How Capitalism Did End (a futurescape) by Ben Miller

In WCP’s recent New Constructions Hybrid Book Contest several entries stood out for their originality and power.  Finalist Ben Miller’s work was among our favorites. He graciously agreed to share a small sample of his timely graphic brilliance here. Enjoy. BR

Miller writes:

“I employ varying approaches to developing hybrid texts, but one element unites all: the aim of offering readers a transformational experience, just as each expression makes me, in some sense, a new kind of artist. By “new” I do not mean shiny and flawless. I mean possessing the freshness of having been altered by resolute immersion in an unpredictable creative process.

The graphic novel How Capitalism Did End tangles with a single, but infinite, question: Where might American society be headed? In this work, as earth perishes from the nihilism of greed, pollution, and violence targeting vulnerable populations, an anonymous citizen—in an act of urgent archivism—transcribes portions of the Internet by hand to create a hard-copy that will not be erased when the Cloud goes down. The transcriber desires to leave a cautionary record for any future visitor to the dead planet.  

Each page is a handmade “screen”. Recorded are craven products and absurd services designed to distract individuals from the disaster’s gravity and to squeeze final fat profits from a faltering populace. The mortal dance of lines drawn by the frantic translator serves both as an encoded autobiography and an anthropological artifact.

A “Search Tool” listing product names cataloged on each screen allows readers the alternative of engaging with dense visuals as a word find game.

LAST DAYS

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

FIND FEATURE

Screen 96

Blink’s burger minimizer

Hoster the Coaster

Kelp Kirby’s Knife Dullener

Poor Richard’s E-Z-Lite Reusable Briquettes

Urban Queen Anne’s Lace wildflower seeds grow in cement

Screen 97

 Inhalo Carpet beautifully incorporates filth into its design

Ned Doow’s famed almost fool-proof psycholo-cloner

Renfro’s electric block-long limo

Quite Popular Hot lava delivered nationwide

Screen 99

 De-cheeser suction cup repairs misguided sushi rolls

Dull-O-Cycle

Nil-Grill steams steaks

Prawn Lawn kit

S-80 Squash Dispatcher addresses July abundance

BIO: 

Ben Miller’s work has appeared in Best American Essays, Best American Experimental Writing, Kenyon Review, New England Review, Harvard Review, Salmagundi, Yale Review, Southern Review, and other venues. He is the author of Pandemonium Logs (Rutgers University Press), winner of the 2025 Balcones Prize for Nonfiction, and River Bend Chronicle: The Junkification of a Boyhood Idyll Amid the Curious Glory of Urban Iowa (Lookout Books).

NOTES:

Among antecedents to this montage form of ethical exploration are Letters from the Earth by Mark Twain, Cane by Jean Toomer, The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, Wacky Packages stickers (circa 1970s) and the unstoppable blues of Abbey Lincoln, dissolver of notes to make melodies sing of harrowing things.- Ben Miller

Other project excerpts have appeared in Nelligan Review, SLAB, Black Warrior Review, Ubiquitous, Making Waves and The Columbia Review.-