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News, as ever, below the fold, so scroll down. Please support my human trafficking comic on Kickstarter if you haven’t! Link is below on the right, currently at 21% of our goal.
Cartoonists Matt Bors and Ted Rall are traveling through Afghanistan as I tap, chronicling what life is like on the ground without the constraint of a military embed or government spokesperson in tow. Check out Rall’s blog here and Matt’s here.
Further to my post of August 9th, the Colombian Constitutional Court ruled yesterday that the proposed plan to extend US military operations throughout Colombia by sharing the Colombian military infrastructure was indeed illegal. Ex-President Alvaro Ulribe attempted to push it through without bothering to run it by lawyers, claiming it was just an extension of previous accords, but the court disagreed by 6 votes to 3. While that jettisons the 2009 accord’s plans, it doesn’t affect previous accords for now – until new President Santos takes the accords to Congress.
Panel from "The Insurgent" by Isaac Goodhart
I stumbled across this gem of an online comics anthology (for sample, see left) put together by students from NYC’s School of Visual Arts under the watchful eye of Nick Bertozzi. The link is to the Act-i-vate website (a great website for free top-notch webcomics) and shows the end result of a project to visually adapt US troops’ combat testimonies during their recent tours in Iraq.
We’ve also published an extract of the first story from Borderland over at borderlandcomics.com, which I’ve added to the ‘Trafficking” page. Other updates include the Honduran Coup: A Graphic History video on the “Honduras” page, so please watch, pass on and leave your comments.
I’m also delighted to announce that I’ll have a comic published in the seminal activist art anthology, World War 3 Illustrated, which should be out later on in the year. It’ll be an extract from an oldie from the 2007 archive chronicling the scandal around Burger King’s exploitation of undocumented central American migrant workers in Florida’s tomato fields. You can read it over at the US Politics page, now with a handy drop-down menu.
New here? Go to the start of the wordless comic above here. You can order a copy of my latest comic on human trafficking here – now at 19% of our total goal, so dig deep in those pockets and help us raise awareness of the plight of human trafficking victims. Thanks to those who already have.
Scroll down for news and updates below the fold.
More wordless panels for you, plus a shout to MTV Exit for sticking a link to our Borderland Comics site on their Facebook page. Also, be sure to check out daily developments on my upcoming Knight Journalism Fellowship via the Knight Project tab above. Plus you can now access individual comics via a handy drop-down menu by hovering over the said tabs – checkout the US Foreign Policy one to see what I’m talking about. Eagle-eyed Archcomix visitors will notice the new newsletter field on the left – add your email address and stay abreast of all future Archcomix rumblings. Big thanks to the tireless work of Stanford CS Senior Alex Easton for his help in making the said changes.
New here? Go to the start of the wordless comic above here. You can order a copy of my latest comic on human trafficking here – now at 18% of our total goal, so dig deep in those pockets and help us raise awareness of the plight of human trafficking victims. Thanks to those who already have.
As the Borderland comics kickstarter fund (see right) chugs along, we’re getting contacted by NGOs around the world who want to share and coordinate efforts to combat human trafficking. One of these was Oasis Global, who are behind the Stop the Traffik campaign. Click here to watch their intro video and learn how human trafficking might even affect how your favourite chocolate bar was made – apparently almost half the world’s chocolate is grown in Cote D’Ivoire. In the words of Steve Chalke, Stop the Traffik’s Founder and UN Special Advisor for Community Action against Human Trafficking:
“When Cadbury’s and Hershey and Mars and Lindt and Nestle and all of the others produce chocolate that is traffic-free, you can be sure that they will be the first to put a little mark on those bars telling us that. If a chocolate bar doesn’t say it’s traffic-free, it’s just not – it’s as simple as that”
In other news, the sketchbook studies on my Flickr page continue, this time with a Hardhats focus as I gear up for some enormous crowd scenes in Part 2 of my upcoming graphic novel, Hardhats. More on the Hardhats page here.
Today’s stories: a new page to the site to chronicle my upcoming Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford, featuring a CGI Polish history trailer and a plan to resurrect editorial cartoons for the 21st century. As I get back into drawing after a mini hiatus spent focused on stopmotion, I’ve cracked the spine on a new sketchbook and will be posting the results (however hit or miss) to my flickr account. If you’re on flickr, then add me as a contact. If you’re not, and can’t bring yourself to click that link, then scrolling down the right hand sidebar is enough to give you a thumbnailed idea of what my scrawls look like. To watch the fruit of my claymation labours, then check out my youtube channel.
New here? Go to the start of the wordless comic above here. You can order a copy of my latest comic on human trafficking here – now at 14% of our total goal, so dig deep in those pockets and help us raise awareness of the plight of human trafficking victims. Thanks to those who already have.
Opening page of Pika-Don by the Stanford Graphic Novel Project
Friday marked the 65th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and the first time that a US representative has attended any of the memorial services held in Japan. US Ambassador John Roos was at the service in Hiroshima to observe the moment of silence at 8:15am – the time that “Little Boy“, the most inappropriately named piece of ordinance ever, detonated some 300m above ground level, instantly incinerating an estimated 70,000 people. Click here to read an extract from Pika-Don (“flash-boom”, from the Japanese term for the atomic bombs), created by the Stanford Graphic Novel Project based on double atomic bomb survivor Tsutomu Yamaguchi‘s ordeal and experience the horror of being at ground zero (within 3km) for both blasts. Today at 11:02am will mark the anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing, which was actually 3 times more powerful (20 kilotons) than the Hiroshima blast. Be sure to check out this excellent digital resource from the Nagasaki Archive: a patch for Google earth that lets you explore the shell of the city in the the atomic aftermath.
In more surreal news, ex-Fugee Wyclef Jean is running for Haitian President. Seriously. Despite alleged mismanagement of his charity, his support for the US-backed coup of 2005 that ousted then-President Jean-Betrand Aristride, or – the fact that being a successful pop star does not qualify you to run a country, despite what it may do for your record sales. One-time…
Last but not least, the SOAW (School of the Americas Watch) delegation to Colombia is continuing their protest around US military installations (see video below) in the run up to the Aug 17 Constitutional Court decision that will determine the legal basis of the US military presence in the country and its use of Colombian bases. All the more dramatic, given Saturday’s inauguration of new Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who is decidedly more pro-Chavez than outgoing President Alvaro Uribe. Then again, U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield’s comments to local radio station La FM demonstrate the US’s attitude towards the Constitutional Court’s ruling. When asked if a negative decision from the Constitutional Court could affect bilateral relations, Brownfield said, “in absolute terms, I think not.”
New here? Go to the start of the comic here. You can order a copy of my latest comic on human trafficking here. Scroll down for an update on what’s new in the Archcomix universe below the fold. Today’s stories: a belated commemoration of the Hiroshima atomic bomb drop, 65 years ago on Friday, Wyclef Jean runs for Haitian President, and direct action against US military bases in Colombia.
New here? Go to the start of the comic here. You can order a copy of my latest comic on human trafficking here. Scroll down for an update on what’s new in the Archcomix universe below the fold.
