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I’m writing this from Lamahi in Dang district, western Nepal, where the Tharu people have just celebrated Maghe Sankranti, their New Year. I’m on the road with the Nepal Youth Foundation covering their work to eradicate the practice of bonded slavery of girls in the Tharu community, known locally as Kamlaris. Together with NYF President Som Paneru (and his wife and extremely sweet 3yr old daughter) and Program Coordinator Man Bahadur I’m traveling from village to village doing interviews and checking on the status of entrepreneurial schemes they’ve set up to give former Kamlaris an economic route out of slavery and towards autonomy. The sketch is from Kalika VDC, Bardia district.
I’m writing this from Lamahi in Dang district, western Nepal, where the Tharu people have just celebrated Maghe Sankranti, their New Year. I’m on the road with the Nepal Youth Foundation covering their work to eradicate the practice of bonded slavery of girls in the Tharu community, known locally as Kamlaris. Together with NYF President Som Paneru (and his wife and extremely sweet 3yr old daughter) and Program Coordinator Man Bahadur I’m traveling from village to village doing interviews and checking on the status of entrepreneurial schemes they’ve set up to give former Kamlaris an economic route out of slavery and towards autonomy. The sketch is from Kalika VDC, Bardia district.
I’m writing this from Lamahi in Dang district, western Nepal, where the Tharu people have just celebrated Maghe Sankranti, their New Year. I’m on the road with the Nepal Youth Foundation covering their work to eradicate the practice of bonded slavery of girls in the Tharu community, known locally as Kamlaris. Together with NYF President Som Paneru (and his wife and extremely sweet 3yr old daughter) and Program Coordinator Man Bahadur I’m traveling from village to village doing interviews and checking on the status of entrepreneurial schemes they’ve set up to give former Kamlaris an economic route out of slavery and towards autonomy. The sketch is from Kalika VDC, Bardia district.
Happy new year from Kathmandu! It’s distinctly colder than the last time we spoke, around mid December. Hope you all did something suitably festive, family-based and frivolous over the holidays. There’s a lot to catch you up on, so listen up: if you’re new around these parts and want to know more about my Nepal project, then check out this here kickstarter video. What’s that? You missed the Kickstarter campaign but still want to pre-order your copy of my graphic novel? Fear not! Click on the Kickstarter widget in the left hand side bar for a list of the possible rewards you can get your hands on, and then send me the money through paypal instead. In a nutshell, $10 buys you one interactive comic on human trafficking out here in Nepal (including diversions/meditations on the form of comics journalism), $30 gets you electronic versions of all of the comics I’ll be producing out here, $50 gets you a paperback tome, and for $100 you’ll get your very own hardback copy.
If you’re intrigued by the steps I’m going through to put this thing together (as am I, most days), then check out my behind the scenes production blog, where I’m posting wallpapers for your desktop/smartphone from my sketchbook, as well as showing you the different steps of my process. Some videos are to come next month, brace yourselves. A measly $5 gets you access, just click the link for payment details.
You should also check out my buy artwork page, where you can get your hands on original comic art from this project, the proceeds of which all go towards keeping a roof over my head, warm food in my belly, and the D.Archer Motorcycle fund TM (which I’ll need in a few weeks for investigating stories out of the Kathmandu valley). Those of you who ordered prints and art last month will be getting them early next week.
In other news, in a few weeks, to mark the end of Human Trafficking Awareness month, I’m delighted to announce that the BBC will be running an interactive comic of mine from the trafficking project in several different languages. More details soon.
We DID it!! Thanks to you, good people of the internet, I raised $13,303 for my project to use comics to report on/raise awareness of human trafficking in Nepal. Need an introduction to the project? Scroll down to check out the intro video below the fold.
Click here to read the first piece of illustrated reportage (published in the US) from my Nepal trip covering human trafficking, now up on the Poynter Institute’s website.
Interested in my Nepal project and want to contribute/ order your copy of the graphic novel/ebook/or artwork/get any of the rewards even though the Kickstarter campaign is now over, you can paypal me your pledge using dan [at] archcomix [dot] com as the recipient ID. Or, of course, feel free to drop me a line if you want to discuss specifics or a collaboration.
You heard. As of 11am Nepal time this morning we sprinted past the funding finishing line on the Kickstarter, with only 36 hours to go. THANK YOU!
BUT just because we’re home free doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider pledging your support if you haven’t already – there are some new stretch goals to hit to help raise the project to the next level.
Check out the link here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/archcomix/graphic-journalism-on-human-trafficking-in-nepal now with only 29 hours left!
To whet your graphic appetites, the above is a preview of my latest piece of reporting from Nepal, which will be online later on today. More soon! The exclamations and endless solicitations will draw to a close tomorrow, I promise…
Apologies for the mini-hiatus – normal service will resume forthwith. Reason for it is my lack of a second or third pair of arms to continue pencilling and inking as my current pair hammer out relentless tweets and emails to promote my Kickstarter human trafficking graphic novel project, which is now 53% funded with only 8 days to go! It’s a Staff Pick but could still use your help, , choose a reward and make that pledge!
In the meantime, here’s a snippet from my sketchbook from a recent interview yesterday with a survivor of human trafficking, sketched live and direct. I’m experimenting with different ways of working, and I have to admit, there’s something about the immediacy and roughness (like her chin) in the portrait that gives it a more intimate, personalized feel that would be hard to replicate in a photo portrait (or even a meticulously pencilled sketch, for that matter). Or should I just not draw straight to ink? You tell me (by hitting the comments button below).
Check out the full story on the Berdsk Courier’s website here. Including comedy phrases from google translate such as “Victor Semyanov: neutered dog – not the man”.
This will be the last extract from Laxmi’s story for a little while as my travel journal has been on hiatus and I’ve got a lot to catch you all up on. If you’re new to these parts or want to contribute, please check out the Kickstarter campaign on the left hand sidebar. Or you can buy a print of the comic using the buttons underneath each day’s tier.
