3 out of 5

…In which Chadwick lectures at us for 40 pages about overpopulation.

Okay, not really. But kinda.

I realize Earth Day hasn’t gone away, but it says something that there used to be enough social cachet for it to at least be a yearly talking point, whereas in 2026, somehow the yearly talking point is climate change denialism. And I’ve essentially gestured towards that slide to cynicism with my opener: the 90s version of environmentalism unfortunately got depicted as a divide between crunchy hippies and people who weren’t that, with recycling bins that got mixed up with garbage cans at school or work about as far as the common person wanted to go. Now, yes, some of the “by X year, Y will happen” statistics Paul ends up citing in this comic (which features two Concrete new shorts and a colorized older one, all eco-centric, alongside some nature-focused tales from Vess and Moebius) have been tempered somewhat, and some things more rationally assessed as our knowledge has grown (see: overpopulation), but also, just like Earth Day, it’s not like this stuff has gone away, and if anything – you might avert your eyes ashamedly at how spot on Paul’s takedown of corporate motivations and nudges at public laziness are. To that extent, his tome in the back is probably the best read here, as it gives some very practical, meet-me-in-the-middle suggestions for people of greater or lesser interest in the matter for what they can do and what they can read to chip in and stay informed, and it does it without judgment.

Which is mostly true of the comic as well, it just ends up feeling a bit more preachy because it’s too clearly onea’ them educational comic books that has a cartoon character read off its bullet points. That can be dressed up as Concrete practicing a speech, allowing Paul to over up some really intricate visual medleys as backgrounds; or in the reprinted “Stay Tuned for Pearl Harbor,” in which Maureen daydreams different ways to interact with nature during a car ride, while Concrete debates with Larry in the background; but in both cases – it’s pretty pictures and a lot of text. Not uninteresting, and not without value, but you understand that Concrete and the characters are taking a back seat to The Point.

The other new story, “A Billion Conscious Acts,” is a really fascinating conceit, taking at look at the destruction – on a micro level – caused by Concrete’s footprint in the grass, but Chadwick bounces around a bit too much to keep it connected, and then pulls out to discuss how we’re disrupting rainforest ecosystems similarly, but it’s an odd metaphor because, like, Concrete was just walking – that feels like a separate behvior from actively deforesting. (Yes, you can chalk them both up to being things the perpetrator considers harmless, but that feels like opening the door to the wrong kind of debate. It’s a bit too heady.) Lovern Kinderzierski’s painted coloring throughout all these are a great offset to Paul’s packed pages, Lovern having a good sense of when to use popping flats versus blends.

The Vess story, sorry to say, is a bit of a wash for me, just offering up some static nature paintings set to Thoreau passages – I’m neither a fan of that form of art though I like Vess) or Thoreau, so my opinion comes with grains of salt – but Moebius’ “The Still Planet…” is a trippy travel narrative of two of Giraud’s characters, Stel and Atan, visiting a barren planet and then triggering its sudden blooming into greenery. Some hope, offsetting Paul’s more downbeat entries.