A Day of Ordinary Madness: The Psychedelic Spiral of What We Mean by Yesterday

What happens when the invisible barrier of human tolerance completely snaps under the crushing weight of everyday life? With the first volume of What We Mean by Yesterday, published by Fantagraphics, Benjamin Marra answers this question by crafting a brutal, cynical, and hallucinated “Falling Down” for the era of social media and collective neurosis.

An unmissable lysergic trip for anyone who loves underground comics and stories of total, irreversible rebellion against the daily grind.

The protagonist, Bruce Barnes, is an ordinary school teacher trapped in a hostile scholastic microcosm, tormented by students who lack any shred of respect and are masters of psychological sadism. The narrative opens right in the middle of this daily trench warfare, showcasing a continuous descent into a downward spiral triggered by a relentless barrage of everyday micro-aggressions. Gratuitous insults in the classroom, provocations in the hallways, and false accusations from a student are nothing but the byproduct of a neurotic, dysfunctional society. As these elements accumulate minute by minute, they drive Barnes straight to the brink of despair.

The true turning point, both narratively and stylistically, occurs in the staff room. Seeking a brief moment of respite to soothe his raw nerves, Barnes accepts a cigarette from a colleague, completely unaware that it has been laced with speed. From that single puff, the teacher’s mind surrenders, giving way to a chaotic vortex of emotions, impulsive violence, blind rage, and a total clouding of rationality. Barnes mounts his “rage snake,” and the comic undergoes a radical mutation: the clean, essential graphic style of the opening pages abruptly inverts, transforming into a perennial night made of white lines against a completely black background. It is the perfect visual representation of his mental blackout.

What follows is a pop-infused, hyper-violent, and psychedelic escalation of robbing colleagues, manic racing through city traffic, and car crashes. Yet, it is during his temporary return home that the comic reaches its peak of alienation: Barnes drags himself inside his walls, sinks into his armchair, and tries to numb the remaining adrenaline, sedating himself with beers and cigarettes in front of the TV until he collapses into his torpor.

The drama, however, does not stop with sleep. The cigarette butt he was still clutching between his fingers burns his skin, and that tiny, painful physical trigger acts as yet another reactionary detonator. It sets off a series of dizzying, tragic, and unexpected consequences that propel the protagonist far beyond the confines of urban reality, pushing him toward the outer edges of the cosmos and his own psyche.

Originally born as a daily drawing experiment on Instagram, What We Mean by Yesterday preserves its explosive, episodic, and extemporaneous nature in this print edition. Marra’s style, fast, intentionally raw, and unfiltered—strips the human being of any civilized superstructure, delivering an exaggerated, grotesque, and frighteningly magnetic portrait of a man pushed past the limit. An unmissable lysergic trip for anyone who loves underground comics and stories of total, irreversible rebellion against the daily grind.

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