Sicko

Loser, creeper, freakazoid, barfbag, skeevo, skank, minger, schemie, troll, freakshow... Sicko.

Sicko is the coming-of-age story of Alex Grey: a smart, suspicious loner who has learned the only way to survive is not to trust anyone.

Alex has a lot to deal with - hunger, loneliness, an abusive home and, worst of all, high school.

To make matters worse she lives on the sprawling metropolis of Montreal Island, the most overcrowded ghetto on the North American continent. Swollen by the Diaspora, carved into fiefdoms by cartels, abandoned by the authorities, and anaesthetised by Somo, a bio-engineered drug that leaves the population comatose, dreaming lucid, waking dreams. Dubbed Somnopolis, the city of sleepers has become the city of nightmares, Detroit, Kowloon and Jo'burg all rolled into one.

Alex dreams of escape from this broken reality, of getting a pilot's license, of leaving the planet behind. But first she has to navigate the casual violence that surrounds her, and find a way to fight back against her tormentors without losing herself.

But then she meets Beth, whose simple kindness skewers her cynical worldview, and breaches the defensive walls she has built around herself. Alex is forced to confront her greatest fear - to make herself vulnerable. And to face her greatest challenge - to somehow make a connection in a fractured world.

Sicko is adapted from "A Grey World" by Joe Hanvy.

Collects Sicko issues 1-6 in hardback format, 220 pp.