Archcomix

Voices from Nepal

Out now from University of Toronto Press! Click here to order your print or digital version.
How can we better protect survivors? How can we learn from their stories without causing further harm?

With a pen in one hand and watercolours in the other, I embarked on an investigation into human trafficking and how comics can be used to empower survivors and raise awareness of human rights issues. Based on years of research and reporting, the book holds a mirror up to the ways that international and local NGOs study and combat trafficking, reflecting on both the positive and negative impacts they can have.

Featuring interviews with trafficking survivors across Nepal, as well as former traffickers themselves, the graphic novel dispels common misconceptions around labour trafficking, sex trafficking, organ trafficking, and more. Through a combination of live sketches, illustrated reportage, and visual testimonies, I champion the use of graphic journalism in human rights reporting and emphasizes the need for a survivor-centric approach to this work.

Carefully compiled and expressively illustrated, Voices from Nepal sheds light on an important issue while fostering a discussion about how we can improve the tools and methods we use to make change.

An eye-opening investigation into human trafficking and a compelling account of how to tell stories in ways that educate and empower.

“Bajo Tierra” – “6 Feet Under”

Graphic journalism on the evergreen topic of land rights and displacement in the north of Antioquia, Columbia as the bandas criminales (criminal gangs) and the Colombian state vye for control against the backdrop of the country’s largest ever infrastructure project, HydroItuango – a multi-million dollar hydroelectric dam, whose construction threatens to bury the mass graves once created by the paramilitaries during the country’s 50+ year civil war. Published in Colombia’s most popular daily newspaper, El Espectador.

Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign in Nepal

Myself, Prof Cecilia Mo and Prof Margaret Boittin were co-principal investigators on an international research project monitoring migration and trafficking in Nepal from 2013-18 that was sponsored by Humanity United, Stanford/Vanderbilt/McGill University, and produced in collaboration with several leading Nepali NGOs. I researched, designed and produced the treatments for the survey, across multiple formats, which included comics, poster, animation, brochures and a radio drama. All of the materials were based on dozens of interviews with human trafficking survivors across Nepal from 2012-14.

Our white paper, which compared the efficacy of the different forms of media campaigns on human trafficking awareness in Nepal, is readable here.

Garment Factory Workers in Bangladesh

Sponsored by the European Journalism Centre, I created five comics focusing on different aspects of the garment industry – and the lives of those involved in it – in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which were then translated into Spanish, German and Bangla in partnership with international newspapers and local NGO The Maria Cristina Foundation. Read the German version on Zeit Online’s site or the Spanish version via El Pais.

Abandonado Por el Estado

A graphic journalism piece in Spanish for the leading Colombian newspaper El Espectador, focusing on the disappearances experienced in the tiny town of Recetor, Casanare, in Colombia during the worst period of the country’s violence. Produced in conjunction with the Entre Viñetas collective.

Live Scribing

As an experienced live scriber and sketch artist, I can translate your conference speeches or meetings into 8′ x 4′ full colour visual treatments in real time. Sketching live on stage or discretely from the audience, I synthesize and capture the key points from speeches and render them in an eye-catching, accessible way that will resonate with audiences long after the event is over. I can also produce more intimate sketchbook summaries: here’s what I produced over the course of the two day Experience Engagement Conference in Portland, Oregon in October 2015.

Above is a selection of recent live scribing sessions from work at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, as well as from conferences in Washington DC, New York and Berlin. For more live sketches direct from my sketchbook, click here or visit my Instagram (click on the thumbnail on the left sidebar).

Policing the Pixels

Comic for Stanford’s Center for Security and Cooperation on cybersecurity. Read the whole interactive comic here.

The International Criminal Court

A collaboration with Cartoon Movement and the London School of Economics on the history of the International Criminal Court. Read the comic here.

School of the Americas

Piece for Presente.org on the historical ties between human rights abuses across latin america and the School of the Americas training facility (now renamed “Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation”) in Fort Benning, GA. Click here to read the full comic.

The Right to Return

Piece for Common Dreams on the true story of the Chagos islanders who were forcibly expelled from their homes in Diego Garcia by the US and UK governments in the 1970s to make way for one of the world’s largest military bases.

Apocalypse Left and Right: A Graphic Primer

A comic from the vault (2010!) for Religion Dispatches, covering our collective obsession with the end of days and the real-life religious zealots who out-crazy anything Hollywood producers can come up with.

Obedience is the Best Weapon

A focus on human trafficking from Mexico to the United States, told by a survivor who was trafficked into sexual slavery. Published as a full broadsheet page by the San Francisco Public Press. Read the whole piece here.

The Disaster Capitalism Curriculum

A three-part series of interactive comics for Truthout (part 1 ; part 2 ; part 3) that covered the respective historical (Milton Friedman’s involvement), political (taking post-Katrina New Orleans as a case study) and economic (contrasting the US with Finland) contexts of the education reform movement in the United States. Written in collaboration with the wonderful Adam Bessie.

The Honduran Coup: A Graphic History

Serialized in three parts (Part 1 ; Part 2 ; Part 3) by Alternet and the Huffington Post, and now translated into several languages, I chronicled the 2009 Honduran Coup using comics published online in real time as events unfolded. The piece was picked up by media outlets in Brazil, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, India, the US and UK among others.

Different Person, Different Life

2012 Interview with a domestic violence survivor for the San Francisco Public Press, which ran at full broadsheet size. Read the whole comic here.

What is Comics Journalism?

A comic (from 2011) for the Poynter Institute laying out the history, practices and practitioners of comics journalism. Read the full piece here.

Ferguson Firsthand

Comics based on eyewitness statements gathered around the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9th, 2014. The comics are readable in their own responsive mini-site here and later incorporated into my virtual reality reconstruction of the entire Canfield Green apartments complex here.

Instagram

Live sketches from around the world: www.instagram.com/archcomix

Human Trafficking Comic for Vice

Graphic journalism piece for Vice magazine on the exploitation of child labour in Kathmandu’s sari factories, as well as young girls trafficked into the massage parlour brothels in the capital’s Thamel district. Read the whole comic here.

Traumatized by the Streets

For the San Francisco Public Press. Produced in part thanks to the Maynard Institute Mental Health Reporting Fellowship. Read the whole piece here, powered by the awesome Pulp Press plugin.

Esquire Classics Comics Adaptation

Sequences from Philip Caputo’s original story

The Nisoor Square Shootings

Interactive comic for Cartoon Movement on the Nisoor Square Shootings in Baghdad that left 24 civilans dead at the hands of US military contractors Blackwater (now Xe). Read the piece here.

“America Forgot About Us”

Published by Fusion in the wake of Freddie Grey’s death at the hands of Baltimore Police Officers. Read the whole piece here. Live sketched interviews from the streets of Baltimore, talking to residents about life in the city and their relationship with local law enforcement.

Things Are Like That

Excerpt of my upcoming graphic novel on human trafficking in Nepal, published by Medium’s The Nib. Read the piece here.

Pink Ribbon Envy: Living with an Uncool Cancer

A comic on “pinkwashing” – the commodification of disease (specifically breast cancer) awareness-raising, through the aggressive marketing of goods whose branding is more focused on the health of their profit margins, not the health of those affected. Written in collaboration with Adam Bessie, himself a cancer survivor. Read the whole piece here.

“So What He Stole a Box of Cigars?”

Live sketched interviews with members of the Ferguson, Missouri community in the wake of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown on August 9, 2014. Published by The Nib on Medium. Read the whole piece here.

The Economy of Attention

In June 2014, I reported on Silicon Valley’s annual Augmented World Expo for Medium magazine. Read the part-animated comic here.

Marlene Bird: An Aboriginal Woman’s Struggle for Survival

A comic and animations for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on the true story of Marlene Bird, a Cree homeless woman who was brutally attacked in June 2014. Read the piece online here or watch the feature that aired on Canadian national television here.

Escape from Alcatraz: The Lone Wolf Breakout

I was selected by the National Parks Conservancy Trust to turn one of the fourteen abortive escape attempts made by inmates from San Francisco’s notorious Alcatraz prizon into a comic. I chose the true story of John Giles, who used dirty laundry to make his bid for freedom. Purchase your hard copy of the comic directly from the Alcatraz store here.