Juiceless
Image Description: Hand-illustrated cover image of an orange on a branch and two orange peels without flesh. Text reads “Juiceless. Robin Larisch” on a cream background with orange title banners.
Juiceless is a hand-drawn comic in orange and green hues similar in visual style to a riso print. It is a nine-page poetry comic reflecting on the perceived value of productivity as it relates to disabled bodyminds. It is vibrant and sketchy.
Full Text:
“Juiceless, Robin Larisch. A fruit can only produce so much juice. The rind and seeds thrown away. They could have grown a garden. Housed hummingbirds and pillbug with their mere existence. Petals are plucked. Simply because some think that they aren’t meant to be there. What wonders would emerge from the earth. If juiceless plants were encouraged to flourish?”
Image Descriptions:
Image 1: Text reads “A fruit can only produce so much juice.” The illustration depicts a hand squeezing half an orange aggressively, to the point that the peel is torn and the juice spills outside the frame.
Image 2: The top illustration depicts an empty orange peel. The bottom image shows many scattered orange seeds. “The rind and seeds thrown away.”
Image 3: “They could have grown a garden.” Three illustrations show an orange tree growing from sapling to a full grown fruit bearing tree, against a gold background.
Image 4: Two illustrations overlap. One of a hummingbird perched on a branch and one of a pill bug against amber. Text reads, “Housed hummingbirds and pillbug with their mere existence.”
Image 5: Illustration depicts a dandelion being plucked petal by petal, with falling orange petals flowing down the page framed by blocks of color. “Petals are plucked.”
Image 6: Text reads, “Simply because some think that they aren’t meant to be there.” The central image shows a dandelion plant with roots exposed, including flowers, buds, and leaves against a golden yellow background.
Image 7: Text reads, “What wonders would emerge from the earth.” Illustration depicts fiddlehead ferns spiraling in on themselves.
Image 8: The image depicts a forest floor and the trunk of a redwood tree, covered in moss, mushrooms, and ferns. Text reads, “If juiceless plants were encouraged to flourish?”
