Dan Archer is part of a select group of comics creators who are attempting to change the way we think about the medium. Archer is a comics journalist — not to be confused with the political cartoonists who pollute newspapers with single-panel dreck — a man who is interested in utilizing the medium’s largely untapped non-fiction potential to tell the stories that matter. Of course, what matters is not always what is pleasant. Dan Archer’s latest project, “Graphic Journalism on Human Trafficking in Nepal,” promises to be an unflinching look at one of those topics many try to brush off, as if it isn’t a real, present problem in the world of today. Archer knows better, and wants to do his part to make sure that no one makes that mistake again.
The comics journalist’s Kickstarter goes toward funding his travels through Nepal, where he will interview victims and survivors of human trafficking, recording his and their experiences through visual narrative. These comics will be published in separate editions for each of the regions Archer plans on visiting, and will eventually be collected into a single graphic novel. The difference between Archer’s project and, say, similar, famous works such as Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis is that Archer will be updating his project online as he works, attempting to match textual journalism’s current monopoly on real-time reporting.
Human trafficking is a problem that Archer feels particularly strong about, and is one that he has devoted panels toward exposing before. Two links shared on the project’s Kickstarter page, ‘Obedience is the Best Weapon’ and ‘Making a Better Life,’ can be viewed as a sort of preview of what Archer plans on accomplishing, reports that are just as professional as journalism as they are as comics, fully emphasizing the horrible nature of the crime of human slavery. Nothing is downplayed; these comics are awful because human trafficking is awful, and because to soften the presentation would be unfair, cruel even, to those who have been caught in this horrible bondage. With how striking these are, I cannot imagine how powerful a full graphic novel’s worth of this kind of content can be. Archer’s work handles this topic with the weight it needs; this is not the kind of topic you water down and bring up at a dinner party only when pleasant company deems it accessible, but something that needs to be presented in all of its awful seriousness.
Normally there’s a heading in this column titled “Incentives.” This is, of course, a Kickstarter project, and thus it has rewards depending on your donation. However, to focus too much on material rewards seems… tasteless for a project like this (not on Archer’s part, as that is, again, how Kickstarter works, but on mine). It is important to remember that this is not specifically for the creation of a product, but of funding a journalistic enterprise — as such, one should not judge it for its rewards. Were I analyzing it as other Kickstarters, the “target” would be the either the $30 or $50 donations, the former of which earns you each ebook as they become available, each of which will be interactive and stuffed with material, while the latter includes both that and the printed paperback edition. Moreso than any other featured Kickstarter, though, this is one where one should donate to the best of his or her ability — as little or as much as that may be.
With only a few days to go and more than a few thousand dollars to go, this very important project needs your help. Dan Archer’s latest project has the potential to utilize comics to their fullest capability, informing the under-informed of the horrible crimes against humanity that occur under our nose. Don’t hesitate because you don’t think your donation will make a difference — as much of a cliche as it may be, every little bit helps.
