Oil and Water
Four months after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a small group of Oregonians traveled to the Gulf Coast to assess the damage. In this graphic-novel recounting of their expedition, we follow the well-intentioned but naive activists as they meet scientists, crabbers, bird rehabilitators, the local head of Homeland Security (found shark fishing on a beach), and other locals whose lives were roiled by the disaster. Details of the devastation are conveyed mostly through interviews with those personally affected and dry text pages. As for the human element, vignettes portraying the residents and their experiences are more compelling than the (apparently fictionalized) sequences featuring the clueless outsiders. Wheeler’s simple drawings convey the information but do little to enhance the emotional component of the story. Nonetheless, the work effectively sets forth the essential dilemma: the region’s economy remains dependent on the very industry that ravaged the coast; and the “hush money” paid by BP in the wake of the disaster ensures that most residents continue to see oil as the solution to their woes rather than the problem. --Gordon Flagg