a stressful read. But I think it is important to remember everything that went on.