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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.
Taken from protest on July 29, photo courtesy of http://nomilitaresencostarica.blogspot.com/
Last month saw the Costa Rican government agree (by 31 to 8 votes) to grant a US military fleet unprecedented access to its waters until the end of the year. Up to 7000 Navy personnel and 20 helicopters thus have the right to “to carry out activities they consider necessary for the fulfillment of their mission, which includes wearing their uniforms while exercising official functions”. This is all against the war on drugs, you understand. Nothing whatsoever to do with the ongoing turmoil in Honduras following ex-President Zelaya’s ousting (for more info, go here) or the larger-scale roll-out of US military presence across Central and South America. Columbia, anyone? Not to mention a recent change of management in the Costa Rican Port Authority:
“The lack of a debate in Congress makes one suspect that they will be operating militarily and not necessarily confined to the drug trafficking operations. Is it a coincidence that ships arrive as a new port management is being put into practice, eliminating the authority of the state agency JAPDEVA (Port Management Board of the Atlantic Coast Development) and its group of unionized dock workers…and preventing any possibility of strikes, work stoppages and incidents in Limón, such as those in Panama? ”
Francisco Cordero-Gené, former head advisor to the Costa Rican legislative assembly during the past two administrations
More on the background to Costa Rica’s uneasy US alliance courtesy of Joe Shanksy at Upsidedownworld. If you’re dubious of the US’s motives in the area and want to take action, then sign the petition here – the chance to do your part (albeit tiny and in e-form) is only a click away.
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My collaboration with Fulbright Fellow Olga Trusova on a comic about human trafficking is now officially out in the open and on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. Check out our pitch here and help get our comic printed and distributed to raise awareness of this important issue – we’re currently just under a tenth of our goal with 55 days to go. Olga was recently interviewed by the Human Trafficking Project on the background and scope of the project – read all about it here.
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Last but not least, be the first to hear Judge Walker’s decision on the Prop 8 trial tomorrow by clicking here. See below for a comic I originally did in the buildup to the original Prop 8 vote in league with legendary local activists the Raging Grannies. Check out their website here.
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If you’re looking for more information on my latest human trafficking comic, Borderland, then go here. Most importantly, please pre-order our comic through Kickstarter so we can meet our fundraising goal and get it printed and distributed here in the US to raise awareness about human trafficking. A big thank you if you’ve already pledged. Us independent creators would not exist without your support.
If you want to see the latest installment of stop motion genius from some more of the 8th graders I’ve been teaching, then go here for “Mr Toast”.
My human trafficking comics journalism project is now live on Kickstarter. For more info and to see our video pitch, visit the link or check out the new “Trafficking” page I’ve added to Archcomix.com. Most importantly, please pre-order our comic through Kickstarter so we can meet our fundraising goal and get it printed and distributed here in the US to raise awareness about human trafficking.
Featuring artwork from one of the victims interviewed, part of one of the many anonymous surveys we drew our research from, as well as statistics from the IOM, I think this idea has more visual impact and sums up the aims of the comic (both educational and emotional) better than the other options you could have voted for. Please leave feedback below!
Click the back button above to skip back to the start of the story. Originally published in Bash magazine (RIP), Dec 2008.
Thank you to all who voted in the Borderland cover design poll: I’m pleased to say that my preferred design, number 8, won with 24% of the vote, closely followed in a dual tie by numbers 1 and 6 with 18%. The final cover artwork is about 90% finished now and I’m really happy with it, so be sure to check back in later on this week when I’ll post a low-res version for your comments. If you’re late to the poll or don’t know what I’m talking about, go here for the designs and here for an introduction to the project. It’ll have its own page soon.
I’ve been making more back-end changes to the site, adding comics here and there from the archcomix archive as well as adding various widgets: check out my flickr stream below on the right as well as new comics (AIPAC in its entirety on the US politics page) and reviews (perma-link to my recent Comics Journal review on the revamped “About” page).
Meeting Eric Drooker last week got me thinking back to my experiments with wordless comics, which peaked with the above piece for Bash magazine in Dec 2008. So much was being said about the then imminent financial crisis, I thought a wordless approach with all of its symbolic ambiguities was a novel way of pointing the metaphorical finger at the Credit Default Swapping troublemakers. Scroll down for lots of updates below the fold, and don’t forget to cast your cover design vote for my Borderland comic – voting closes in a few hours.
As I near the end of putting Borderland together (my human trafficking comic, for those of you new around here), I’ve been debating various different cover designs, some of which I’ve pencilled at full size only to find that they lack the impact (emotional or visual) I’m looking for. So in keeping with the Honduran coup comic, I’m throwing it open to you: peruse the options below and choose your favourite in the poll underneath. I’ll reveal the winner in a few days, as the cover is due by the middle of next week.
1. Half realistic portrait of one of the victims, the other half filled in with a map of Eastern Europe/Ukraine against a black background.
Cover 2: Similar to the Honduran Coup cover: reflections of imminent danger in the close-up eye of one of the victims
Cover 3: Understated. Assorted items presumably belonging to a victim - passport, identity papers, etc with "Borderland" rubber-stamped on top
Cover 4: Scattered ID papers belonging to the 7 different victims whose stories comprise the comic. A bit cluttered perhaps.
Cover 5: The victims walking towards us down a typical Ukraine high street with Kiev landmarks in the background. Subtle nods to the locations mentioned in the stories (nightclub signs, bakery etc).
Cover 6: The victims in the foreground, overshadowed by the different buildings that constitute their homes/work/prisons in the comic
cover 7: A beaten-up, weathered Ukrainian passport (in dark blue), which you open up to see the contents laid out like a passport (photo ID, DOB etc) Cons: Passport cover design alone not enough to grab a reader's attention.
cover 8: my favourite (no bias). The black is a Ukrainian passport, with assorted mocked-up papers/ID photo stapled over the top, as if we were the case worker for one of the victims.
From a collaboration with the late underground comics legend Harvey Pekar, who was found dead earlier today in his Cleveland home. Scroll down for a video of the man in action.
