Graphic Novel Review: The Hard Tomorrow by Eleanor Davis

The Hard Tomorrow by Eleanor Davis. Drawn & Quarterly, 2019. 9781770463738. 152pp.

Hannah and Johnny live in a truck in the woods. She’s trying to get pregnant. He’s supposed to be building their house while she works, but he spends more of his time smoking pot and hanging out with his buddy Tyler, a doomsday prepper. Hannah takes care of the elderly Miss Phyllis, and spends time with other members of Humans Against All Violence (HAAV). (Her friend Gabby is also a member, and Hannah seems more than a little enamored with her.) Hannah’s world is full of love and support, which is great since this is a police/surveillance state under President Zuckerberg.

After the HAAV’s leaders are detained by police, Hannah rushes to a protest that gets out of hand. It’s a moment that has repercussions for her friendships, marriage, and the lives of everyone in the story, including the baby Hannah and Johnny are trying to create. Somehow Davis has created a story that shows how messed up everything feels and still manages to express a fragile, brave hope.

One of her thank yous at the front of the book is to the person Davis was going to give birth to three months hence, which she wrote in April of this year. There are quotes from Kate Beaton, Lisa Hanawalt, and Jaime Hernandez on the back of the book, praising it. Hanawalt calls the book a “bullshit antidote.” Hernandez praises her drawing. Beaton sounds like she wants to give Davis the Nobel Prize for Literature. I agree with all of them.

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