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Yes, I know what you’re thinking. It’s been too long. Well, plenty of reasons for that. First and foremost is the fact that I’ve been wading through the list of Knight Fellowship projects instead of blogging about them. Good news is I can share some of the progress – as ever, I’m always interested in what you, dear readers, think about it.
Multimedia has been the main focus this semester, fuelled by my focus on the excellent Multimedia Production class I’m taking at the Comms dept. Our small production team (comprised of 4 Knights) has now 3 films under its belt, the first of which was an interview with another Fellow, Seda Muradyan. Hugo has since posted his solo-produced piece on another fellow Fellow, Jenka Soderberg, but fear not! Our latest oeuvre isn’t fellow-related, it’s with the creators of the Pulse news app – 2 Stanford alums who created a best-selling RSS feed reader for mobile devices that even got a shout out from the grand poobah of all things tech, Steve Jobs. You can view all of our multimedia efforts at the Knight Garage blog here.
Another day, another tier from my graphic novel, Hardhats. This here is a direct quote from H Rap Brown, drawn in stylistic homage to Emory Douglas, the Black Panther artist in residence. Click here to read the previous tier.
Wow, where did January go? I was sure it was here a second ago. It feels like the second semester only just started, and yet here’s Feb knocking on the door and I’m wondering where all my carefully chronicled Knight exploits have gone. So here’s my attempt to sum up what’s happened over the last few weeks at Stanford:
Hmm I’m sure I’ve missed a few things off the list, but that’ll do for now. Oh, and the small matter of figuring out my life post-Knight…
Hit ‘previous’ for the full lowdown on Eisenhower’s military-industrial complex speech, and the first part of this comic. Scroll down to read about what I’ve got up to over the last month at Stanford.
UK Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has reached a preliminary decision about the proposed Newcorp buyout of BSkyB I mentioned a few weeks ago. Click here for the full skinny. His verdict? He’s going to refer to it Ofcom, the British regulator (huzzah!). Oh, but wait. He would, if he wasn’t going to take the middle ground and give Newscorp time to make amends first. We’ll see. Click here for the Beeb’s coverage, and here for the full government statement. A brief synopsis of the media consolidation pros and cons here.
From President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address, 50 years ago last week:
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
A fitting match with my comic on the US/UK military base currently occupying Diego Garcia, first conceived off only a few years before Eisenhower’s term of office came to an end. Click here to read the full comic.
Former British PM Tony Blair took the stand yesterday to offer an addendum to the comments from his previous appearance at the Iraq inquiry, explaining that:
“At the conclusion of the last hearing, you asked me whether I had any regrets. I took that as a question about the decision to go to war, and I answered that I took responsibility. That was taken as my meaning that I had no regrets about the loss of life and that was never my meaning or my intention. I wanted to make it clear that, of course, I regret deeply and profoundly the loss of life, whether from our own Armed Forces, those of other nations, the civilians who helped people in Iraq or the Iraqis themselves.”
Yet another signup to the “let history be the judge” camp it seems – not least the part of history that saw him planning regime change with Dubya back in 2001 (see 1:13 in the video). But it wasn’t the heckling that best summed up the public’s reaction to Tone, fresh from his book tour – it was the fact that he arrived at the inquiry 2 hours early to avoid the crowds of protestors who set up outside the premises. Watch Sky’s coverage of his testimony here.
Borderland, the comic I did with Fulbright Fellow Olga Trusova last year, just got a great review from The Comics Journal, together with a review of the latest issue of World War 3 Illustrated, which is carrying an extract from What a Whopper – talk about a double whammy:
Borderland is easily the most focused and best-looking work of his career…The stories are all different (and horrifying) enough so as not to start to drone; rather they succeed in grabbing the reader’s attention and raising awareness.
Above is a continued sequence from Hardhats, my graphic novel in progress, set in May 1970 at the height of anti-Vietnam sentiment. Hit “previous” to read from the start of this little interlude. It being Martin Luther King day here in the US, celebrate it wherever you are in the world by listening to one of his speeches on Vietnam here: “the press generally won’t tell you these things, but God told me to tell you this morning…” RIP MLK.
I’m now only a page or two from finishing the first third of my graphic novel, Hardhats – which you can read more about here. The above panels are part of a flashback sequence as two of the main characters talk on their way to an anti Vietnam protest at the Federall Hall in downtown Manhattan. I’ll post some follow-up panels over the next few days. Please leave your comments! You can also checkout my latest sketchbook doodles and watercolours here.
Remember to scroll down – news and updates are just a scroll away, under the fold.
