Today was the third day in about two years (when my daughter was born) that I got eight hours of sleep, so I'm feelin' great! Seriously, I felt like I was losing my mind, but now I just feel like I had a half-shot of Maker's Mark or something. Thanks to Lulu for sleeping in to an incredible 7 a.m.
Anyhow, I've been staying incredibly busy. Birdcage Bottom Books (that's me) is putting out a food/eating themed anthology called "Digestate", and I've been doing a lot of legwork to wrangle & rope artists into contributing. So far we've got a really excellent crew of about 45 cartoonists. I'll release a list of contributors at a later date.
My comic for the anthology uses verbatim text from an interview with a slaughterhouse worker. Gail Eisnitz, author of "Slaughterhouse" was kind enough to send me a stack of affadavits from various slaughterhouse workers. It was exceedingly difficult to pick just one from the bunch since each was compelling for different reasons. I may end up doing more comics using other interviews, each focusing on a different aspect of the slaughterhouse workers' plights.
I'm posting two samples from the comic in progress, which will most likely end up being around 24 pages.
Since this material is so heavy in its theme, I was glad to be invited to participate in the next Rabid Rabbit anthology (#14), which has a much friendlier theme: romance. I've written my "script" and thumbnailed two pages (of five) so far.
Well, that's it for now. Check back soon for a list of Digestate contributors. Thanks!
You worry about "the slaughterhouse workers' plights"? What about the poor animals? I am not a vegetarian and believe in humane livestock raising and slaughtering. Can you comment on that?
ReplyDeleteSure, John. I've been vegan for twenty years, and I am all too well familiar with the animals' suffering. A lot of my earlier comics focused on that aspect of food production.
DeleteThis current comic does deal with the livestock treatment as well, but I wanted to point out that the suffering is not exclusive to animals. Many people may not realize how poorly slaughterhouse workers are treated.
I'm glad that you are concerned about animal welfare, and thanks for commenting!
Very nnice blog you have here
ReplyDelete