Thorburn, a Canadian musician who has fronted several indie bands, including The Unicorns and Islands, tells a largely wordless story in Penguins. The interconnected strips focus on the ways that the birds’ flightlessness complicates their existence, serving as allegory for human existence.
"Penguins go through a lot of hell that could be avoided if they had the ability to fly," says Thorburn. "This cruel irony lends itself to humor, as well as sadness. Death and the desperate search for love and companionship seem so tethered to life as a penguin, as well as for humans, and so the goal was to bridge those two and make them funny."