When people realized Hurricane Katrina, that Grendel of a storm, was heading toward the Gulf Coast on Aug. 28, 2005, they clogged highways to flee the meteorological monster. Well, the ones with the wheels or the means did. But those without? They hunkered down, unable to evacuate. The result — the wind-whipped Superdome, the corpses floating in flooded streets, the endless succession of the traumatized Black and poor — played out for all to see.

Actually, the horrors continue and Brad Benischek, in his graphic novel Revacuation, lays it all down in pen and ink. The afflicted, drawn as pigeons, fall prey to the woeful ministrations of scarecrows, dogs and cats, mammalian representations of the National Guard, FEMA and grandstanding politicos. The traumatized avifauna is also hounded by a wolf and a cowpoke, which every fourth-grader knows are stand-ins for Cheney and Bush.

And speaking of fourth graders, Benischek would do well to ask some youngsters how to spell words like “business” or “galleries,” since the text’s misspellings dilute his message: Even though the waters have receded, we’re still in deep water here. But look past that, and you’ll find yourself forlorn at what a misery life can become for those who have no way out.