Pastrami Comic Review: Occupy Comics

Writer: Various

Artists: Various

Publisher: Black Mask Studios

Remember when the whole “Occupy Wall Street” stuff was all plastered across the television? The 99% against the 1%? I’m not big on politics, but I remember the argument, I remember what both sides were saying. So, now let’s take a literary and visual look at the situation through the Occupy Comics anthology.

This is yet another Kickstarter project come to reality (are you seeing a pattern here?), and is now published by the newly formed Black Mask Studios. Occupy Comics has a host of creators on board for this: Alan Moore (Watchmen, V For Vendetta), David Lloyd (V For Vendetta, Aces Weekly), Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), Art Spiegelman (Pulitzer-winning Maus), Molly Crabapple (Shell Game), Matt Bors (Pulitzer-nominated political cartoonist), Mike Allred (Madman), Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night), J.M. DeMatteis (Justice League, Spider-Man), Tyler Crook (Petrograd), Joshua Hale Fialkov (I, Vampire), Joe Infurnari (Mush!), Ales Kot (Wild Children), Dean Haspiel (American Splendor), Douglas Rushkoff (media theorist), Joshua Dysart (Unknown Soldier, Swamp Thing), Matt Miner (Liberator), & the project’s organizational spearhead Matt Pizzolo (Godkiller).

That’s a whole lot of talent right there.

The book itself is amazing, with stories beautifully illustrated to show why stances are taken, as well as why we shouldn’t demonize a side simply because we disagree with it. With a piece by one of the legends of the comic book medium, Alan Moore, this book has a little bit of everything. Another plus side to this is it’s only 3.50! 3.50 gets you 40 pages by some of the industries best and brightest, coming together to show their support for a cause. I didn’t quite know what to expect when I picked up the book: as I said earlier, I am the least political guy you will probably ever meet. But I respect the tasteful opinions shown here, and I feel that by using the sequential art form, the minds behind Occupy Comics are reaching a whole new mindset. I recommend everyone to give this a shot, be a part of history (all proceeds will be donated to Occupy Related Initiatives, just in case you didn’t know) and also be on board for the future of the brand new publisher, Black Mask Studios. Highly recommended, I give Occupy Comics a @@@@ out of FIVE, as it is now occupying my bookshelf.