Summary
In the world of Lazarus there is the wealthy and then there is Waste. In 2025, in the United States, I am considered Waste and reading a comic about the brutal dislike, disregard, and destruction of Waste is too difficult.
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I’m sad to say this … but I don’t think I can read anymore of Lazarus.
On Art Style
I absolutely have become such a fan of this style of art. I know it’s cliche to call it “gritty” but I don’t really have all the knowledge and artistic acumen to know the words to use. It is gritty. It has … a kind of texture on the page. It reminds me of the old comics my brother had back in the late 70s … the paper stock they were printed on gave every page this grainy, washed, gritty kind of feel.
The colors didn’t quite pop, the paper had a lot of texture so it made the art look faded or washed … I don’t know if I’m making sense. Lazarus reminds me of that. The art style lends itself to feeling “older” or “retro” and I think I am realizing it’s a very intentional style that really does reflect the world of the comic.
That “texture” gives the art such a graphic sense of life … visceral and somehow more gory. I can understand this though because, from a film perspective, practical effects are still some of the scariest and are so much more grisly than effects made digital or with CGI. I really felt this in this volume – the Lift chapters – and I think that also contributed to why I can’t continue.
The people who were getting shot or stabbed … it was so hard emotionally but also the art style really made it a million times more intense. The facial expressions … my god. It was really, really powerful stuff and because I’m quite sensitive to things, I really couldn’t handle it anymore … not where I am right now and, to me, that is what makes art so, so powerful.
It SHOULD make you uncomfortable.
It SHOULD make you feel things you don’t want to feel.
It SHOULD stir things up for you and move you in different directions.
Art is an EXPERIENCE you should have with your whole body and all of your senses.
What would be the point if you didn’t?
Lazarus’s art is doing it’s job perfectly. It’s me that can’t handle it emotionally.
On Appeal
Media is personal for everyone who experiences it. Based on everyone’s individual life experiences they will respond to media differently. Lazarus is probably a very different book for someone white, with a lot of privilege, and who has lead a very safe, comfortable life. Lazarus for someone like me … it’s like getting drop kicked every time you turn the page.
In this society, in this culture, in this country in 2025 … I AM Waste.
I’m Black. I’m a woman. I’m not thin. I have several disabilities. I have an autoimmune disease. I have genetic markers for possible future disease. I am seen as unwanted and good for nothing but taking up space best made for someone better, healthier, smarter, whiter. I am someone who uses resources but doesn’t contribute enough back to make up for it. I’m considered useless and therefore not truly a productive member of society.
I am Waste.
I don’t have crucial or necessary skills and the skills I did have – the ones everyone told you were necessary to have to get employed in the 90s and 2000s – have been made obsolete by a lot of technology.
Oh … and I’m also gonna be 60 soon which means I’m unemployable and undesirable.
So yeah, I’m Waste.
Reading a book about Waste and watching Waste get killed, used, raped, tortured, or simply left to die … I can’t anymore. That’s my life. I don’t need the reminders of how the world sees and treats people like me. It’s hard enough just existing everyday without taking my own life …
Lazarus puts me into a pit of misery that I can’t afford right now.
I need all my strength just to get through the day and make sure I have enough money to pay my medical bills, figuring out how to pay rent as the greedy landlords raise the rent far beyond what is reasonable, and somehow just survive despite how many people on social media over the years have urged me to kill myself simply because my existence annoys them.
The world doesn’t want people like me.
The world wants to see people like me disappear.
The world wants perfection, youth, able-bodies, and men with white skin.
It wants slavery of mind and body.
It wants everything I don’t want.
I don’t belong here anymore. Maybe I never did.
Yours sincerely, Waste 2025
Lazarus is probably a very different book for someone white, with a lot of privilege, and who has lead a very safe, comfortable life. Lazarus for someone like me ... it's like getting drop kicked every time you turn the page. In this society ... I AM Waste.
Reading a comic about the brutal dislike, disregard, and destruction of Waste is too difficult. 
