In this graphic novel, our present day is being viewed by someone in the distant future, watching us and trying to understand what our life was like.

The watcher is among us, but invisible. He focuses his attention on a dying young woman in a hospital, watching her over many months, trying to know and to understand her experience, in a time period that is completely alien to him.

Watching is a poignant and thought-provoking story, which won an award for Best Web Comic in 2015, as part of the Slate Book Review & Center for Cartoon Studies Cartoonist Studio Prize.

The world looks bleak in this dystopian future, where people can only learn through watching images of the past; they are observers rather than participants.

This story made me reflect on the nature of memory, and the importance of living in the here and now (which is something I struggle with).

Find out more about Winston Rowntree and their work here.