3 Songs is a trio of visual stories. In the first, a dog tries to process the aftermath of a violent accident involving his master and his master’s boyfriend; in the second, a fish schemes to flee his captors (Jen and Tyler); in the third, a boy gets stuck in a bush and encounters a local militant in the wilderness. Each story is paired with stanzas of lyrics to songs by Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana and The Breeders, mining the aestheticized pop-nihilism of ‘90s rock into a stripped, adolescent soundtrack that accompanies each drawing. Combined with the handmade craft of the book’s layout (the drawings are all framed in color-coded, hastily-painted cardboard mattes), the lyrics and DIY aesthetic extends a sense of loss that is pervasive throughout the book. 3 Songs is about innocent bystanders pitted against a chaotic and cruel world. It’s score -- defined by how the characters choose to escape, deny or succumb to that cruelty -- is never set to music. 102 pages (color), hardcover. Published 2019.