Comics as reports, a selection #2

29/2/12 Kairo-Reportage von Olivier Kugler

In der neuen Printausgabe der Wochenzeitung Der Freitag erscheint eine Kairo-Reportage des in London lebenden Zeichners Olivier Kugler. Kugler hatte jüngst drei Wochen dort verbracht und neben dem Jahrestag der aegyptischen Revolution auf dem Tahrir Platz auch die blutigen Ausschreitungen rund ums Innenministerium (nach dem Desaster im Fussballstadion von Port Said) miterlebt.

Olivier Kugler, Kairo, 2012

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2/4/12: Logo Rage- Picture Story by Ben Katchor

“Our sensory and perceptual systems are affronted by an icon that, through repeated exposure, has lost what little meaning it might have once had.” In his new strip in Metropolis Magazine, Ben Katchor refers to a current psychological phenomenon:

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27/4/12: Army of God – Joseph Kony’s child soldiers

Cartoon Movement, the global collaborative platform for editorial cartoons and comics journalism has by now published an astonishing array of documentary comics which are available in the archive of the website. Among the new features is the gradual release of Army of God, an ambitious 100-page non-fiction graphic novel by David Axe and Tim Hamilton. Army of God explores the history of Joseph Kony´s Lord’s Resistance Army, a Ugandan guerrilla group that has terrorized the Congo since decades. Kony has been accused of ordering the abduction of children to become child-sex slaves and child soldiers. An estimated 66,000 children became soldiers and two million people have been internally displaced since 1986.

Based on reporting by David Axe from the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2010, the comic explores the history of the LRA with eyewitness accounts from captives and those working to stop the destructive militia. Each chapter focuses on a different character and his role in the saga, from diplomats to LRA soldiers to the women and children they capture. The first installment recounts the Congo’s long history of colonialism, corruption, and strife that have set the stage for the conflict of today. The second chapter reconstructs a first-hand account of the LRA raid on the town of Duru in 2008. Part three focuses on Farruccio Gobbi, a Catholic priest working in Congo and his experience during the massacre in Duru.

Images: Army of God by David Axe and Tim Hamilton, 2012

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27/9/12: Steve Bell analyzing Nick Clegg´s haircut

Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell is sketching at the Lib Dem conference in Brighton, sitting for much of it behind Nick Clegg. He’s puzzled: why is Clegg still apologising? What’s Danny Alexander’s delivery all about? And why you can’t take coffee into the conference room?

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28/10/12: Igort´s graphic documentaries from the Ukraine and Russia

Italian-French cartoonist Igor Tuveri aka Igort is to be counted among the most inventive representatives of the European auteur comic. He became internationally known in 2002 with his moody comic noir Cinque è il numero perfetto (»5 is the perfect number «). In 2008/2009 Igort spent several months in the Ukraine. He spoke with witnesses of the Stalinist era and processed their accounts into an evocative episodic documentary, mixing past and current events.

Igort: Berichte aus der Ukraine

Among other things, Les Cahiers ukrainiens (Reports from the Ukraine/ Berichte aus der Ukraine), deals with eye-witness reports of the Holomodor genocide. The second episode of Igort´s Soviet documentation, Les Cahiers russes (Reports from Russia / Berichte aus Russland) revolves around the preliminary events leading up to the murder of Russian journalist and human rights activist, Anna Politkovskaïa.

Igort: Les Cahiers russes

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5/12/12: Olivier Kugler´s Oxfam-Project

Ian Bray, Oxfam’s Senior Press Officer, commissioned the German illustrator Olivier Kugler to do a series of drawings highlighting the food crisis in the Sahel. In June this year Olivier went on a week long trip to Burkina Faso where he met people whose lives are being affected by the food crisis and the armed conflict in neighboring Mali. After his return to London, where the artist is based, Olivier used photos and interviews he gathered on the journey to create a five page series of drawings (pencil drawings, digitally colored) to portray some of the people he met. The drawings are getting published in today’s edition of “The Guardian’s G2” supplement. You can also watch the artist on video talking about the project or download the drawings as PDFs.

Olivier Kugler at work

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13/12/12: “Der Tag im Moor” von Oliver Grajewski

Das aktuelle Pictorial besteht aus reichhaltigem Bonusmaterial zu Oliver Grajewskis gerade erschienener Spuk-Doku-Fiktion “Der Tag im Moor”. Grajewski arbeitet als freier Zeichner für Tagesspiegel, taz, Jungle World und andere Magazine. Bekannt wurde er durch seine episodische autobiografische Comicserie “Tigerboy”, die sich durch einen schier unerschöpflichen Reichtum an Erzähl- und Darstellungsweisen auszeichnet. Auch sein jüngstes Werk ist von dieser stilistischen und narrativen Experimentierfreude durchdrungen. Verstärkt kommen hier auch digitale Fotografie und informelle Computergrafik zum Einsatz. Doppelseitige Kompositionen und eine All-Over-Struktur binden ruhige Landschaftsbilder und beiläufige, scribbleartige Figurendarstellungen ein. “Der Tag im Moor” kann direkt über den neu gegründeten Verlag Breitkopf- Editionen bestellt werden