Graphic Novels Are the Perfect Medium for a Descent Into Dystopia

Pay attention or prepare to be next. Graffiti warning of the global threat to freedom from China’s Communist Party appeared on walls around Hong Kong during the protests of 2019. It was a prescient message, though not for the reasons the spray-painters might have imagined. Five years after the city’s democracy movement was crushed, authoritarianism is rising around the world — but in most cases the threat is coming from within.

Looking back, the Hong Kong people’s struggle to preserve the city’s autonomy and push for a more representative government was almost touching in its simplicity. The West was seen as embodying the liberal democratic ideals of universal suffrage, multi-party systems and constitutional guardrails.