Comic journalism as a term and practice is continuing to expand. This emerging field has found a strong base both in comic readers as well as those interested in non fiction storytelling.
As a method of long form journalism, graphic reportage offers nuances and observations not always available in traditional reporting. It also appeals to different audiences who appreciate visual stimulation paired with complex situations. It allows for depictions of events where cameras are forbidden (e.g. Guy Delisle’s “Pyongyang”, about this experience in North Korea), offering readers a poignant vision without threatening journalism ethics.
Our guests will present an overview of their work, and following participate in a discussion on how they define this field and their place in it, different approaches to the craft, and finally take questions from the audience.
Curated with Amélie Garin-Davet.
Bill Kartalopoulos is a Brooklyn-based critic, educator, and curator who teaches classes about comics at Parsons The New School for Design. He is a co-organizer of the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival and a Contributing Editor for Print Magazine, and has worked as an assistant to Art Spiegelman for several years. He is a frequent public speaker about comics and comics education.
In 1980 Seth Tobocman was one of the founding editors of the political comic book “World War 3 Illustrated” which challenged the politics and morals of the Reagan-Bush era. His illustrations have appeared in the New York Times and many other magazines. Tobocman is the Author/Illustrator of five graphic books, among “You Don’t Have to Fuck People To Survive,” “Disaster and Resistance,” and “Understanding the Crash.” He teaches at School of Visual Arts in the department of cartooning and Illustration. His images have been used in posters, pamphlets, murals graffiti and tattoos by peoples movements around the world, from the African National Congress in South Africa, to Squatters on New York’s Lower East Side.
Matt Bors is a nationally syndicated editorial cartoonist based in Portland, OR. His work has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Village Voice, and dozens of other print and web publications. In the summer of 2010, Bors traveled to Afghanistan to draw comics and serves as the Comics Journalism Editor for www.cartoonmovement.com. He is currently editing a comics journalism project focused on reconstruction efforts in Haiti. His first graphic novel, War Is Boring, a collaboration with journalist David Axe, was published in 2010 by New American Library.
Josh Neufeld is a Brooklyn-based cartoonist who works primarily in the realm of nonfiction comics. He is the writer/artist of the Eisner and Harvey Award-nominated A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, and the Xeric Award-winning graphic travelogue A Few Perfect Hours (and Other Stories from Southeast Asia & Central Europe). He is the illustrator of the New York Times bestseller The Influencing Machine: Brook Gladstone On the Media. He was a longtime artist for Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor, and his art has been exhibited in gallery and museum shows in the United States and Europe.
Brooke Gladstone is the managing editor and co-host of On the Media. After working in print media, she joined NPR in 1987 as senior editor of Weekend Edition with Scott Simon and became senior editor of All Things Considered in 1989. In 1991, she spent a year at Stanford University as a Knight Fellow and then reported for NPR from Moscow during Boris Yeltsin’s turbulent presidency (1992-95.) After that, Gladstone served for six years as NPR’s first media correspondent and then joined On the Media when it relaunched in January, 2001.
Gladstone is the recipient of two Peabody Awards, a National Press Club Award, an Overseas Press Club Award and several others. She also is the author of The Influencing Machine (W.W. Norton), a media manifesto in graphic form, listed among the year’s top books by The New Yorker, Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus Reviews and Library Journal, and among the “10 Masterpieces of Graphic Nonfiction” by The Atlantic.
Born in Paris and now based in Brooklyn, Amélie Garin-Davet is an independent curator and festival administrator at the Hamptons International Film Festival. She recently worked in festival coordination at the film sales company Wide Management, programming at the forum des images, and has been a comic nut since she started reading.
