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Voila, the cover to the Honduran Coup comic, destined for the printers later this month. News, non-lethal weapons and Hillary Clinton in Honduras below.
Thank you to those of you who voted for the cover design this week. After tallying up the combined interactive might of facebook comments, comments on my website (always looking for more, polls aside) and the poll I posted a link to, we have a clear winner. Number 3!
Justifying reasons included: it jumps out at you; it’s got more visual impact; it puts you directly in the scene; it’s more dynamic than the other designs. I have to confess, I was all for the first design (sort of a cast of characters lined up), until the votes made me reconsider just how effective (as opposed to informative) it was. So I’m proud to announce that no.3 has already been on my drawing board and is primed for the scanner – the full colour version should be up on Friday, so be sure to check back in and leave your comments then.
Speaking of impacting visuals, I recently came across the amazing talents of Kseniya Simonova, the winner of (dare I say it) Ukraine’s got talent. Her talent? Creating a live animation (that’s in 8 minutes of real-time) about the devastation wrought in the Ukraine during World War 2. Not the first time that the ‘…’s got talent’ franchise has brought millions to tears, but thankfully the first when they’ve actually been genuinely moved and -dare I say it – been intellectually engaged at the same time. But don’t take my word for it – here’s her in action in the final.
It’s an interesting trend that seems to have also caught on over at the Guardian UK, where Patrick Blower has created a niche column called ‘Live Draw’ that uses time-lapse photography coupled with screen capture to show readers how his editorial cartoons are created, line by line. Checkout his recent ‘Alice in Blunderland’ cartoon or the archive. Interesting how he’s referred to as a ‘cartoonist’ and a ‘multimedia artist’ – presumably ‘multimedia cartoonist’ is too much of a mouthful. Comparing the two, I think the real seductive power lies in the sequential narrative that’s being created – Blower includes single panel gags that he builds up over the course of a minute, but these aren’t anything as powerful or entertaining as his tableaux that incorporate different scenes and viewpoints, like this introductory animation on his website’s homepage. The challenge now is to incorporate more of a didactic element into these multimedia creations – to give new readers/members of the audience an introduction to the content or themes that appear in the work, or at least a way of following up if their interested is piqued.You’ll notice that only a handful of the comments in Blower’s Alice animation even acknowledge the piece’s status as a cartoon – it’s more soapboxing back and forth than anything, so obviously it’s appealing to an audience already familiar with the issue. I wonder how the approach could be altered to bring politics to life for someone whose not politically engaged. Suggestions? Stay tuned for my tentative experiments with a similar process in the future.
In case you missed it, voting is still open for your favourite cover design of the four that I posted on Friday – scroll down to view them, then leave a comment or vote using this here link.
The School of the Americas comic is now in print as the full-colour centrefold (now then) of the latest issue of Presente!, the School of the Americas Watch newsletter. Here it is in all its tactile glory on my desk. Order your free copy and find out more about the SOAW here.
And in case you’ve had your head in the sand the last few days, or are an ardent global warming naysayer (not that there’s much of a difference, admittedly), spare a thought for the poor souls in Chile, who are reeling from one of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history that has destroyed 1.5 million homes and left 700 dead, with the toll expected to rise. It turns out that the strongest ever earthquake (a massive 9.5 on the Richter scale) also hit Chile, some 50 years ago, making it the go-to place for seismologists to conduct research. So thankfully, emergency procedures and containment plans for recovering from such a disaster were already in place and no doubt saved a large number of lives. More on this from the BBC here.
Naturally, comparisons have immediately been drawn between the devastation in Haiti and Chile. Despite Chile’s quake being 5 times stronger, the damage is considerably less than January’s quake, largely due not only to the fact that the epicentre of the Haitian quake was much closer to the surface, but also to the far more advanced construction of Chilean buildings (for reasons outlined above). Another point also worth bearing in mind is the rapid, efficient response of Chilean President Michele Bachelet to the disaster: she held off immediate foreign aid for fear of complications; ordered police to allow victims free access to essential supplies from supermarkets; and was soon offering minute-by-minute updates on the recovery efforts. A far cry from the debacle in Haiti, where international efforts were complicated by the US unilateral takeover of the main airport and subsequent diversion of non-US approved flights, plus the worrying number of US troops (reportedly around 10,000) who were deployed ‘for security purposes’. Surely emergency disaster relief is the UN’s chief role? So it would seem on their website.
Saddest of all is the ‘satire’ of Pat Robertson’s now legendary diatribe against Haiti, which some eager blogger cut and pasted to fit the latest Chilean disaster. Sadder still is that so many in the blogosphere fell for it (here’s the full summary), taking it as a real report. Staying with Chile, below is a comic from the archive that I put together about the US involvement in the 1973 Chilean coup that ousted Salvador Allende. My thoughts, condolences and best wishes go out to those affected in Chile.
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