Cover samples and panel production artwork for a graphic novel, âSoul Doubtâ.
âCarson Phillips is in many ways the quintessential white, middle-class male.
Beset by fears of personal and professional failure, unable to put his passions or his education to good use, and alienated from society at large, Carson has resorted to supporting himself by selling capitalist byproducts for the Shopping On Demand (S.O.D.) television network, a job he is neither qualified for nor enthusiastic about. He lives in a modest, one-bedroom apartment in the city of Los Angeles, where he has struggled to distinguish himself in his work and find the companionship of people to whom he can relate.
A broadcast the night of Thanksgiving, 2011 suddenly sends him over the edge. Unable to endure the callousness of his boss, manipulative producer Susan De Luca, and left without help from her assistant, Lindsey (a former sexual partner), or successful S.O.D. personality Sammy (his closest friend), Carson ends up having an on-air breakdown that not only puts his sales through the roof, but leads him running off into the night high on a fever of adrenaline. Dazed and exhilarated -truly awake for the first time- he makes a fateful decision that leaves him clinging to life in a week-long coma. Once he comes face to face with his own subconscious, all the things he has tried to remain deeply ignorant of come crashing down upon him, causing him to re-evaluate every choice he has ever made as an American citizen, and a human being.
When it becomes clear that Carson has caught the attention of the public eye, he finds himself receiving offers from Susan to star in a prime-time network game show based around a line of products designed to be beneficial to both consumers and the environment; a possibility that has Carson, once again, contemplating his choices on a fundamental level. Through his transformative journey, Carson struggles to make amends with his estranged older sister, Brigitte, his cancer stricken father, John, and the recurring specter of his younger brother, Ben (a decorated police officer dead of an apparent suicide years before).
The nature of Carson's very existence, as a product of both his environment and his times, reveals to him the ignominious and contradictory role he plays as a bullshit salesman in a "free" society, and a possible connection to his brother's death. A haunting, adumbrative story about the unspeakable side of Western civilization, Soul Doubt is a story inspired by true events that poses serious questions about our ability to affect positively the outcome of a massive social experiment we call home.â
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