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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).
By the way, newcomers: read from the start of my Nepal diary by clicking here.
The view from my desk in Jhamsikhel, Kathmandu. Himalayas on the right and Swayambhunath (aka the monkey temple) to the left of the window pane on the hillside.
I’m now a week into my stay in Kathmandu, have sorted out and furnished (well, I have a bed, chair and desk) an apartment and started doing interviews for my graphic novel on human trafficking in Nepal. Next weds I leave for my first trip outside of the city, where I’ll be participating in outreach workshops for survivors and gathering their stories.
In case you missed it, I just launched a Kickstarter campaign for the project: , or check out the widget in the left sidebar.
Before you ask, the pastry Gemma’s holding in the last panel was a portuguese custard tart. And it was delicious. More on Nepalese trafficked survivors to Lebanon here.
With the announcement of any new project, you always get the predictable “been there, done that” crowd. Not that graphic journalism’s ever reared its inky head in Nepal (to my knowledge) for that matter. If you’re looking for a link to the Honduran comic, then voila.
I must’ve had this conversation a dozen times in the past few weeks, to varying degrees. With good reason! Hopefully this comic will make the project and my goals for it all the more clearer. As for examples of real-time reporting, the only one that springs to mind are Matt Bors and Ted Ralls’ graphic reports from Afghanistan in 2010. Of course, Joe Sacco beat us all to the punch in the 90s with Palestine, but that was before the ubiquity of the internets. Feel free to correct me if you know of any by leaving a link in the comments below.
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!
