Noel Freibert illustrates a hyperbolic zone of the future in Spine: I’ll Still Watch It, a spiral-bound risographic comic published in 2017 by Bred Press in Chicago, Illinois. The publication features two young people, watching through the window of their neighbor’s house as an over-zealous television personality walks through the steps of conventional house cleaning. The viewers seem to be living in a time of limbo between now and the near future, where the featured techniques are viewed as antique, yet still relevant to the public. As the show fills with chemical toxins and its main character succumbs to the dangers of cleaning with 21st century materials, the mesmerization of the two adolescent viewers exposes the addictive properties of media consumption, especially at the (filmed, produced) expense of another person.
Freibert’s comics often contain multiple scenes disarray; Spine: I’ll Still Watch is no exception, as even its title references the notion that many of us would rather watch the spectacle of chaos than keep commotion a secret.