What do you call a book that is a graphic novel, an art book, and could also be described as an anthology? In his latest book, Raw Sewage Science Fiction, Marc Bell decides to explain what the reader can expect, summarizing it as a “cross between an experimental short story collection and an informative textbook,” of which the title hints at, both in terms of form and content.

Raw Sewage Science Fiction
Marc Bell

Drawn & Quarterly
$34.95
cloth
336pp
9781770467194

After reading through the book, I can tell you both descriptions are accurate, but fail to capture what raw sewage science fiction truly is.  In my understanding, “raw sewage” refers to both his indiscriminate use of various media and the crude state of his stream of consciousness. As for “science fiction,” while Bell’s work is not exactly speculative, some of his stories do contain elements that could be labelled as such. Bell is an opportunistic artist at heart, and by that I mean he seems to jump at every single opportunity (or piece of paper), no matter its provenance or nature, to make art. No medium is too lousy, and the result is a mix of stories, illustrations, and collages using everything from random postcards, photos and diagrams from magazines, torn-off pages from notebooks, to canvas primed with wall paint. Bell gathers this material, produced between 2010 to 2022, and presents the vast array of his artistic pursuits. 

As mentioned, Bell enjoys a kind of autofiction and uses characters, or rather a character under several avatars, as an author surrogate. The characters of Chop Salad in “Banal Complications,” Slogan Schnauzer in “Monkey Convicted in Horrific Paste-Related Slaying of Y-Front Schnauzer,” and the aforementioned Regular Paper are so many of these avatars. Using them, Bell romanticizes banal moments and mundane details that seem to be from his actual life, but also invents fantastical stories and takes his avatars on absurd roller coasters. The avatars are not the only stars, as he does also write as himself in one story, “Struts Diary,” an illustrated diary of his time in residency at the Struts Gallery in New Brunswick in 2018. As for the content, when Bell is sticking to the absurd fiction, he uses discombobulated language, twisting codes and conventions to mimic administrative lingo, which often obscures meaning. While it can be hard to follow at the best of times, his distaste for systems and bureaucracy can be clearly felt throughout his work.  

Bell’s unique style is a mix of geometric and organic shapes, which you could stare at for hours on end and still discover something new. His use of all available materials lets his creativity shine; he’s an artist who is clearly driven to create and thrive in all possible settings, and it’s easy to picture him drawing something new at any moment, on anything that strikes his fancy. 

The appendices prove very useful to anyone unfamiliar with Bell’s work, but the glossary could’ve been inserted after the introduction rather than as an appendix; even if its content is as absurd as the rest of the book, it nonetheless sheds light on many lingering questions (for example, the whole Chop Salad who is also Slogan Schnauzer who is also Regular Paper situation). As an anthology, Raw Sewage Science Fiction works beautifully, showcasing the breadth of Bell’s talents and giving readers a peek inside his rambling mind.mRb