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After an extended hiatus home and away from email and the interweb, I’m now back and straight into classes at Stanford. Not that the holiday hiatus was totally work-free – see above for a cartoon published this month in Jewish Renaissance magazine – it illustrates an anecdote from the article it accompanies, so don’t fret if you don’t get it. The idea is that in uniform, all the army soliders’ religious differences/stereotypes become obscured. So hurrah for uniformity! Not often you hear that on this website. Content aside, it was a nice prod for me to turn my hand to watercolour washes over the festive period, as I grabbed the odd minute or two to sketch out scenes from London, Yorkshire and Paris (the holy trinity of European cultcha) to hone my life drawing skills. I’ll post new art every day.
What better way to start 2010 than by casting off the shackles of last year – famous for that US Supreme Court ruling giving corporations unprecedented power in electoral funding – and giving Rupert Murdoch the keys to the Kingdom? The United Kingdom, that is – or at least any semblance of a diverse media. After an expose published in December destroyed Vince Cable’s cabinet credibility, it now falls to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who has already publicly stated his support for the wannabe Ozymandias of Oz, to decide on whether Murdoch’s proposed £8bn buyout of BSkyB by his News Corporation should be subjected to a Competition Commission inquiry. Why could this be a bad idea? Aside from the obvious media hegemony argument (for the record, I’m no all-hands-t0-the-wheel liberal either), there’s the undisputed history of Fox Managerial influence over its editorial offerings. Click here to read about the memos from Fox News Washington Managing Editor Bill Sammon that told journalists to play down climate change stories, and use the term ” government option” instead of “public option” in their coverage of the health care debate. Surprisingly, the Guardian has come out with some arguments for why the takeover is a good thing, which you can read here.
For more info on Murdoch’s media empire, click here.
More from the follow-up on last week’s post revealing the real reason behind the UK government’s support for a marine preserve on Diego Garica – namely to use the leverage of the environmental lobby in the UK against the less powerful Chagos Support group, who are fighting to return the expelled islanders to their homeland.
Another legal revelation here (though not as scandalous and therefore far more likely to stay in the headlines) is that tweeting is now possible in court, as ruled by the Lord Justice Judge of the High Court (quite the title):
“The use of an unobtrusive, hand-held, virtually silent piece of modern equipment for the purposes of simultaneous reporting of proceedings to the outside world as they unfold in court is unlikely to interfere with the proper administration of justice.”
As opposed to a camera…
Radio silence of late has been due to our snowy return to the UK, where naturally all transport has ground to a halt in the wake of a few inches of snow. As the itinerant comics journalist, I’ve been using the time to chronicle the wonder of the big smoke in my sketchbook – above is the commercial black hole of Mordor, aka Oxford St, in all its festive glory. Some washes to come later on this week, along with a long post on Honduras and Canadian Mining Companies in Central America. It doesn’t get more festive than that.
Friday marked not one but two important anniversaries: Human Rights Day and Day of Action against US Military Bases. For more on the former and to find out exactly what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is all about, go here.
Speaking of human rights, last week also saw more revelations from the Wikileaks Datadump – this time to do with the displaced Chagos islanders and their fight for the right to return to their homeland in Diego Garcia. Read my 4-page comic about the case here. As has often been the case with the Wikileaks “revelations”, it’s only cemented what we’d feared all along – that the MPs in charge of the project had treated the entire case with the sort of disabused colonial mentality that the Foreign Office is often parodied for. Here’s the quick summary: [USG=US Gov’t). My highlights in bold. For more detail, read this Guardian article.
The official insisted that the establishment of a marine park — the world’s largest — would in no way impinge on USG use of the BIOT, including Diego Garcia, for military purposes. He agreed that the UK and U.S. should carefully negotiate the details of the marine reserve to assure that U.S. interests were safeguarded and the strategic value of BIOT was upheld. He said that the BIOT’s former inhabitants would find it difficult, if not impossible, to pursue their claim for resettlement on the islands if the entire Chagos Archipelago were a marine reserve.
2. And as if there was any doubt about the real purpose of Diego Garcia in either UK or US govts’ minds:
Designating the BIOT as a marine park could, years down the road, create public questioning about the suitability of the BIOT for military purposes. Roberts responded that the terms of reference for the establishment of a marine park would clearly state that the BIOT, including Diego Garcia, was reserved for military uses.
3. But here’s the real, unedited UK gov’t take on the issue:
Roberts acknowledged that “we need to find a way to get through the various Chagossian lobbies.” He admitted that HMG is “under pressure” from the Chagossians and their advocates to permit resettlement of the “outer islands” of the BIOT. He noted, without providing details, that “there are proposals (for a marine park) that could provide the Chagossians warden jobs” within the BIOT. However, Roberts stated that, according to the HGM,s current thinking on a reserve, there would be “no human footprints” or “Man Fridays” on the BIOT’s uninhabited islands. He asserted that establishing a marine park would, in effect, put paid to resettlement claims of the archipelago’s former residents. Responding to Polcouns’ observation that the advocates of Chagossian resettlement continue to vigorously press their case, Roberts opined that the UK’s “environmental lobby is far more powerful than the Chagossians’ advocates.” (Note: One group of Chagossian litigants is appealing to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) the decision of Britain’s highest court to deny “resettlement rights” to the islands’ former inhabitants.
The BIOT “has had a great role in assuring the security of the UK and U.S. — much more than anyone foresaw” in the 1960s, Roberts emphasized. “We do not regret the removal of the population,” since removal was necessary for the BIOT to fulfill its strategic purpose, he said. Removal of the population is the reason that the BIOT’s uninhabited islands and the surrounding waters are in “pristine” condition. Roberts added that Diego Garcia’s excellent condition reflects the responsible stewardship of the U.S. and UK forces using it.
(Because, let’s face it – why would you let the natives steward the land when the UK and US gov’t could do such a better job at it?)
Holidays are here again, so what better way to relax then by pencilling and inking the largest comic I’ve ever done on sheets of MDF? Here’s the time lapse video so you too can revel in the 6 hours it took me to wrestle with this brute. Stay tuned for the next tier. I was amazed at how well the ink (Higgins speedball) took to the gesso’d wood surface. Naturally there were a few issues with the grain of the wood, but nothing major. The china marker I used also added a nice medium tone, along with some drybrushing.
As the first Stanford semester winds up, I’ve been working on my sketching and had the time to start experimenting with some projects I’ve been meaning to get to for a while. But before I get into them, I want to mention the excellent talk we had from Patrick Meier at Ushahidi (Swahili for “witness”) this week. Ushahidi is freeware that allows users to input data points on a map via the web or SMS, and is increasingly being used in crisis situations. Regulars to this site will remember I posted several months ago about its effectiveness in helping emergency forces reach victims in Haiti in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Patrick’s talk was insightful (telling us about how the Haiti response team essentially comprised of pizza-hungry undergrads at Tufts university on the east coast, who sat and inputted map coordinates, totally voluntarily, during the crisis); honest (I loved his quote about ‘technology only being 10% of the battle – too often are the solutions to these grand problems – journalism, education, literacy, etc – said to be “solved” by mere programs and software alone); and candid – he made it clear the company still had a long way to go, but was buoyed by the positive response they’d received, if slightly bewildered by the inordinate amount of hype and press. He also mentioned Crowdmap, a spin-off of the Ushahidi platform, and again, totally free, that’s more intuitive and less involved on the front-end for users to set up their own map. As an experiment, I’ve started a human trafficking map in the US (I was going to use the one made by Survivors Connect, but it’s down for some reason) which you can check out – and add to – here. Still early days yet, but I want to build a picture of the main areas for trafficking around the 4 most prominent cities in the US for trafficking. For more on what those are and to learn about the project, go to the “trafficking” page above.
And now, back to the art projects…
The first, and most ambitious, is the largest comics “page” I’ve ever worked on – on a 6 x 8 foot piece of wood, whichI’ve cut into panels, primed with gesso and now pencilled the first wide establishing shot of. It’s of London, if you’re wondering where the title for the video comes from. My goal is to ink it later on today with a FAT sumi brush and a lot of Higgins ink. Stay tuned for the result. I’ve also been putting more time into drawing from life and been looking in particular at the assorted gods of linework: Albrecht Durer and Bernie Wrightson. See below for some samples. Check them all out over at my flickr page.
Above is a screenshot from one of the many hypercomics experiments you’ll find at my online launchpad/testing ground for the comics platform I’ve been working on as part of my Knight fellowship. Click here to visit the site, and please send me your feedback! I’d love to hear it. Those of you die-hard Archcomix fans may have already visited it since I launched it under the radar a few weeks back, but I’ve since added new content, ranging from flash-based scrollable comics to hypercomics.
The idea is to combine the need for context in today’s never-ending torrent of 24 hour news with a more intuitive visual interface that allows for more of a personal connection between the reader and the hundreds of stories they scan each day.
Speaking of new ways to read the news, the more eagle-eyed among you will have also noticed that I’ve added a new “Iphone Apps” page to the site, which houses the first previews of the Honduran coup app that I’ve put together with the help of Chris DeLeon. Not to mention a subtle signpost to you lot to read some of the comics that are published online above – just hover over the tabs at the top and you’ll be shown a range of visual narratives to feast your eyes on. If you enjoy what you see, you can even send a micro (or macro) donation my way using the button on the left hand sidebar. Thanks!
Last week saw the 20th anniversary of the protest, originally started by Father Roy Bourgeois, to close the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia. The school’s magnetism for controversy stems from the number of its latin american graduates who have gone on to perpetrate crimes against humanity in their home countries. See above for part of my comic on the SOA (now thoughtfully renamed WHINSEC in a Blackwater to Xe-related case of PR). Stick SOA in the search bar above to read the whole comic, which I posted online a while back. It was printed in Presente! earlier this year, so if you mention that with your next Archcomix order I’ll pop a copy of the issue in with your purchase. Read more about the protest from the NYTimes here.
Miami Book Fair Part 2: Sunday saw panels from Dean Haspiel and Joe Sacco for Cuba: My Revolution and Footnotes in Gaza respectively. The Cuba panel, given the Miami location and proximity to Little Havana, was sparsely attended, but the room filled up for Joe’s talk. Although I haven’t read the Cuban book, it threw up some interesting questions for me, primarily to do with the trend in graphic biographies these days. David Axe touched on this in his talk, when he said part of the beauty of collaborating with artist Matt Bors is having him recreate the settings, environments and memories he’s described in words. He also described it as a kind of voodoo, whereby seeing his doppelganger recreated on the page meant he could empty all of the stress, pain and negative feelings he associates with the experience of war reporting into it. Click here for a C-SPAN video interview with him. Dean Haspiel told us that “image is text…artists are authors too”, and then went on to describe how in one of the book’s torture scenes, in which the protagonist is being brutally interrogated by Castro’s secret police, Dean drew himself in as the torturer to provide comfort for his collaborator (no pun intended).
Anyway – the Sacco talk, for better or worse, was far more focused on the content of his material as opposed to its form as comics. Joe emphasized his humble role as cartoonist chronicler, highlighting how pen and ink just happen to be his tools – if he were a filmmaker, he’d make films about what he’s seen. He did touch on a good point about the immersive experience of visual storytelling, where using “hundreds of pictures…[can] sum up the details of a story” in a way that a few photos can’t wholly capture. I also managed to ask him about his shorter (10-12pp) comics for magazines like the Guardian UK, to which he replied that he’d like to do more, but had trouble getting the funds together in order to get to where the story was. No mention of the use of comics on the web though. He also emphasized that he was not an activist, and that his next project would not be some explicitly political: instead, he’ll be turning to more of a sociological/anthropological look at human behaviour in conflict through history.
For those who read my previous post on Miami (click previous above to read it), here are some of the links to speakers I didn’t have time to include:
Bill Zimmerman’s use of drag and drop comics templates to encourage kids to tell stories is interesting: http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
Good interview with James Bucky Carter over at Graphic Novel Reporter on the use of comics to guide literacy in the classroom: http://www.graphicnovelreporter.com/content/james-bucky-carter-behind-scenes
The crowds line up for a copy of Pika-Don
The literary maelstrom that was the Miami Book Fair is now over, and both the Stanford Graphic Novel panel and my comic journalism panel with David Axe went very well. The SGNP on Thurs saw Adam Johnson, English Professor at Stanford and the creator of the SGNP, talk about the origins of the program, how he conceived of it, how the process varied across our three books (Shake Girl, Virunga and Pika-Don) and what advice educators need to follow to start a similar course of their own. The response was overwhelmingly positive so here’s to offshoots popping up all over the country. Below is one of the many watercolour sketches I’ve been banging out during the lectures – apologies for the low quality, it’s from a blurry iphone photo. Anyone out there recommend a decent portable scanner?
On the tail of that positivity, check out this article from the Miami NewTimes on my work. I’ll post a longer update on my talk (it was recorded, so perhaps even the video of it too) tomorrow, as well as some more sketches, and the lowdown on Joe Sacco’s talk.
Last but not least, some fantastic news from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), who reached a historic agreement last week with the Florida Tomato Grower’s Exchange. See above for a few sample panels from my first comic, What a Whopper, featuring none other than Reggie Brown from the said exchange, who seems to be eating his words from 2007. Click here to read the Whopper comic online, which is about Burger King’s then exploitation of migrant labour from Central America.
A brazilian comicsphile feels the inky pull towards a page of Archcomix
Congrats to Augusto Paim for organizing the Comics journalism conference in Brazil at the Porto Alegre Goethe Institute. I wasn’t there in person sadly, but some of my artwork made it through the ether- check out this photo from my comic on Chagos, a panel of which is above, back in the days when I used to watercolour. To read the whole comic, click here.
More details are now out about my upcoming talk on comics journalism at the Miami Book Fair, so those of you on the east coast looking for some thanksgiving sun prime your diaries for 4pm this Sunday. Get the full skinny here. I’m sharing the panel with war correspondent David Axe, writer of War is Boring, which was then turned into a comic by Matt Bors. (Wars might be, but coups definitely aren’t).
For an update on my Knight fellowship project at Stanford, click here.
Yet another busy week, though I’ve managed to claw some hours back to sit down at my drawing board and hammer out some more hardhats pages. What is Hardhats, you ask? It’s my graphic novel about the May 1970 NYC riots led by construction workers who were protesting against the rising anti-war student movement/New Left. Check out the Hardhats page for more info. Why is that the longer pause between pages, the more hatching and detail you put down on the said pages? Above is a sneak preview of a sample panel from Hardhats, which I’m 3 pages away from completing the first part of, including a brand new prologue.
