Between the Collapses

From the bestselling author of Boys Weekend and Simplicity, a new graphic novel set in a far future where civilization as we know it has fallen, but revenge—such as stealing your evil billionaire ex-girlfriend’s precious time machine—still abounds

It’s the year 8911 AD, and Zana, an Earth-born trans woman, is trying as hard as she can to avoid the conversation Gee, her partner and heir to galactic megacorp Anthropos Enterprises, has been trying to have for ages. It doesn’t matter that Zana still doesn’t know exactly what Gee does for Anthropos, the world’s only licensed operator of time travel technology—she can’t let Gee break up with her. Not when that might mean leaving the comfort of the life she’s built with Gee since leaving Earth—where cities have sunk, society has all but collapsed, and humans live like densely-packed sardines.

But when Gee finally manages to pull the plug, Zana, furious, decides to enact her revenge not only on her callous ex-girlfriend but also the person she knows is secretly behind their break-up: Gee’s father, CEO of Anthropos. Zana steals a timeship from Anthropos’s advertising fleet—forgetting that she has no idea how to pilot it. After crashing in a charred wasteland, she convinces the local villagers she’s from a powerful place “beyond the stars” so they won’t kill her. As she settles into her new life, she even forms a friendship with one of the villagers, Violet, that slowly deepens into more—but Violet has secret origins of her own.

Meanwhile, Anthropos has dispatched a team of operatives, led by Gee, to find Zana and the timeship at any cost. Zana, who’s avoided responsibility all her life, will finally have to face the consequences of the world she left behind and fight for a future with Violet. Part romance, part science fiction, part satire, Between the Collapses asks whether there’s any such thing as a fresh start—and how far we’d have to run from the past to get one.