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Nonfiction comics

  • Author:
    Steuter, Erin
    Summary:

    "Fake news!" screams Donald Trump from his Twitter account when journalists ask tough questions about his behaviour. Meanwhile, his Fox & Friends fan club makes dubious claims about anyone who challenges his power. Fake news inflames racism, stokes fear, spreads confusion, and undermines democracy. All while CO2 levels continue to rise and "experts" tell us it's nothing to worry about. But how do we tell which news is real? In this meticulously researched but accessibly written comic, Erin Steuter shows us how to spot fake news and how to stop it. Won't Get Fooled Again is an engaging examination of the Fake News phenomenon. No one is safe from its clutches, but there are ways to escape. Using current examples from around the world, this entertaining comic explains the ways that governments, media owners, advertisers, powerful corporations, and think tanks can influence the organization and content of the news media to manipulate voters or reap billions in profits.

  • Author:
    Martini, Clem
    Summary:

    This book is about mental illness, family caregivers, Alzheimer's and dementia, and the health care system. It continues the story of the Martini family and their experiences with mental illness (which was earlier chronicled in the book Bitter Medicine: A Graphic Memoir of Mental Illness). In The Unravelling, Olivier Martini has lived with his mother, Catherine, since his diagnosis with schizophrenia thirty-six years ago. It hasn't always been a perfect living situation, but it's worked: Catherine has been able to help Olivier through the ups and downs of living with a mental illness, and Olivier has been able to care for his aging mother as her mobility becomes limited, and Olivier's brothers Clem and Nic have been able to provide support to both as well. But then Olivier experiences a serious health crisis at the exact same time that his mother starts slipping into dementia. All of a sudden, the precarious caregiving situation the Martini family has constructed is about to come apart. The family family's lifelong struggle with mental illness is suddenly complicated immeasurably as they begin to navigate the convoluted world of assisted living and long-term care. With anger, dry humour, and hope, The Unravelling tells the story of one family's journey with mental illness, dementia, and caregiving, through a poignant graphic narrative from Olivier accompanied by text from his brother, award-winning playwright and novelist Clem Martini.

  • Author:
    Summary:

    In The Walking Dead, human beings are pushed to their limits by a zombie apocalypse and have to decide what really matters. Good and evil, freedom and slavery, when one life has to be sacrificed for another, even the nature of religion-all the ultimate questions of human existence are posed afresh as the old society crumbles away and a new form of society emerges, with new beliefs and new rules. The Ultimate Walking Dead and Philosophy brings together twenty philosophers with different perspectives on the imagined world of this addictive TV show. How can we keep our humanity when faced with such extreme life-or-death choices? Did Dr. Jenner do the right thing in committing suicide, when all hope seemed to be lost? Does the Governor, as the new Machiavelli, prove that willingness to repeatedly commit murder is the best technique for getting and keeping political power? Why do most characters place such importance on keeping particular individuals alive, especially children? What can we learn about reality from Rick's haunting hallucinations?

  • Author:
    Kristofferson, Robert B.
    Summary:

    Seventy years ago, thousands of North American workers took a stand for a better life. And they won. In 1946, in the United States, over a million workers in the steel, meatpacking, and electrical industries put down their tools and walked out; and striking Canadian workers tied up provincial rubber and logging industries, the Southam newspaper chain, central Canadian ports, and the national steel industry. Workers in Hamilton, Ontario hoisted picket signs at Westinghouse, Firestone, Stelco, and The Hamilton Spectator, and with the support of rallying friends and neighbours, turned the strikes into a community-wide struggle for decency, respect, and security. Based on interviews and other archival materials, this graphic history illustrates how Hamilton workers translated their experience of work and organizing in the 1930s and early 1940s into a new kind of unionism and a new North American society in the decades following World War II.

  • Author:
    Lyseno, Adrian
    Summary:

    In 1932, as famine rages across Ukraine, the Soviet government calls for the harshest punishment for those who keep for themselves even five stalks of grain. When their mother is accused of hoarding and summarily killed, Nadia and Taras must leave their home on a desperate quest for survival. Attempting to navigate a closed country, to stay together, and to stay alive, Nadia and Taras must face secret police, soldiers, and fellow citizens forced to abandon charity and sometimes even humanity in the face of impossible hunger. Unsure who to trust and unable to find refuge, they search for somewhere, anywhere, where they can be safe. Historical fiction at its finest, Five Stalks of Grain is powerfully written and beautifully illustrated, drawing on Ukrainian artistic traditions to tell a story of loss, grief, and hardship with delicate strength. It is a record of a time of profound suffering and a reckoning with the human cost of a tragedy shaped by politics and policy. = ПотужниФи і захопливиФи графічниФи роман, якиФи розповідає історію трагедіЈі та виживання під час Голодомору - страшного голоду, що забрав мільФиони життів у РадянськіФи УкраЈіні. У 1932 році, коли по всіФи УкраЈіні лютує голод, радянськиФи уряд закликає наФижорстокіше карати тих, хто залишає собі хоча б п'ять колосків. Після того, як Јіхню матір звинувачують у зберіганні зерна і безжалісно вбивають, Надя і Тарас змушені покинути рідну домівку у відчаФидушному прагненні вижити. Намагаючись пробратися через закриту краЈіну, залишитися разом та вижити, Надя і Тарас стикаються з таємною поліцією, солдатами та жителями, які забувають про співчуття і навіть людяність перед страшенним голодом. Не знаючи, кому вірити, і не знаходячи притулку, вони шукають будь-яке безпечне місце. Книга «П'ять колосків» - ц е наФикращиФи приклад історичноЈі художньоЈі літератури - потужно написана та чудово проілюстрована, спираючись на украЈінські мистецькі традиціЈі, щоб тонко розповісти історію втрат, горя Фи поневірянь. Це свідчення про період глибоких страждань і визнання людськоЈі ціни трагедіЈі, створеноЈі політикою та політичними рішеннями."--

  • Author:
    Bradd, Sam, Mckilligan, Trevor, Folvik, Robin
    Summary:

    This book traces the development of International Workers' Day, May 1st, against the ever-changing economic and political backdrop in Canada. Recognizing the importance of work and the historical struggles of workers to improve their lives, with a particular focus on the struggles of May 1st, the comic includes the reader as part of this history, and the story concludes that: We are all part of this historical struggle; it's our history and our future.

  • Author:
    Smith, Michael Steven
    Summary:

    For half a century, criminal defense lawyer Leonard Weinglass defended a who's who of the twentieth-century left in some of America's most spectacular trials. "The typical call I get is one that starts by saying, 'You're the fifth attorney we've called,'" he once said. "Then I get interested." Those calls came from the likes of the SDS, the Chicago Seven, Daniel Ellsberg, Abbie Hoffman, and Mumia Abu-Jamal, among many others. In a field dominated by egomaniacs, Weinglass was known for his humility, his common touch, his ability to work collectively, his kindness, and his attention to detail. This long-overdue biography captures the vibrant life and inspiring legacy of an American iconoclast. Praise for Len, A Lawyer in History "For decades Seth Tobocman has been working within the comics vernacular to create a unique language, and with Len he's at the top of his game'brilliantly applying himself not only with pencil and ink on paper, but as an active participant in the same political struggles that Len Weinglass valiantly dedicated his life to solving." 'Peter Kuper, author of Ruins "Tobocman has conjoined past and present to create singular, beautiful, volatile images of struggle.' At the center of this explosion'as example and harbinger, but most of all as an incendiary intimate portrait'stands Len himself. Our coalitions will forever be enriched by his presence, and by the demands his legacy bequeaths." 'AK Thompson, author of Black Bloc, White Riot "I met Len Weinglass in 1964.' He was learned, funny, and the best damned trial lawyer I ever saw in a courtroom.' The chapters on Newark, Chicago, and the Pentagon Papers case will help a new generation understand the substance behind all the blurry labels about the time." 'Tom Hayden, author of The Port Huron Statement "The book is dramatic in its reach and speechless in its words. It's not just about Len, but who we were as people during his journey. Remarkable." 'Stanley L. Cohen, attorney and political activist "Len said: 'I would classify myself as radical American. I want to spend my time defending people who have committed their time to progressive social change.' This exemplifies how, along with Michael Ratner, William Kunstler, and other US lawyers around the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, he was an incredibly important role model for radical human rights lawyers in Europe such as myself." 'Wolfgang Kaleck, Secretary General, European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights PAUL BUHLE is the editor of a dozen comic art books along with many scholarly works, including the authorized biography of C.L.R. James. MICHaeL STEVEN SMITH is executor of Leonard Weinglass's estate and co-editor of Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA. SETH TOBOCMAN is an authorllustrator and one of the founding editors of World War 3 Illustrated.

  • Author:
    Jacob, Mira
    Summary:

    A bold, wry, and intimate graphic memoir about American identity, interracial families, and the realities that divide us, from the acclaimed author of  The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing. “By turns hilarious and heart-rending, it’s exactly the book America needs at this moment.”—Celeste Ng “ How brown is too brown? ” “ Can Indians be racist? ” “ What does real love between really different people look like? ” Like many six-year-olds, Mira Jacob’s half-Jewish, half-Indian son, Z, has questions about  everything. At first they are innocuous enough, but as tensions from the 2016 election spread from the media into his own family, they become much, much more complicated. Trying to answer him honestly, Mira has to think back to where she’s gotten her own answers: her most formative conversations about race, color, sexuality, and, of course, love.  Written with humor and vulnerability, this deeply relatable graphic memoir, adapted for audio, is a love letter to the art of conversation—and to the hope that hovers in our most difficult questions. Read by:  Vikas Adam, Shiromi Arserio, McCartney Birdwell, Donte Bonner, Bill Cheng, Nicole Counts, Margaret Dunham, Chris Edmund, Alison Fraser, Cecila Flores, Kaitlyn Greenridge, Alison Hart, Chris Jackson, Soneela Nankani, Victory Matsui, Kivlighan de Montebello, Meera Nair, Lorna Raver, Rajiv Surendra, Oliver Wyman, and an ensemble cast Advance praise for Good Talk “[A] breezy but poignant graphic memoir that takes on racism, love, and the election of President Trump. . . . The collage effect creates an odd, immediate intimacy. [Mira Jacob] employs pages of narrative prose sparingly but hauntingly. . . . The ‘talks’ Jacob relates are painful, often hilarious, and sometimes absurd, but her memoir makes a fierce case for continuing to have them.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A beautiful and eye-opening account of what it means to mother a brown boy and what it means to live in this country post–9/11, as a person of color, as a woman, as an artist . . . In Jacob’s brilliant hands, we are gifted with a narrative that is sometimes hysterically funny, always honest, and ultimately healing.” —Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award–winning author of  Another Brooklyn “Mira Jacob just made me toss everything I thought was possible in a book-as-art-object into the garbage. Her new book changes everything.” —Kiese Laymon,  New York Times bestselling author of  Heavy

  • Author:
    Ellyn, Laura
    Summary:

    With bright, strong imagery, Ginger Goodwin presents the story of labour activist and martyr Albert Ginger Goodwin. This accessible and thoughtful graphic history explores Goodwin's life, work, and death in the mining communities of Cumberland, British Columbia. Drawing on local history, and exploring the ways the history of labour organizing affects contemporary movements, Ginger Goodwin is a story that needs to be shared.

  • Author:
    Luciuk, Kassandra
    Summary:

    Enemy Alien tells the story of Canada's first national internment operations through the eyes of John Boychuk, a Ukrainian internee held in Kapuskasing from 1914 to 1917. Based closely on John Boychuk's memoir--the only comprehensive internee testimony in existence--Enemy Alien follows Boychuk from his arrest in Toronto through his more than three years in a northern work camp. This beautifully illustrated graphic history details the everyday struggle of the internees in the camp, including forced labour and exploitation, abuse from guards, malnutrition, and homesickness. It documents moments of internee resistance, such as work stoppages, hunger strikes, escape attempts, and riots. For Boychuk, this experience only reinforced a commitment to radical politics.

  • Author:
    Beaton, Kate
    Summary:

    Before there was Kate Beaton, New York Times bestselling cartoonist of Hark! A Vagrant, there was Katie Beaton of the Cape Breton Beaton, specifically Mabou, a tight-knit seaside community where the lobster is as abundant as beaches, fiddles, and Gaelic folk songs. With the singular goal of paying off her student loans, Katie heads out west to take advantage of Alberta's oil rush—part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can't find it in the homeland they love so much. Katie encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands, where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet is never discussed. Beaton's natural cartooning prowess is on full display as she draws colossal machinery and mammoth vehicles set against a sublime Albertan backdrop of wildlife, northern lights, and boreal forest. Her first full length graphic narrative, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is an untold story of Canada: a country that prides itself on its egalitarian ethos and natural beauty while simultaneously exploiting both the riches of its land and the humanity of its people.

  • Author:
    Summary:

    "Canadian labour history and working-class struggles are brought to life in this anthology of nine short comics, each one accompanied by an informative preface. Each comic showcases the inspiring efforts and determination of working people who banded together with others to fight to change the world. The history of working-class struggle is a fascinating story of conflict and coercion, of resistance and triumph. It has the drama of defeat mixed with the thrill of victory, though not always in equal measure. But, working-class history is not just interesting and exciting; it also contains important lessons for labour and social justice activists today. Illustrate! Educate! Organize! Contributors include Jo SiMalaya Alcampo, Althea Balmes, Christine Balmes, Sam Bradd, Paul Buhle, Nicole Marie Burton, David Camfield, Sean Carleton, Conely de Leon, Robin Folvik, Ethan Heitner, Greg Kealey, Orion Keresztesi, Mark Leier, David Lester, Andrée Lévesque, Zenee May Maceda, Dale McCartney, Doug Nesbitt, Bryan Palmer, Andrew Parnaby, Joan Sangster, Kara Sievewright, Julia Smith, Ron Verzuh, Tania Willard (Secwepemc Nation)"--Publisher.

  • Author:
    Graphic History Collective
    Summary:

    Art has always played a significant role in the history of the labour movement. Songs, stories, poems, pamphlets, and comics, have inspired workers to take action against greedy bosses and helped shape ideas of a more equal world. They also help fan the flames of discontent. Radical social change doesn't come without radical art. It would be impossible to think about labour unrest without its iconic songs like "Solidarity Forever" or its cartoons like Ernest Riebe's creation, Mr. Block. In this vein, The Graphic History Collective has created an illustrated chronicle of the strike--the organized withdrawal of labour power--in Canada. For centuries, workers in Canada--Indigenous and non-Indigenous, union and non-union, men and women--have used the strike as a powerful tool, not just for better wages, but also for growing working-class power. This lively comic book will inspire new generations to learn more about labour and working-class history and the power of solidarity. The Graphic History Collective is made up of activists, artists, writers, and researchers passionate about comics, history, and social change. They produce alternative histories--people's histories--in an accessible format to help people understand the historical roots of contemporary social issues. Previous publications include Drawn to Change: Graphic Histories of Working-Class Struggle and May Day: A Graphic History of Protest.

  • Author:
    Côté, André-Philippe
    Summary:

    Il faut bien rendre à la COVID ce qui appartient au corona: le virus qui a mis notre monde sans dessus dessous est la grande vedette de ce 23e album. Ce qui n'empêche pas Côté de saupoudrer son festin annuel d'un zeste de Labeaume, d'une pincée de Trudeau (élections 2019 obligent) et d'une généreuse tasse d'agent orange! Avec 20 esquisses inédites et huit pages supplémentaires, De tous les... Côté 2020 prouve une fois de plus qu'avec son humour mordant et son humanisme lucide, André-Philippe Côté compte parmi les plus grands. Au point que le prestigieux journal français Le Monde a choisi le dessin de la couverture de cet album pour illustrer un dossier sur le virus. Chapeau, l'artiste !.

  • Author:
    Martini, Clem, Martini, Olivier
    Summary:

    In 1976, Ben Martini was diagnosed with schizophrenia. A decade later, his brother Olivier was told he had the same disease. For the past thirty years the Martini family has struggled to comprehend and cope with a devastating illness, frustrated by a health care system lacking in resources and empathy, the imperfect science of medication, and the strain of mental illness on familial relationships. Throughout it all, Olivier, an accomplished visual artist, drew. His sketches, comic strips, and portraits document his experience with, and capture the essence of, this all too frequently misunderstood disease. In Bitter Medicine, Olivier’s poignant graphic narrative runs alongside and communicates with a written account of the past three decades by his younger brother, award-winning author and playwright Clem Martini. The result is a layered family memoir that faces head-on the stigma attached to mental illness. Shot through with wry humour and unapologetic in its politics, Bitter Medicine is the story of the Martini family, a polemical and poetic portrait of illness, and a vital and timely call for action.

  • Author:
    Summary:

    Batman or Superman' Which of these heroic figures is morally superior' Which is more dramatically effective' Which is more democratic' Which shows us the better way to fight crime' Who is a morally better person' Whose actions lead to the better outcomes' Superman vs. Batman and Philosophy tries to decide "for" and "against" these two superheroes by comparing their contrasting approaches to a wide range of issues. Twenty-six philosophers evaluate Superman vs. Batman in order to decide which of them "wins" by various different criteria. Some of the writers say that Superman wins, others say Batman, and others give the result as a tie. Since both Batman, the megalomaniacal industrialist, and Superman, the darling of the media, sometimes operate outside the law, which of them makes the better vigilante'and how do they compare with Robin Hood, the anonymous donor, the Ninja, and the KKK' Which of them comes out better in terms of evolutionary biology' Which of the heroes works more effectively to resist oppression' Does Superman or Batman function better as a force for embodied intelligence' Who does more to really uphold the law' Which one is better for the environment' Which of these two supernormal guys makes a better model and inspiring myth to define our culture and our society' Is Batman or Superman the more admirable person' Who conforms more closely to Nietzsche's Ubermensch' Which one makes the more rational choices' Who makes the better god' Who is more self-sacrificing in pursuit of other people's welfare' Who goes beyond the call of duty' Which one does better at defining himself by resolving his internal conflicts' Whose explicit code of morality is superior' Which superhero gives us more satisfying dramatic conflict' (And why does a battle between the two make such a compelling drama') Which of our two candidates comes closer to Christ' Which has the sounder psychological health' Whose overall consequences are better for the world' Which one more perfectly exemplifies C.S. Lewis's concept of chivalry' What's the deeper reason Batman is so successful in videogames whereas Superman isn't' What are the advantages and disadvantages of having the two extraordinary heroes work together' Is either superhero logically or metaphysically possible' How can each of them be diagnosed as psychotic' How do they compare in masking their real identity' Whose motives are more worthy' Which one is more self-aware' Superman vs. Batman and Philosophy comes out at the same time as the movie Batman v Superman. The book cannot discuss what goes on in the movie, yet it also can't avoid doing so, since by sheer probability, many of the controversial issues between the two superheroes will be the same in both. The book will therefore naturally fit in with the numerous raging controversies that the movie unleashes.

  • Author:
    Summary:

    Adventure Time and Philosophy is a monster-beating, wild ride of philosophical mayhem. The authors have come together to understand and explore one of the deepest and most thoughtful television shows ever to assault human brain waves. Where Adventure Time shows us what the world could be like, this book screws open our cranial lids, mucks about in the mess that is our heads, and attempts to come to some answers about the nature of reality. Adventure Time challenges everything we know about life, meaning, heroism, and even burritos. And it's time to give the show some serious thought. Adventure Time and Philosophy is a chance to put down your broadsword, put your exhausted monster-slaying feet up, and try to figure out why you spend your time rescuing people in distress and fighting for justice. What is justice anyway' If you don't happen to have your pocket edition of the Enchiridion on hand, and Billy the Hero *wicked guitar solo* hasn't been returning your calls, pick up Adventure Time and Philosophy and learn what it means to be a real hero! The authors of the chapters will prove that Adventure Time is much more than a cartoon, it's a way of life... It's also the future!-'a post-apocalyptic future 10,000 years after the Great Mushroom War, actually. Who better to have as companions than Finn and Jake when taking on Plato, Nietzsche, and Baudrillard or encountering the Slime Princess, the Ice King, and Marceline the Vampire Queen. In a review of the show in Entertainment Weekly, Darren Franich characterized Adventure Time as a "hybrid sci-fi/fantasy/horror/musical/fairy tale, with echoes of Calvin and Hobbes, Hayao Miyazaki, Final Fantasy, Richard Linklater, Where the Wild Things Are, and the music video you made with your high school garage band." This book is filled with chapters written by a colorful cast of characters who enlighten us about the profound and life-affirming spiritual subtext and dark comedic elements of an awesomely fantastic show.

  • Author:
    Graphic History Collective
    Summary:

    Au mois de mai et juin 1919, plus de 30 000 travailleurs et travailleuses de Winnipeg, au Manitoba, quittent leur emploi. Ils mènent une grève pour diverses raisons - de meilleurs salaires, le droit à la négociation collective, et plus de pouvoir pour la classe ouvrière. Les grévistes font les manchettes des journaux nationaux et internationaux, et ils inspirent d'autres travailleurs à mener des grèves de solidarité dans de nombreuses autres villes canadiennes. La grève générale de Winnipeg, qui aura duré six semaines, se solde finalement par une défaite. Elle est violemment écrasée par la police, en collusion avec des représentants de l'État et des dirigeants commerciaux de Winnipeg. Cent ans plus tard, la grève générale de Winnipeg demeure l'une des grèves les plus déterminantes de l'histoire du Canada. Cette bande dessinée revisite la grève pour présenter aux nouvelles générations les nombreuses leçons que l'histoire de la classe ouvrière a à offrir, notamment le pouvoir de la lutte des classes et de la solidarité, ainsi que la détermination des gouvernements et des patrons à employer des tactiques musclées pour écraser les mouvements ouvriers. La grève générale de Winnipeg est un rappel brutal que la classe ouvrière et la classe dominante n'ont rien en commun, et que l'État n'a pas peur de se couvrir les mains de sang pour protéger les intérêts du capital. Face à cela, les travailleurs et les travailleuses doivent compter les uns sur les autres et lutter ensemble pour faire renaître de ses cendres un monde nouveau, plus juste.

  • Author:
    Graphic History Collective
    Summary:

    Presents a graphic novel that revisits the strike to introduce new generations to its many lessons, including the power of class struggle and solidarity and the brutal tactics that governments and bosses use to crush workers' movements. The Winnipeg General Strike is a stark reminder that the working class and the employing class have nothing in common, and the state is not afraid to bloody its hands to protect the interests of capital. In response, working people must rely on each other and work together to create a new, more just world in the shell of the old.

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