World War 3 Illustrated Web Comics

Christopher Arnott gives us love over at scribblers.us:

You could say World War 3 #42 Illustrated missed a major opportunity in being released at the peak of the Occupy movement and not having been able to comment on it. But that’s always been the wonder and grace of this magazine—it shows us, through conscientious and time-consuming assemblages of text and art, that public political demonstrations have lasting impact, and waiting a year to read about them isn’t silly. It’s other virtue is showing us some of the less obvious uprisings around the world, the ones that eluded the attention of mainstream media. Timeliness is a minor factor here. World War 3 Illustrated is always active.

Be sure to read the whole review at his site, and then head to your local independent book store to pick up your copy!

Anna Mud has a fascinating report from the recent Sharjah Book Festival on the state of the Arab comics scene, including conversations with and art from WW3I contributors Magdy El Shafee and Ganzeer and some people we hope to have in future issues like Nidal Alkhairy and Barrack Rima (stay tuned, true believers!).

There is in fact a remarkable flourishing of wonderfully sophisticated work—political and quotidian, poetic and playful—from Samandal in Beirut to Tok Tok in Cairo and beyond. This spring the Outreach Center will publish Muktatafaht, a comics collection showcasing the work of thirteen artists from Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories.

Check out her full report here.

Anton Van Dalen, one of the original contributors to World War 3 Illustrated and someone I have heard Seth Tobocman cite repeatedly as a major influence on his own work, sent an email in response to our recent discovery that the Museum of Modern Art here in NYC has put some of its collection of back issues of World War 3 Illustrated on display as part of their New York contemporary arts gallery. The comics on display are open to some of Van Dalen’s drawings.

Here is the story he tells behind those drawings, and muses on the place of art, commerce, and community:

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Of course we think that–but Alison Bechdel does too.

She is the guest editor of the most recent edition of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s “Best American Comics” series, and she chose longtime WW3I editor and contributor Sabrina Jones’ story from World War 3 Illustrated #40, “What We Want” for inclusion in this year’s book, alongside work by Joe Sacco, Gabrielle Bell, Jaime Hernandez and many other comics super-stars (and many amazing cartoonists you may NOT have heard of). Sabrina’s story (which you can read here) is both autobiographical, tracing her own relationship to the various neighborhoods of New York she has lived in, and historical, and political, through a meditation on Jane Jacobs and her fight against corporate gentrification and the relationship of our built environment with our communities.

Check out her story in WW3I #40 (available at your local independent bookstore) or in BAC 2011 (probably available everywhere) and check out more of Sabrina’s work at her website.

And yes, BAC 2011 has been out for some time, so we are a little behind on posting this, but by our reckoning, Sabrina’s story was published in 2009, so let’s call it glass houses. Sabrina joins WW3I editors Peter Kuper (“Ceci n’est pas une comic,” BAC 2010) and Seth Tobocman (“Nakedness and Power,” BAC 2006), which leads us to extrapolate that WW3I must be one of the better places to find the best of American comics (or, in the case of our most recent issue, comics period). We’re a bit biased tho.

Egyptian artist Ganzeer has made an appeal to artists for public art next week denouncing the crimes of SCAF. His post, reprinted in its entirety, below:

http://ganzeer.blogspot.com/2011/12/mad-graffiti-week-jan-13-25-appeal-to.html

This is an appeal to help save lives. The Egyptian Military Council has unleashed a brutal crackdown on peaceful protests by the Egyptian people, calling for the resignation of the military council and a cancellation of the sham elections that they’ve been running under their supervision. Soldiers have shown us no mercy, hitting fallen women with their batons, stomping on skulls with their boots, and shooting unarmed civilians dead. I’ve seen this happen with my own eyes and was unable to stop it. It’s a soul-shattering pain like no other.

The lies being disseminated by military-controlled media are as equally painful. Nothing hurts more than such shameless injustice. I fear the military’s strategy will only lead my country to an armed civil war. In an effort to keep our struggle peaceful, I hear by call on artists everywhere to support the Egyptian revolution with their art. As the genius that is Alan Moore once said, “[a satire] destroys you in the eyes of your community, it shows you up as ridiculous, lame, pathetic, worthless, in the eyes of your community, in the eyes of your family, in the eyes of your children, in the eyes of yourself, and if it’s a particularly good bard, and he’s written a particularly good satire, then three hundred years after you’re dead, people are still gonna be laughing.”

Our only hope right now is to destroy the military council using the weapon of art. From January 13 to 25, the streets of Egypt will see an explosion of anti-military street-art. If you are a street artist elsewhere in the world, please do what you can in your city to help us. Even if you are not a street-artist. If you’re a comicbook artist, a musician, or filmmaker, whatever artistic talent you have can be of big help. If you can do something before the designated date, please do! We need all the help we can get.

Finding “inspiration” is not at all difficult. A quick visit to scaf-crimes.blogspot.com will do the trick. On behalf of Egypt’s street-art community, allow me to thank anybody in the world willing to help. Your art may very well save lives.

From Seth Tobocman:

I was invited to speak at the Komikazen Festival of reality-based comics, which happens every November in Ravenna, Italy. I hadn’t expected the politics of lower Manhattan to follow me to Komikazen, but when I was there I felt I was surrounded by the politics of the U.S., Egypt and in fact the whole world.

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Which Side Are You On?, a new book with illustrations by WW3I artist Chris Cardinale, is having a release party Saturday at Bluestockings Books!

We just got back from hanging art at the Sixth Street Community Center, where the release party for the new issue of World War 3 Illustrated will be held Friday night. It felt a little weird to be in a gallery all day as Occupy Wall Street protestors have been engaging with running battles with cops basically across downtown Manhattan. Meanwhile we are assuming that capitalism is not going to be overthrown by Friday night and that our release party will go forward as planned.

It was fun to realize that Sixth Street Community Center used to be a synagogue, but has also been a home to many World War 3 Illustrated artists over the years, as testified by the mural painted by Seth Tobocman, Sabrina Jones and Chris Cardinale in the cafe.  While we worked Seth told me a story I hope he someday shares about how a certain very high profile cartoonist who was starting an anthology of adult comics at the same time Seth was starting WW3I got mad at him about a dispute over a saddle-stapler…..

I’ll meet you after the jump to show you the rest of the photos from the gallery space! Read More »