A refugee in a waiting room wrestled with telling an immigration officer the details of his harrowing journey to seek asylum with his sister, after surviving atrocities. The main question is whether to change details to make him seem more sympathetic and appealing to be let into the country, while the spectres of those who died haunt him, demanding a true accounting of things, so that they might be at peace.

The meta context is very relevant as well, since the marketplace also functions this way. Publishers have conditioned the space to accept immigration stories that force the author to expose details they might want to be private, and create an image that the publishers have cultivated of the marginalized individual, in all manner of forms. As such, it is very hard for authors to get published that deviate from this formulaic demand placed on them. This dialogue with the asylum seeker, a very relevant issue to today everywhere, especially in English speaking countries as well, really augmented this piece.

The artwork grew on me. It’s got a magical realism element to it that, I think, is meant to further reiterate the “story” aspect of the asylum speaker. Sometimes it’s really fantastic, with eclectic paneling and great use of colours, and looking exceptionally unique. Other times it does feel somewhat similar and suffers from stilted dialogue in an effort for verisimilitude, I assume. It also sometimes becomes hard to distinguish characters because of the style and mask use. Overall, a very strong effort, though.