Everything We Miss

“On the dawn horizon, a pine tree all too briefly uproots itself. It dances… and nobody sees.” Have you ever wondered what goes on in your life when you’re looking the other way? Perhaps you’re so drawn into what’s going on with you that you fail to notice the events taking place to your periphery—or even right under your nose? In Everything We Miss, Luke Pearson explores the dying days of a failing relationship through the infinitesimal unseen moments that surround it—and us. Emotionally eroded and on the edge of separation, the central couple are going through the classic stages of growing apart. Absorbed by insecurity, indifference, and steadily-growing resentment, they fail to notice the strange happenings that surround their final moments together. Sometimes magical, sometimes mundane, these unnoticed fragments of existence weave together and hang disconcertingly over their lives, isolated yet all-encompassing. As the couple move through the processes of breaking up, the line between reality and fiction is obscured. Their narrative unfolds as much through their dysfunction as through that of their environment itself: formless spectres rise through the floorboards, directly gripping their jaws and tongues in order to make their dissatisfaction audible; unbeknownst to them, their living room has become overrun by a colony of voyeuristic otherworldly creatures; outside, just for a moment, a dog whispers something under its breath; and somewhere, in someone, a cancer grows—silently and undetected. Luke Pearson’s most ambitious project to date, Everything We Miss is a poignant and bitingly empathetic graphic novella from one of the most exciting young creators in British comics. As well as an essential showcase of Pearson’s astonishing visual talent and storytelling ability, this is a book for anyone who’s ever experienced the complex emotionality of loss, or agonised about what they have yet to find.