The Welsh cartoonist Chris Reynolds has been creating Mauretania Comics since 1985. Short detective tales and poetic fragments like the one below thread through a future earth where aliens politely control humanity. On the surface, this world seems much like ours: a place of cool afternoon shadows and gently rolling hills, half-empty trains and sleepy downtown streets. But the closer you look, the weirder it gets. Mysterious figures suddenly appear in childhood photos, family members disappear forever without warning, power outages abound, and certain people gain the power of flight. The loosely plotted comics raise more questions than they answer, leaving behind a lingering sense of existential unease and dread. A new collection of Mauretania Comics, selected and designed by the acclaimed cartoonist Seth, will be published by New York Review Comics on May 1. Below, read “Endless Summer Wells,” a strange and melancholy comic that appears in the forthcoming book.

From The New World: Comics from Mauretania, by Chris Reynolds. Excerpt courtesy of New York Review Comics.