> GRAPHICS MIKE DONACHIE

Ghetto: Sanctuary For Sale By Gregory Henriquez, Marya Cotton-Gould, Sarah Schlegelmilch, Patricia Tewfik and Wei Li Henriquez Partners Architects/ Blueprint, 92 pages, $19.95

It’s difficult to know where to start in describing this fascinating book, which is simultaneously: speculative fiction in graphic novel form; a real proposal for an architectural project by a Vancouver firm in collaboration with the UNHCR; and a contribution to the ongoing 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale.

It’s also an experiment in comics storytelling, presenting the same story twice. Start at the front and you have the pointof-view of U.S. tourists in Venice; from the back, you will see the same events through the eyes of Iranian refugees. The middle pages present a credible, detailed proposal to realize the fictional setting of the book: a housing project that’s part holiday destination and part sanctuary for refugees.

This is social activism in story form, in which the fiction seeks to become real.

Cyclopedia Exotica By Aminder Dhaliwal Drawn & Quarterly, 268 pages, $29.95

There’s no shortage of comic books using allegory to present the experience of minorities — the X-Men are an obvious example — but Aminder Dhaliwal has a unique voice.

She did it with “Woman World,” her superb first book, and “Cyclopedia Exotica” is even funnier and more thoughtprovoking.

It’s the story of cyclopes, the “monsters” from Greek mythology. Here, they’re a real ethnic minority coexisting with “two-eyes” people, while enduring a range of assumptions and prejudices, from the depressingly mundane example of having “hard-to-pronounce” names, to the downright creepy fetishization of their physical differences.

Dhaliwal, who’s originally from Brampton, has her own experiences to drawn upon, so “Cyclopedia Exotica” makes its important points well. It’s also hilarious throughout, with a guilty aftertaste when you realize what you’re laughing at. But you’re learning, as the allegory does its work. Good.