It’s been a while, and plenty’s happened: first and foremost, check out my interview with PBS Mediashift on graphic journalism processes and practices. Then if you want the latest issue of the graphic journalism investigation into human trafficking in Nepal that I’m currently working on, check out the updates from my ongoing Kickstarter (ok so the Kickstarter is over, but you can always get issues from the archcomix store if you missed that boat). Those of you who got the last Archcomix newsletter (sign up here if not) will also know that I’ve been shortlisted for the Creative Work Fund for my project on San Francisco’s mentally ill homeless population and their struggle to find housing services. More soon – and be sure to check out partner site Graphic Voices for more about recent collaborations with NGOs (ECPAT and Save the Children). Thanks for your support.
I’m now back in Kathmandu, finishing up the graphic novel, my anti-trafficking exploits in comics, producing the core materials for the human trafficking vulnerability survey in partnership with Stanford and Vanderbilt (now proudly funded by Humanity United and USAID) as well as starting a fresh batch of projects – one on child sexual abuse for a swiss NGO, another on refugees in the eastern side of the country. More on both soon. I also just finished my first anti-trafficking comic in Nepali with World Education, which is printing 5000 copies in nepali to distribute to hundreds of schools around the country. For more details or an overview of using comics in partnership with NGOs as advocacy and awareness-raising tools, check out the new Graphic Voices website or follow us @graphicvoices
One of the longer, more in-depth interviews I’ve done of late, with a focus on the nature of reporting using comics and where I think the form is going. Thanks to host Marcus Smith for the engaging back and forth and producer James Perkins for ensuring it all went smoothly.
Thank you all for the incredible support of my BBC piece last month. It got almost one million hits on its launch day and has clocked up over 200,000 more, plus over 4000 shares on social media. I’ve since talked about my work on Russia TV (see below), my comics journalism process on the BBC (see here) and am speaking tomorrow on BYU radio tomorrow at 2pm GMT tomorrow (Weds). I’ll post links to more interviews about my process tomorrow. Not to mention updating the neglected production blog. For those of you interested in following the stories that are new to the site, you can get your hands on a copy here.
I know I’m a little tardy in responding to this incredible reaction, but the same week the piece launched my brave mother-in-law lost her battle with acute myloid leukemia, which meant an early return from Nepal to be with my family in the UK. RIP Linda. A true warrior woman (she was from Yorkshire after all) who is deeply missed.
Above is the first return to normality in a while and is a sample tier in Nepali of one of the other many true survivor stories I’m turning into comics. This one focuses on domestic servitude of a young boy who was promised schooling in exchange for working as a live-in servant. Often, as is the case here, doing the job AND living the life of a schoolboy takes its toll and he was forced to leave school to concentrate on work around his owner’s house instead, with violent repercussions when he neglected his duties.
Last night I was interviewed about my work, graphic journalism, human trafficking as well as the Graphic History of the Honduran Coup (blast from the past, back from 2009) on RTV’s “Breaking the Set”. You can watch the segment here. I’m on at 14:45 mins.
Click here to read the fruits of my labours investigating human trafficking out here in Nepal in the form of the BBC’s first dabble with graphic journalism. Please share the link – the more of this we can get Auntie to publish, the better.