Chris Gooch

Chris Gooch is a cartoonist. Having published many short comics, his previous graphic novels are Bottled and Deep Breaths. Under-Earth (IDW Publishing) is a graphic novel about inmates in an underground prison struggling to build meaningful lives in a broken system. Under-Earth takes place in a subterranean landfill, hollowed out to serve as a massive improvised prison. Sunken into the trash and debris of the past — Gameboys, iPhones, coffee cups, old cars — we follow two parallel stories. In the first, a new arrival struggles to adapt to the everyday violence, physical labor, and poverty of the prison city. Overwhelmed and alone, he finds a connection with a fellow inmate through an old, beat-up novel. Meanwhile, a pair of thieves pull off a risky job in exchange for the prisons’ schematics and the promise of escape — only to be betrayed by their employer. As the two women lay their plans for revenge, their focus shifts from an obsession with the outside world to the life they have with each other.