Larry Gonick is a veteran American cartoonist best known for his delightful comic-book guides to science and history, many of which have previews online. Chief among them is his long-running
Cartoon History of the Universe (later
The Cartoon History of the Modern World), a sprawling multi-volume opus documenting everything from the Big Bang to the Bush administration. Published over the course of three decades, it takes a truly global view -- its time-traveling Professor thoroughly explores not only familiar topics like Rome and World War II but the oft-neglected stories of Asia and Africa, blending caricature and myth with careful scholarship (cited by
fun illustrated bibliographies) and tackling even the most obscure events
with intelligence and wit. This savvy satire carried over to Gonick's
Zinn-by-way-of-
Pogo chronicle
The Cartoon History of the United States, along with a bevy of
Cartoon Guides to other topics, including
Genetics, Computer Science, Chemistry, Physics, Statistics, The Environment, and (yes!)
Sex. Gonick has also maintained a few sideprojects, such as
a webcomic look at Chinese invention,
assorted math comics (
previously), the
Muse magazine mainstay
Kokopelli & Co. (featuring the shenanigans of his
"New Muses"), and
more. See also
these lengthy interview snippets, linked
previously. Want more? Amazon links to the complete oeuvre inside!
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Jun 6, 2011 -
29 comments
Threads (1984).
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13) Testament (1983).
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) [more inside]
posted by Joe Beese
on Feb 25, 2011 -
66 comments
The House of Sharing is a place for the Halmoni to to live together and heal the wounds of the past while educating the future generations of the suffering they survived.
The View From Over Here details her visit to the House of Sharing, a therapeutic group home and museum for surviving "comfort women", who were systematically raped by the Japanese military during World War II. The museum displays art for and by the survivors. Via
Ask a Korean.
[more inside]
posted by ignignokt
on Dec 17, 2010 -
5 comments
Peace and War in the 20th Century is an ambitious, in progress, massive assemblage of posters, photographs, propaganda, ephemera, letters, diaries, paintings, sketches, stories, letters, music and related items, from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The collection is international in scope. Some of the nodes lack content, and the navigation is a little confusing, so the jump I list some of my favourite case studies from their site.
[more inside]
posted by Rumple
on Jan 2, 2009 -
4 comments
“Iraq War Memorial: Death of Prince Harry" features the
in fact hale and hearty royal scion "laid out before the Union Jack with pennies placed over his eyes and head rested on the Bible...Prone with his unfired gun still holstered, Prince Harry is represented clutching a bloodied flag of Wales, and holding to his heart a cameo locket of his late mother, Princess Diana, while a desert vulture perches on his boot...a bronze casting of Prince Harry’s 'severed ears' also set for display at the Trafalgar Hotel will be offered on eBay."
Via.
posted by Abiezer
on Oct 11, 2007 -
50 comments
The Face2face project. JR, an
"undercover photographer", and Marco, a technology consultant, had 41 people - israelis and palestinians - mugging for the camera and plastered the
huge, unavoidable pictures on both sides of the Israeli West Bank barrier, pair by pair : one israeli, one palestinian, both having similar jobs and posing in a similar fashion (+an imam, a rabbi and a christian priest). See also the
trailer (YT, other videos available on the main site).
posted by elgilito
on Sep 17, 2007 -
15 comments
Church chandeliers made from bullet casings and cannon parts Until today I'd never heard of
trench art. From the second link:
Pieces described as ‘trench art’ have the following distinctly different origins:
1. War souvenirs collected by soldiers or non-combatants during the war and during the demobilization period and modified in some way to serve as a remembrance of the war.
2. Souvenirs crafted by soldiers during the war.
3. Souvenirs made for sale to soldiers by other soldiers or civilians during the war.
4. Souvenirs made by prisoners of war in exchange for food, cigarettes or money.
5. Mementoes of the war made by convalescent soldiers.
6. Post-war souvenirs made for tourists visiting the battlefields.
7. Post-war souvenirs made by commercial firms in ‘trench-art style’.
posted by SassHat
on Aug 17, 2007 -
11 comments
Born to War is a series of paintings of American women killed in Iraq. The combination of the increasing role of women in the American military and the blurring of lines between combat and non-combat roles in Iraq have made this the first war in which female US soldiers have died in direct combat. The focus on a smaller number of women provides a more approachable view of casualties than more general sites like
Iraq Body Count and raises some interesting questions about the role of women in the US military.
posted by scottreynen
on Feb 23, 2007 -
13 comments
At least one commander told him, "Follow the soldiers' instructions, because they'll put their lives at risk to save you." But no one tried to censor his drawings or discourage him from going out on missions. -- Steve Mumford is a New York painter who was embedded as a "combat artist" in Iraq. The archives of his
Baghdad Journal make for fascinating reading. He has recently published a large
book of the art he created on this voyage.
posted by Gator
on Dec 18, 2005 -
9 comments
The Emperor's Bunker. "The Japanese, with sadness and irony, stressed that Hirohito couldn't even speak properly. This was partly to do with the fact that he didn't have to speak - people spoke in his name and he was isolated from real life".
"
The Sun", the third part in
Russian director Aleksandr Sokurov's 'Men of Power'
tetralogy after the gloom of
Moloch (1999), about Hitler and Eva Braun, and the despairing tones of "
Taurus"
(2001), focused on the wheelchair-bound Lenin in his death throes, "The Sun" seems almost upbeat. This, after all, is a film about reconciliation. More inside.
posted by matteo
on Sep 13, 2005 -
21 comments
Matthew White's Historical Atlas of the 20th Century. One of those amazing internet reference sites created by some guy (okay, Matthew White). Lots of fascinating, incredibly researched stuff:
complete lists of all manmade megadeaths in the 20th century,
the 100 most important works of art of the 20th century,
maps showing changes in the types of government by decade,
comments on Wikipedia, and much more. Also, some fun stuff,
like what the US would look like if every secessionist movement succeeded.
Previously posted in 2001, but much updated and worth a second look
posted by blahblahblah
on Jun 2, 2005 -
15 comments
Peace Art Project Cambodia --turning the detrius of war into
art, in hopes of a more peaceful future. More info
here, and
here.
"You can't help but think about what this machine has done to affect so many lives."
And that is really the point. These sculptures are political art at its most powerful - relics of a violent past transformed into expressions of hope for a more peaceful future.
posted by amberglow
on Dec 25, 2004 -
6 comments
"Hi. My name is Tony Kushner, I'm a playwright ...
Ladies and Gentlemen and Supporters of
MoveOn: the first lady of the United States,
Laura Welch Bush".
About a year and a half ago
Kushner, the
Pulitzer-prize winning author of
Angels in America, published the first act of a new play,
Only We Who Guard The Mystery Shall Be Unhappy (full text). In it, Laura Bush
reads Dostoyevsky to a classroom full of ghosts of dead Iraqi children. Now,
(in Salon, I know, I know) the first lady metacriticizes Kushner's play.
(more inside)
posted by matteo
on Aug 4, 2004 -
11 comments
How to make a protest sign
This past weekend thousands of Americans took to the street to protest or support the war - many with protest posters. Making a protest poster isn't that difficult but the web makes it even easier with sites on the web that offer protest posters for every angle on the issue.
Another Poster for Peace has a collection of posters from some of the top names in graphic design available royality free.
Insta-protest offers a collection of 80 posters printable on your laser or inkjet printer from their Flash interface.
Mike Flugennock has cartoon posters critical of the war and a number of other topics.
The Propaganda Remix Project has been mentioned here before for their WWII remixed posters. Finally
Anti-War offers a gallery of posters in color and black and white.
For those of us who are supporting the President in this war you might want to
print out one of these. There's got to be others in support of the war - but where are they?
Designing protest posters can also be part of your high school history class with this
Art as Political Protest lesson plan. So, what sign are you?
posted by DragonBoy
on Mar 24, 2003 -
10 comments
Poets Against the War At Sam Hamill's
Poets Against the War, the story of the recent
cancellation (link to Canada's Globe and Mail), by Laura Bush, of a Feb. 12 poetry symposium at the White House. From the G and M article:
Stanley Kunitz, poet laureate 2000-01, told reporters, "I think there was a general feeling that the current administration is not really a friend of the poetic community and that its program of attacking Iraq is contrary to the humanitarian position that is at the centre of the poetic impulse." Hamill is gathering
contributions from poets around the world, including Pulitzer Prize-winners Yusef Komunyakaa and W.S. Merwin, National Book Award winner Marilyn Hacker, novelist Ursula K. Le Guin, and Adrienne Rich.
This post is not intended the fan the flames of 'War on Iraq: Yes or No', but to explore Kunitz's contention: Is there at the centre of the poetic impulse a particular type of humanitarianism? Is there a space for poets and poetry in political debate? Are poets the "unacknowledged legislators of the world"? [more inside]
posted by jokeefe
on Jan 31, 2003 -
35 comments
Art Fights Back — an exhibit of poster art at Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, Iowa — displays images dedicated to the memory of September 11 and support of the Unites States and its troops. Seems like a typical thing to do around war time, right?
Take a close look at the
actual poster design. Don't they seem rather
non-American in their artistic style? In fact, they recall an era of poster design for a
dramatically different context than what was typically thought of as U.S. patriotism.
posted by Down10
on Mar 11, 2002 -
39 comments
