Abstract Diseases! I wanted to do something else. But I feel like I’ve got more material for this than anything else. When real life is full of weird diseases, sometimes it can allow creatives to make their own. Comic books have lists full of them where they’re allowed to get even more bizarre. Sometimes that includes being adapted from novels like The Ring. But some of them get so absurd, it’s hard to take them seriously. So what drove me into this madness? What comics treated the insanity right? Let’s find out.
Botched Horror Viruses
Might as well get the stuff that led me to this out of the way. The Empty Man comic I covered a while ago revolves around the title disease. But it went from endemic coverage to trying and messily going into Cosmic Horror. Then there’re attempts to go into The Ring novel Spiral. But don’t take my word for it, ask Atop The 4th Wall:
Spiralmania! Ready to Run Wild! (Sorry couldn’t find a video, pretty sure I butchered this too).
As you can guess, these titles share a problem in trying to rationalize the supernatural with pseudoscience. One more than the other.
“Benign” Abstract Diseases
As for diseases that can be abstract without feeling like a bad fart, what do they have?
One obvious way is trying to make sense in context. No supernatural leanings, just urban fantasies like STDs formed from inter-species mingling between aliens and gods. Or Marvel’s T-O Virus where sentient technology found a way to convert organic matter into machines.
Or for the less fantastic stuff, make them mutated derivatives of existing diseases. For example, satirical comic Prez‘s Cat Flu isn’t really that odd, but the people reacting to it are.
Often times it’s better not to find explanations to absurd illnesses. The STDs in Black Hole and Death Sentence are meant to be metaphorical for stages in life. As for world ending infections like in Walking Dead or Y: The Last Man they’re meant to show a drastically changed world.
As for times when sickness leads into the supernatural, I think James Tynion’s Memetic hits the mark. No explanations or transmissions that make sense even in context, instead leading into cosmic horror. Something that admittedly, The Empty Man comic tried but the movie did a better job of.
Anything Supernatural To Sickness?
Honestly, the main thing to take away from this isn’t the plot, but the mood surrounding an abstract disease. For example Judge Dredd’s Jigsaw Disease wasn’t meant to be taken all that seriously. It was supposed to just be… something. I can’t tell if it was a tribute to a Bauhaus picture or someone’s idea of an avant-garde disease. Abstract art’s supposed to be applicable anyway.
As for other examples, a science focused story will definitely need to apply the principles to outbreaks. How people present it is up to the storyteller. But supernatural stories? The only place for explanations there are to show how helpless rationality is in those settings. It’s why even trying to apply some sort of pseudo-science can feel jarring.
Thanks for coming to the end and as always, remember to look between the panels.