Review of World War 3 Illustrated: Facts on the Ground

Review of World War 3 Illustrated: Facts on the Ground

(panel from Seth Tobocman's Disaster and Resistance)

The Indypendent printed Hueso Taveras' review of the World War 3 Illustrated Collective's latest anthology.

Here's an excerpt:

While most comics anthologies like Mome and Drawn and Quarterly aim for diverse and multicultural content, World War 3 Illustrated has consistently provided a breadth unmatched even by contemporary publishers. For their latest anthology, Facts on the Ground, the collective culled stories from around the world, including Baghdad, Johannesburg and El Salvador. As the title suggests, most are first-hand accounts, featuring everyday folks up against institutionalized corruption.

The first comic, by writer and Voices in the Wilderness activist Cathy Breen with artist Edowyn Vazkez, illustrates a letter by an Iraqi woman and the daily perils she faces in occupied Baghdad. Peter Kuper captures the complicated and sordid story of last year’s Oaxaca teachers’ strike and their battle with the state’s murderous, corrupt governor — which ended with the death of numerous people, including journalist Brad Will — in his firsthand mixed-media account “Oaxaca.”

Other comics take a look at familiar locales. Standouts include Seth Tobocman’s excerpt from his new book Disaster and Resistance (AK Press), about the struggle of residents of a NOLA housing project to return home after the devastation of Katrina and authorities. Mac McGill’s “Hurricane Katrina” is a meticulously rendered expressionist pantomime about life, loss and hope of New Orleans residents. Fly’s interview with Bill DiPaola serves as the basis for her rollicking, illustrated history of radical environmentalist group Times Up! “NYC Cyclists Memorial” is Christopher Cardinale’s lyrical and poignant mixed-media comic about the bicyclists killed by motorists and the city’s inhospitability to bicyclists.


Read the full review.

TALK AT HUNTER COLLEGE

On Friday Nov. 30. , some of the folks at The Indypendent gave a talk at Hunter College about the importance of alternative media - specifically the major role that our newspaper plays. With my tummy warmed by a cup of coffee and an updated Powerpoint presentation (who doesn't love slides?), I spoke about the evolution of our cover and the synthesis between visual art and journalistic activism.

I'm the small, spectacled, bearded guy with dreadlocks. :)

© Frank Reynoso, Dec. 10, 2007 All Rights Reserved

Knight Interview on Comic Critique

The folks at Comic Critique uploaded my Keith Knight e-interview on their
site:

http://www.comiccritique.com/interviews/ginterviewSt53.html

© Frank Reynoso, Oct. 2007, All Rights Reserved

Keith Knight Interview

My friends Mikhaela Reid and Masheka Wood introduced me to Keith Knight at this year’s MoCCA Arts and Comic Fest. I got his email address and permission to conduct an email interview. I shopped the interview around a bit but didn’t get anywhere. Rather than letting it whither away, here’s the unedited interview.

KEITH KNIGHT INTERVIEW VIA EMAIL
By Frank Reynoso

With two fierce, weekly comic strips, (th)ink and K Chronicles, Keith Knight easily surpasses many cartoonists’ creative output. Add to this his numerous books, his band Marginal Prophets, greeting cards, and his ubiquitous presence at annual comic events like MoCCA and SPX, and you’ll get a better understanding of the word prolific. Behind Knight’s gentle demeanor and pleasant voice is a sharp mind that roars in his works, delving into a range of subjects: from everyday racism to post 9/11 America to urinary mishaps. Mr. Knight took some time to answer these email questions that reveal what makes for a good political cartoonist and how he’d physiologically describe his visual style.

FR: Where are you originally from and how did you end up in LA?

KK: I grew up in Malden, Massachusetts. Just north of Boston. Birthplace of Converse All-Stars and Jack Albertson, the old man from "Chico and the Man".

I just moved to Los Angeles four months ago after 16 years in San Francisco. I moved cuz I was getting complacent.
FR: What is one childhood experience that's defined you?

KK: When I asked my 11th grade English teacher if I could do a comic book report instead a regular book report. He allowed me to do a comic book parody of George Orwell's "Animal Farm". He gave me an A-plus, and said I should be doing a syndicated comic strip.

FR: What's a typical day for you? Talk us through your day from waking up with a coffee in your hand to passing out with a pen in your mouth.

KK: No coffee. I'm a green tea guy.
I get up. Make some cereal. Write down a list of what I'd like to accomplish for the day. Check email. Take care of any impending comic deadlines by 5pm eastern time (2pm my time). Shower. Grab my drawing stuff and head to a local cafe. Draw for a few hours. Head home. Check email. Make calls. Fill online orders. Prepare dinner. Fool around with the wifey. Mebbe go to another cafe to draw some more. Mebbe we watch a movie and go to bed.

FR: Who is the biggest non-comics/cartoon influence on your work? How did you end up being a cartoonist?

KK: George Lucas. Richard Pryor. Spike Lee. My great uncle Owen. Does it have to be just one?

I've always wanted to be a cartoonist. I didn't know how it was gonna happen. I just knew I was gonna be one.

FR: What is your biggest cartooning regret?

KK: No regrets. I ain't got time for regrets.

FR: What makes for a good political cartoonist?

KK: Taking a complex issue and distilling it down to a simple, humorous and effective image.

FR: Which of your works do you like least? Which one do you like most?

KK: There are a ton of strips that I'd like to write and draw over again. But you just move on and attempt to do better with the next one. There are a few K Chronicles that I really enjoy. The K Chronicles is my favorite strip to do.

FR: What's missing in comics and/or cartoons?

KK: Nothing and everything. You can do so much stuff with a comic. It's like your own little film where you control the dialogue, the actors, the scenery. It's a great medium.

And there are so many different people doing some many different things. Something for everyone. You just gotta search for it.

FR: What body part would you use to describe your visual style?

KK: Ass. Pure ass.

FR: Where can folks find your cartoons?

KK: Lots of places. Salon.com. Mad magazine. The Funny Times. A lot of alternative weeklies and college newspapers. Go to my website: http://www.kchronicles.com It'll tell you where you can find my stuff.

© Frank Reynoso Oct, 2007, All Rights Reserved

Fly in Your Eye: excerpt from my interview with LES cartoonist Fly

FLY IN YOUR EYE: An interview with LES cartoonist and activist Fly















Here's an excerpt from my interview with radical cartoonist and awesome person, Fly. You can find the full interview at Comic Critique or the Indypendent. Thanks to Louis Vitela at Comic Critique, and John Tarleton and Irina Ivanova at The Indypendent for punching this material up.

- Frank

Fly’s distinctive style and message came to my attention some years ago on a flyer for a political event at ABC No Rio. Her actions and works speak volumes of the enigmatic person: a consistent presence in New York City radical circles, a member of the World War 3 Illustrated collective (founded by Seth Tobocman and Peter Kuper), and an adamant supporter and teacher of DIY zines and comics. From the cover of the first issue of $pread, a magazine by and for sex workers, and PEOPS, her zine-turned-book by Soft Skull, which chronicles the lives of many downtown Manhattan residents, artists and activists, Fly hardly shies away from the controversial and the commonplace. The prolific cartoonist and illustrator took some time out to talk about the laborious task of making zines, her artistic growth inspired years ago by Sue Coe’s powerful work and Fiona Smyth’s techniques, and the transformation of the Lower East Side in Manhattan.

FR: What she makes of the transformation of the Lower East Side?

FLY: That’s a big question. The LES has been transforming for so long! It’s sort of the nature of the place. People have been fighting [the latest wave of gentrification] since way before I arrived here in the late 80s. There was of course the real estate boom of the 80s that sort of went bust. Anyway, when I got here it was still pretty rundown and crazy in good ways and bad ways. I have to say that I do not miss the drug dealers or the people shooting up on the street but I do miss all the insanely talented artists and performers and just general characters that used to populate the area and I also think it is very unfair that so many people who were born in the Lower East Side now cannot afford to live here. It used to feel a bit like a small town around here but with all the options of a big city. Now if I am out in the evening, especially on the weekend, I am horrified walking along the sidewalks — even on avenue C! — to see the multitudes of loud drunken idiots making so much noise and making a big mess. I don’t know what the hell they are doing but its just so boring! I think a big problem with the Lower East Side is that it used to be a neighborhood and it had real character — and you can still find that here but it is seriously threatened by the dorm mentality of some idiot developers and the fancy restaurants and hair salons that no one living here can afford to go to. With the whole clean-up of the area of course it became safer and so suddenly since it’s considered so “edgey and hip” everybody wants to live here and the rents have become ridiculous. So what happens in the long run is that the real neighborhood gets displaced because people can’t afford to live here and they are slowly being replaced by a very transient population, NYU students and other high priced renters who are not interested in working on a connection to the real soul and history of the place. The LES is just a stepping stone for them, a place to sleep and to use as a background for pictures — oh — I could rant for hours about this. I know I am generalizing but hopefully you get the idea. There are some books I could recommend for your further edification like the recently published Resistance, edited by Clayton Patterson and published by Seven Stories

FR: What would be your dream collaboration? Living or dead.

FLY: Hmmm…. That’s a really hard one because there are so many people that I’d love to collaborate with… and lately I have been collaborating more… But I’m such a control freak. I think my dream collaboration would probably be not with another visual artist but with a writer. There’s so many writers that I really love so it’s hard to… I know: Kathy Acker. She died a while ago but I would love to have been able to work with her on a comic. (excited) Oh man, yeah. Kathy Acker. Definitely Kathy Acker. I first read her stuff in the 80s when my life was really chaotic and transient. I felt like the way she wrote was like the way I was thinking; it was like the voices in my head mixed with what was happening in the moment mixed with what already happened. It was like deconstruction or something… sorry I’m not much of a literary critic. Her writing to me was just really authentic — she wasn’t afraid to just put everything out there. I could feel it in my bones and the thing about it was that when ever I read any of her stuff I would get so inspired that I would end up doing a lot of writing and drawing myself and I would also have the craziest dreams — I used to do a lot of comics based on dreams too. I just think I could have done some amazing comics in collaboration with Kathy Acker! Hmmm maybe I should try to do a piece on her.

© Frank Reynoso, Aug. 2007, All Rights Reserved