Dystopian necropolitics in Arnau Sanz Martínez's Un fantasma and the admonitory role of contagion narratives in the COVID-19 era.

This article analyses the dystopian necropolitics depicted in Un fantasma, which depicts a fictional viral pandemic that gives rise to a brutal military regime, and considers how such a dystopian depiction of pandemics can aid in understanding lived realities with COVID-19 and what these may mean for future social pacts following the global pandemic. Written in 2019 before the onset of COVID-19, the comic enables an analysis of extant social anxieties that existed prior to the pandemic as depicted in Un fantasma, as well as a comparison of this dystopia with what actually came to pass. By engaging with the history of contagion narratives, and also with scholars of dystopia studies, and necropolitics, this article argues that fears of rising authoritarianism that predated the COVID-19 pandemic remain relevant (and in some cases have been augmented) since its outbreak. The comic is an admonitory work; Sanz Martínez's imagining of what might come to pass in a worldwide pandemic reminds readers what they must strive to prevent during the pandemic in which they are actively living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]