Death Strikes is an irrev­er­ent graph­ic nov­el that blends gen­res, artis­tic medi­ums, and unfin­ished fic­tion­al work by Jews killed in the Shoah. It’s based on an unpro­duced opera that was cre­at­ed by the poet Peter Kien and the com­pos­er Vik­tor Ull­man while they were interned in Terezin. Kien and Ull­man lat­er died in Auschwitz, but the music and con­cep­tu­al work for their opera and sto­ries have been preserved.

A blend of dark humor and sci­ence fic­tion hor­ror, the sto­ry revolves around death, which is per­son­i­fied as a sol­dier going on strike dur­ing a fic­tion­al war between the city of Atlantis and the rest of human­i­ty. Death’s deci­sion to stop work­ing leads to strange plagues, zom­bie-like crea­tures, and the emper­or of Atlantis suc­cumb­ing to madness.

Oth­er per­son­i­fied con­cepts, such as pro­pa­gan­da and life, are main char­ac­ters and inter­act with death. The book is writ­ten in the style of nov­els like George Orwell’s Ani­mal Farm, where the humor stems from pok­ing fun at those in pow­er and the abus­es they inflict on their fel­low man. The pan­els are full of fad­ed grays, empha­siz­ing noir shad­ow­ing, grimy tex­tures, and self-described ​“gross” close-ups of teeth, flesh, and char­ac­ters’ eye­balls. The lines that illus­trate char­ac­ters are some­times defined and clear, while at oth­er times they have a melt­ing, water­col­or-like quality.

If the pac­ing of the nar­ra­tive occa­sion­al­ly feels errat­ic and dis­joint­ed, it only goes to show that this opera was but a first draft. It’s a mir­a­cle Kien and Ullman’s artis­tic col­lab­o­ra­tion is alive to us today.