Comic Relief: "976 sq. ft."

Sometimes one must laugh lest one cry— a mantra to repeat during these trying times in the housing market. From SF-based blog Life Without Buildings comes the comic relief many of us so desperately need: 976 sq. ft. is a comic written and illustrated by artist Tom Kaczynski and published in Fantagraphics' new quarterly anthology, Mome. Kaczynski burrows into the respective psyches of a young couple who watch helplessly as a mega-development across the street steals their sunlight and, eventually, their sanity. (See the full broadside here.) Anyone who has ever fretted over their inability to buy, searched endlessly to no avail, or grown jaded by box after box packed with faux-modern furniture will empathize with Kaczynski's characters, who manage their existential crises like good and proper Americans: with Myspace, post modern wailings, and handfuls of pills. What troopers! Wonder if they've seen the public art creeping up the wall of the Soma Grand? For their sake, we hope not.
· 976 sq. ft. [Life Without Buildings]