Fatal Distraction

“Fatal Distraction” deals with such themes as obsession, relationships, drugs, rock and roll, copycats and scapegoats in a 250-odd-page graphic novel. Explorations into how some of us distract ourselves from the horrors of the world and our own lives, Fatal Distraction is also a play on Fatal Attraction – a Hollywood movie from the mid-eighties about female obsession and gender stereotypes. The dark themes involved in the novel are tempered by naivete and dry subtle humour sometimes disguised by lovely images of totem creatures and pretty girls. Combining fragments of text, drawing and collage, Ahlers creates a truthful, disrupted narrative fusing the art and literary worlds. The book was five years in the works, beginning as small pieces of paper with scrawled notes and images. Stylistically similar to “Temper, Temper”, “Fatal Distraction” draws readers in with its diary-like sincerity but ends up working as a mirror, forcing readers to take a look at themselves.