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The Solar Grid, Ch. 1
Comix
2016 (1) — (4)       
Los Angeles, CA

949 years after the Flood, the Earth is now a dry and wretched place. Night has been consigned to legend as a vast network of satellites, the Solar Grid, orbits the planet to keep it basked in eternal daylight. Solar-powered factories operate ceaselessly to produce goods destined for Mars.

Mehret and Kameen are two orphans who make ends meet by scavenging for lucrative artifacts in Wastecountry, a limitless stretch of Earth that has become the Solar System’s de facto landfill. Together they come upon an item that puts them on a path to destroying the Solar Grid, and altering the course of history forever.

The Solar Grid is a graphic novel in 9 parts that examines the relationship between planetary imperialism, hyper-industrialism, and deep exploitation. Race-relations are at the heart of the story, which also includes themes of speculative archeology, space-travel, and environmental destruction.

Chapters are digitally serialized at thesolrgrid.net, and kickstarter-funded print edition is due for publication upon completion, with a Korean edition forthcoming from Huud Books.

Beginning in April 2021, a serialized print edition has been issued by Radix Media in collaboration with Ganzeer’s own imprint, Mythomatic.

The Solar Grid, Ch. 2
Comix
2016 (5) — (6)       
Los Angeles, CA



Pencil, Ink, and digitally graytones
27.9 x 17.8 cm | 11 x 17 in
48pp


From BookRiot:
"THE SOLAR GRID #2: 'Magnitude and Complexity,' is in the flooded future where Sharif Algebri's Skyquench is aiming to siphon off water from Earth for other planetary establishments. Safety 1st officers come to take a look at the apartment of Teddy the whistleblower who leaked Skyquench docs and fled to China. There is wonderfully terse humor and the two officers find a clue in a package sent by a friend of Teddy's. After that, there's a brilliantly drawn TV sequence with boxes that look like overexposed, caricatured screenshots beside blocks of text spoken by the TV talking heads, who are cautiously interviewing Sharif Algebri, holder of 6,649 patents and billionaire."

From ComicBastards:
"This is a comic that shares its lifeblood with books like TRANSMETROPOLITAN and V FOR VENDETTA-not just for its visual density in world-building but because of how it invites a conversation about environmentalism and the global politics of the here and now."

The Solar Grid, Ch. 3
Comix
2016 (7) — (10)       
Los Angeles, CA



Pencil, Ink, and digitally manipulated inkwash
27.9 x 17.8 cm | 11 x 17 in
34pp


From Ploughshares:
"The stories in the recent serialized graphic novel, THE SOLAR GRID, operate not in moments but centuries—tracking the individual struggles of people on an earth living in the shadow of an ecological disaster known as the Flood. But this isn’t Mad Max. For however dire it is to watch two children work around land mines, The Solar Grid is about what a society does after moments of crisis.

"Major cities still exist in the Solar Grid, corporations still exist, and rather than an egalitarian desolation we’re accustomed to in post-apocalyptic fiction, the artist and writer Ganzeer shows a far more likely scenario: in the face of ecological and societal collapse, technology and money come together to save some and doom others.

"In this way, the arc of time of the comic is a conversation in cause-and-effect both in corporate and western interventionism. Nine years after the flood, in a Cairo where people travel by boats, the Solar Grid—the titular series of artificial suns meant to provide an hour or two of extra daylight to reduce the flood levels—is a reactionary measure and one scared people rest all their hope on. By 474 A.F., it’s a reality, some cities are above water but already corporations are siphoning water from Earth to interplanetary colonies. By 945 A.F. whoever’s left is an afterthought."

The Solar Grid, Ch. 4
Comix
2017—2018 (7) 25      
Denver, CO 

Pencil, Ink, and digitally manipulated inkwash
27.9 x 17.8 cm | 11 x 17 in
36pp


Young street-artist Aya wakes up in a police station in a flooded Cairo, with stacks of altered posters used as evidence against her. A conversation with Mehret several hundred years in the future flicks a switch in Old Man Kovsky's head and sends him down memory lane several hundred years in the past: a bar fight in Denver, and plans with a former professor to salvage humanity from the Great Flood.

At 84 pages, this installment of THE SOLAR GRID takes things into expansive new directions, tying together elements from Ch. 1-3, while setting the stage for the impending galactic insanity to come.

That's not all, there is also some particularly kooky backmatter provided by none other than James Harvey (We Are Robin, Masterplasty, Mouth Baby).



The Solar Grid, Ch. 5
Comix
2019—2020 (8) 19     
Denver, CO + Houston, TX 

Pencil, Ink, and digital colors
27.9 x 17.8 cm | 11 x 17 in
34pp 


An illicit trade takes place on Earth’s Moon, meanwhile on Mars, famed artist Mickie Stardust is on his last legs and looking to make another big splash in the art game. The fifth chapter in THE SOLAR GRID epic provides an overview of speculative race relations through encounters between Earthlings, Martians and Endalusians. It also takes us back to Japan circa 2019 where the The Solar Grid concept is first proposed. Also included is an extensive speculative essay written by Josh MacPhee on the history of street-art on Mars, which provides even more fascinating world-building to this very ambitious tale.