One year after chronicling David Axe's trip to Afghanistan in War is Boring, Portland cartoonist Matt Bors is travelling to Haiti for his own investigative journey. He is talking about the upcoming project with the Portland Comic Books Examiner in a phone interview as he prepares for the trip.
"I like going to places and doing the work myself," Bors says.
Beginining July 10th, Bors, along with Cartoon Movement co-owner Tjeerd Royaards and video journalist Caroline Bins, will be spending three weeks in Haiti to kick off a graphic record of the devastated country's rebuilding.
"I'm not nervous," he says in response to the obvious question. "Crime is a problem, and the biggest risk is getting sick, but it's not like Afghanistan."
A grant from the Dutch government will pay for the group's travel to the island nation, where they plan to interview local journalists and artists. The goal is to create a book-length work for publishing on the Cartoon Movement website.
"Early on I was going to go by myself," Bors recalls, "but we got a grant, so [the project] will be more substantial. At least 100-150 pages."
Bors hopes to begin publishing the comic in early 2012.
"It depends on how fast we work," he notes. "Ideally it would be January. We'll try to have two versions, with the ability to switch between languages like Zahra's Paradise."
Once the team arrives in Haiti, they may decide to work with with a single writer/artist pair, or multiple groups.
"I envision one team, but we'll see when we get there," says Bors. "We're approaching the trip organically, waiting to see what kind of people we meet."
After three weeks, the visiting group will leave, but Bors hopes to have an outline completed for the local team to run with.
"That's just the end of our presence there," he says.
"It's important for Haitians to do this themselves. Haiti's problems run so deep, they require an understanding that goes beyond what can be gained from just travelling there."
Bors sees his role as that of a "comics translator," working with journalists to convert their work into a comics format. He will also be drawing his own political cartoons during his visit.
Among the topics that the finished work will cover are Haiti's reconstruction, international aid, rampant rape, and the return of sweatshops after the 2010 earthquake.
"In the earthquake, 300,000 people died out of a population of 9 million," Bors explains. "There are 100,000 people living in tent cities.
"Medicine is the immediate need, as well as getting people out of the tents, but the infrastructure damage goes deep. Long term, Haitians need employment and a government that responds."
After Haiti, Bors and Cartoon Movement will work with David Axe on a story about Axe's recent trip to Congo.
Comments