Nylon Years: A Graphic Dramatization of the Flixborough Disaster

It is 1973 England, an exciting place at the forefront of popular culture. A giant addition to the Nypro chemical plant in the rural community of Flixborough has just started production. Using the latest advancements in chemical process technology, the new plant promises to satisfy the British textile industry’s hunger for more and cheaper nylon. But at 4:54 p.m. on June 1, 1974, an explosion unlike any other rips hellfire through the plant and ends it all. In NYLON YEARS, Ramin Abhari, a chemical engineer and graphic artist, weaves technology, history, and romance into a fabric spanning 40 years (of nylon). Based on actual people and events, this fictionalized account is the epic story of the workers, chemists, and engineers who acted with the best intentions as their plant was becoming increasingly unsafe. It is also a cautionary tale about the vulnerabilities that any change can introduce to even the safest plants.