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For those of you who missed the chance to pre-order your comic (you know who you are) via the successful chipin campaign that finished last week, fear not! Copies of the latest comic Adam Bessie and I put together on understanding education reform in the US will be available at San Francisco’s Alternative Press Expo this weekend. It’s at the Concourse Exhibition Center in SoMa. I’ll be there with Nomi Kane at the Center for Cartoon Studies table, so be sure to stop by. In the meantime, here are some sneak peeks at the first finished proof, which I approved for printing but a few moments ago (cheers to Keness printers in SF for their appreciation of a pre-APE deadline and fine sarcasm – a requisite for printers nowadays).
The glistening front cover
Full bleeds, footnotes, glorious CMYK – what more could you want? (Tea not included)
This week saw the publication of my latest piece for the San Francisco Public Press, featuring an interview with a survivor of domestic violence. Read it online here. Print copies are available around the city, or email me if you want to order a copy for a few $.
On Friday, Erin Polgreen, Susie Cagle, Wendy Macnaughton and talked about graphic journalism at the Online News Association conference – there’s quotes and related media from it here on the ONA site
Last but not least, if you haven’t done already then order your print copy of the Education Reform Comic Adam Bessie and I put together for Truthout – using the widget below in the right hand sidebar. Only a few days left to get your copies! Just click on the “Chipin!” button and it’ll take you directly to paypal. Or email me if you’re allergic to Paypal. Thanks for your support!
Two (and a bit) semesters in the making, I’m pleased to announce that the new stanford graphic novel project is almost here. The story is based on an SF Chronicle piece, “Diary of a Sex Slave” that ran in 2005, highlighting the plight of a trafficking victim who was tricked into coming to the US from Korea, ending up in brothels masquerading as massage parlours in LA and San Francisco.
The course, now in its third year, offers 20 students the chance to write and produce a graphic novel from scratch over two (fast-paced) semesters. We split them into a team of writers, thumbnailers and artists, then switch some of them into scanning/colouring and eventually layout in indesign. You can check out previous years’ graphic novels here. This year’s book weighs in at 160 pages and relies on extensive picture reference and documentation passed on to us from the original reporter, Meredith May, at the Chronicle. It’s a big evolution from Pika Don, the previous graphic novel, which only featured single tone spot colour. As you can see from the sample page below, this year we went for 3-tone gradations of colour to fill out the line work more. More soon.
Sample page showing the US/Mexico border crossing
I wanted to share my latest comic on human trafficking with you, published this morning on Truthout.org: http://www.truthout.org/human-trafficking/1329157025. The print version will be included in the latest issue of the SF public press, which hits the bay area streets today. Please give it some social media love!
In case you couldn’t make it to Litquake on Saturday, here is the live recording of Lucas Laredo and Anna Rosales’ talk about their experience of being part of the Stanford Graphic Novel team. As you’ll see, they did us proud. Nice work Lucas and Anna!
I know this throws a spanner in the works with the continuity of my Chile strip, but I’m so excited about it I had to put it up here. It’s the latest piece I’ve done for Bash Magazine on a recent anti-Prop 8 (that’s the recently passed resolution banning same-sex marriage in California) protest I went to in the SF bay area. It was headed by an activist group called The Raging Grannies, who are a lovely bunch of ladies who fight for social justice using street theatre, singing golden oldies and generally causing a fuss. See for yourself – just click here for the rest of the strip, which is hosted on the Bash website. It should hopefully be getting picked up by the folks at Indybay.org, the SF chapter of Indymedia.org.
