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Do concepts like war and enemies hold a people together? Does conflict have an irresistible cultural momentum? These are the questions the cartoonist Cathy Malkasian explores in Temperance.

After a brutal injury sustained in battle, Lester has no memory of his prior life. For the next thirty years his wife does everything in her power to keep him from remembering "and reconstructing" a society, Blessedbowl, that has since elevated him as a hero. Blessedbowl is a cultural convergence of lies, memories, stories, and beliefs. Its people thrive on ideas of persecution, exceptionalism, and enemies, persuaded that war lurks just outside their walls.

Lester's gradual emergence from his amnesia signals a crisis for the people of Blessed-bowl, as their illusions become less and less sustainable. The story of Temperance is an account of recovery and awakening. Malkasian creates a densely textured social context, masterfully conveying the idiosyncratic physical domain with its spiraling structures and quasi-medieval architecture along with intimate yet plastic portraits of her characters in a rich, tonal pencil line.

Temperance is a galvanizing work of empathy and violence by one of today's most thoughtful and accomplished cartoonists.