When I interviewed breakout cartoonist and comic writer Ezra Claytan Daniels back in October, he was excited to talk about his newest project, "a nonfiction political essay that I wrote with the intent to communicate certain moralistic and philosophical political ideals to problematic white people."

You could tell from Daniels's tone that he was nervous and excited to get the book out into the world.

All the comics that I do have a very strong sociopolitical agenda beneath the genre trappings that I candy-coat these ideas in. But I started to feel really disenchanted with that approach, because I felt like it was really easy for people to take the wrong message from things that are too obfuscated through genre conventions...So I was trying to think of ways to communicate ideals a little bit more directly. And so I came up with this zine that kind of explores the narrative origins of empathy and the evolutionary origins of narrative — why we, as humans, try to wrap all of our life’s experiences in narrative terms; and how that narrative worldview shapes our perception of empathy; and then why it’s easier for us to feel empathy for some people than others.

It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It took me forever to do it. It’s like 60 pages, but each page is one panel so it’s actually a pretty short book. But I asked a couple of leading psychologists to consult with me on the book, so I got their feedback: Adam Waytz [author of [*The Power of Human*](http://adamwaytz.com/book)] and Paul Piff who [did the rigged Monopoly study that became a viral TED Talk](https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_piff_does_money_make_you_mean?language=en).

Daniels concluded, "the central idea is to create something that’s super-palatable, it’s super-easy for people to understand, but it’s still got some intellectual depth to it, so it’ll give people something to think about."

I bought a copy of the book, a handsome little tract called Are You at Risk for "Empathy Myopia?", at Short Run. At five bucks, the thing feels like a steal: it's classified online as a minicomic, but it has a spine and it's in full color. (If you missed it at Short Run, you can buy it online from Radiator Comics. Daniels also wants the book to be spread far and wide, so it's available to read for free on his website.)

The truth is that there aren't many comics in the world like "Empathy Myopia" — at least not that I've seen. It might be closest in tone and in format to Chick Tracts, honestly, though that comparison does a disservice to Daniels. It's a short, dense exploration of how narrative interacts with our brain to change the way we perceive the world and the people in it. There's an excellent discussion of what it means to have privilege. And then there's an application of those ideas to the world created by social media, and a pitch to break free from the narrative strictures that we're presently trapped in.

As an experiment, "Empathy Myopia" absolutely meets Daniels's criteria: it is, in fact, "super-palatable" and easy to understand, and it does have intellectual depth. Daniels sees the book as a way to explain to alt-right trolls and Trump supporters why and how they've become a force for destruction. I'm not entirely sure that actually putting Trump in the book, and a panel depicting a Trump supporter as a slovenly man outside a trailer, will necessarily win over the hearts and minds that Daniels wants to win.

Still, this kind of comic — this investigative, explanatory polemic — is perfect for comics. It lays out a complex set of thoughts in a very easy-to-digest format. I wish some publisher would get into the business of commissioning these from cartoonists with something to say about the world, and then getting them into the hands of as many readers as possible. More creators should make comics with saving the world as their primary goal.