Genna Rivieccio

It was a different time. Another era. And, evidently, a very archaic one based on this strange finding by a team of archaeologists during an excavation in Midtown Manhattan (after the latest massive flood subsided). Based on the contents of the diary, it was a very dark period for work. Or rather, what used to be considered work... We here at Dark Past, Brighter Future Laboratories took great interest in the diary, of sorts (though often more of a how-to guide for surviving the rigors and banalities of office life), when it was presented to us as a historical artifact of great importance. And it is just that. For only by reading through such a harrowing document can we realize how far we've come both as a species and in the world of work. Especially now that all such faux and monotonous types of labor have been passed on to the robots. According to the anonymous office worker's diary, though, engaging in this breed of work usually does lead to a person becoming a robot.

Never given her due in the 00s at the peak of the reign of white girl socialites like Paris H., Tate Carmichael demands the spotlight be redirected back to her. And if trying to buy her way into the glow of the flashbulbs didn't do it, then maybe telling the truth about that strange (yet simpler) time called the "aughts" will garner her rightful respek (a word she still uses sometimes thanks to the momentary slip-up of dating Ali G, who turned out, like so many people of the era, not to be a real person). So she presents to you, in this analog thing called a book, her tale of being the original enfant terrible of tabloid and internet gossip...never lauded for her "badness" the way a certain other "actress" posing as a true member of the socialite sistren was (and is).

Brontosaurus Illustrated is the story of a rape that is now fifty years old. Nina Gold was a 19-year-old Stanford sophomore riding a full math scholarship to the American dream. But her avid quest was trampled one spring break-like an ant by a boot- due to kidnapping and rape, a trauma the size of a brontosaurus. Two armed Mexican men in black ski masks slithered out of the shrubbery on a Baja beach as Nina and her friends were enjoying the sunset. They were tied up and stowed in the back of their own van, then raped on the sand. Of course, everything was different after that. Or was it? How could she know? Brontosaurus Illustrated is a graphic rendition of this story and Nina's consequent spin-out that lasted for decades as she searched for reasons, meanings, antidotes. And a way forward. Is Nina Gold a lucky victim, rife with muscular resilience, because she turned her life around? Or is she warped and ruined forever? Is she a better person for having been raped? Stronger? Tougher? Brighter? More empathetic? More poetic? Kinder? Or is she worse? Meaner? Colder? And much more detached? There is no way to know. But with a rape occurring every minute of every day, there are millions of stories that need to be told. Brontosaurus Illustrated is one of them. With drawings. And jokes.