Climate crisis informs new graphic novel, Cabal

Marking the culmination of two decades of illustrative and writing exploration of cli-fi survivalism, technological advancement and a uniquely visualised world, Cabal documents a thought-provoking series that pays homage to Van der Westhuyzen’s passion for nature and the environment. 

Less traditional graphic novel and more illustrated short story, Cabal is a meandering journey, both a provocation and celebration of technology and human invention and its relationship to the living world. 

The story was born through Van der Westhuyzen’s childhood spent in nature in New Zealand’s countryside and a move to the city, a transition that sparked conflict between a love for fast-moving innovation and the remoteness of being in the environment. It was this feeling that spawned bringing both ideas together through a survival story, one where technology and invention helps and hinders in a natural setting. Through the sci-fi genre, he has communicated the tale through the bending of typical narrative rules.

On a desperate mission to establish a habitable future for civilisation, sabotage strands a group of scientists on their would-be new home world. There, they find themselves at the mercy of L1V, the AI sent to ready the planet for human presence.

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“I am incredibly proud to bring the Cabal world into the real world and breathe life into this 20-year odyssey,” says Andrew van der Westhuyzen. “Collider has provided me with a platform to experiment with a visual journey and this is only the first chapter in a much more extensive series. The issues of the day make this the ultimate time to launch Cabal, and I hope it will serve as a stimulus to provoke readers to consider new ideas at a time where climate change and nature are colliding with the rapid pace of technology, part bettering and part marring our world.”

With a background of over two decades in design and animation, Van der Westhuyzen’s passion for exploring the interconnected mediums culminates in the creation of the Cabal world. Over the past two decades, he has won a number of major awards for a variety of projects on environmental issues such as One Show Award and a Clio Award for The Plastic Forecast with Minderoo Foundation,  and a D&AD wooden pencil for carbon neutral book design for Belong. Van der Westhuyen has been involved in many large scale international projects, notably a two minute animated take-over of Times Square in New York City for the Nelson Mandela Foundation. He has also advised on concept and production design on a number of award-winning short-film projects including Daniel Askill’s We Have Decided Not To Die and his recent short film, Universal Machine where Andrew consulted extensively for the design of the android character. Cabal is Van der Westhuyzen’s first book, drawing on years of creative direction, campaign and design sensibilities. It is designed as an A3 large format book that celebrates typography, uses strong bold colour and hybrid digital illustration.

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