comics

Earlier this week, I was deeply saddened by the death of my good friend and former collaborator Harvey Pekar. I first met him and his wife Joyce Brabner in 1995, on tour with Our Cancer Year. I was too nervous to say much to either of them, pretty sure they would want nothing to do with a scruffy blue-haired self-publisher in a hand-made dress. Not big fancy people like they were. After all, Harvey had steadfastly rejected compromising his integrity in exchange for financial security.

We heard a lot about Bill Ayers during the 2008 election cycle; mostly attempts at using his name as a smear because of his past with the Weather Underground. But for the past forty years Ayers has been a teacher, an occupation he calls the most intellectually challenging thing he's ever done. His book "To Teach: The Journey of a Teacher" has seen multiple editions, and when the publisher asked him about doing a new one, he wanted to do it a little differently. Ayers teamed up with comics artist Ryan Alexander-Tanner and created a graphic novel version of the book "To Teach: The Journey, In Comics", hoping to reach new and different audiences. Ayers sat down with us at the Bank Street School of Education to discuss his own journey as a teacher, the new graphic novel, and what really needs to be done to reform education in the U.S. The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art held its annual festival recently, with independent comics artists from all over the world convening in New York to show off their work. Some are new on the scene, and others, like Peter Kuper, co-founder of World War 3 Illustrated, have been around for decades and have had work in such mainstream publications as The New York Times. GRITtv visited the MoCCA festival, and then visited Kuper's studio to speak with him about his new book, "Diario de Oaxaca", and the unexpected events that went into its creation.

In Footnotes in Gaza: A Graphic Novel, Joe Sacco looks back at 1956 in Gaza, when one bloody day in Rafah left 111 Palestinians dead. He tells the story in intricate pictures as well as the words of the people who survived that day, and like his other graphic works, he combines journalism with cartooning to create a hybrid art form that not only relates a story, but transports the reader back there. Sacco joined Laura in studio recently to discuss his work, and why he chooses the medium he does to tell these riveting stories.

Obama accepted his Peace Prize today and mounted a defense of war as a tool for peace. But activists Robi Damelin, who lost her son to a Palestinian sniper, and Mazen Faraj, who lost his father to an Israeli sniper, are advocating a different approach. Members of The Parents Circle-Families Forum, they're touring the U.S. with Cartoons in Conflict, an exhibit featuring the work of 40 renowned American and international cartoonists, who offer their singular perspective on conflict, reconciliation and peace. For International Human Rights Day, Robi and Mazen join Laura in the studio to tell their stories, how they came to work for peace, and talk about the cartoons they're presenting.