Comics

The Waiting Room: Iraqi refugees in Syria

Comics, War on Iraq
Published on

first page of the Waiting Room by Sarah Glidden

Sarah Glidden is a Jewish-American cartoonist whose breakthrough comic How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less was published by Vertigo last year. Working with the Common Language Project she has written and drawn the above comic explaining the situation the two million Iraqi refugees in Syria find themselves in. Not just a good primer on the plight of Iraqi refugees in Syria, it’s also a great example of how to do journalism through comics. Even at their most banal comics draw you in like no other medium can do and a good cartoonist like Glidden can hold your attention even through the dry recital of background information because the pictures complement and add to the text you cannot achieve through photos.

Waiting Room is published at Cartoon Movement, a website dedicated to political cartoons and comics journalism.

Andrew Wakefield struck off the medical register

Comics, Health, Wingnuts
Published on

Good news for once: “dr” Andrew Wakefield, the lying liar who in no way fudged his research to find a link between the MMR vaccine and autism because he himself would financially profit from an increased demand for a single measles vaccine he had patented is to be struck of the medical register:

The doctor who first suggested a link between MMR vaccinations and autism is to be struck off the medical register.

The General Medical Council found Dr Andrew Wakefield guilty of serious professional misconduct over the way he carried out his controversial research.

It follows a GMC ruling earlier this year that he had acted unethically.

Dr Wakefield, who is now based in the US, has consistently claimed the allegations are unfair. He now says he will appeal against the verdict.

His 1998 Lancet study caused vaccination rates to plummet, resulting in a rise in measles – but the findings were later discredited.

For quick reminder of Wakefield’s crimes, The Facts In The Case Of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a comic strip by Darryl Cunningham is highly recommended. Not just to get the facts, but also as a good example of how to do a factual comic without becoming boring or preachy. Comes complete with references.

“Well, this theory that I have — that is to say, which is mine — …is mine.”

Books, Comics, IT is not magic pixie dust, Life under Capitalism
Published on

I absolutely, totally, fail to see the point of the e-reader, except as a way of making yet more money from the consumer by introducing more hardware and more formats (not to mention more intrusive control by the publisher over what is ostensibly the consumer’s property).

Seems to me, sitting here looking at my little netbook, that if I could unclip the LCD screen a la Snap on Tools, and if it were fitted with scroll buttons and a wifi transmitter, well, then I’d have a perfectly good built in e-reader.

After all an e-reader is a tablet pc in all but name, isn’t it? So why has no major manufacturer done it yet? Oh duh, I answered my own question already. Money.

Still, I think it’s a good idea and if indeed no-one’s yet come up with the same idea , it’s MINE.

Quite

Comics, Comment of the Day
Published on

Steve Bell interviewed by Jamie of Blood & Treasure:

“New media is going to make a big difference. I’ve seen people do amazing things with stuff like flash animation. So creatively these are interesting times. But the main problem with new media is how people are going to get paid. There’s a so-called progressive blog in the States called the Huffington Post which is proud of not paying its contributors. That’s progressive?