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Sarah Mirk's Guantanamo Voices Comic Book Evades Reporting Restrictions

Published Mon, 20 May 2019 12:30:43 -0500

Fiona Kenshole at the Transatlantic Agency called a "fiercely fought" auction. But Abrams's Charlotte Greenbaum won the world publishing rights to the comic book Guantanamo Voices by Sarah Mirk, a Nib editor and former Bitch Media editor, who has writing the stories of ten people who spent time at Guantanamo (including armed service members, prisoners, lawyers, and journalists), each illustrated by a different artist.

Mirk's interest in Guantanamo Bay began over ten years ago when she met Guantanamo guard Chris Arendt and began documenting detainees' stories on her blog Guantanamo Voices.

Mirk was allowed to take photos on her recent visit to the US base in Cuba but was unable to publish them. Using them to create comic books however gets around that restriction in creating a graphic immediacy. She says "Guantanamo is intentionally invisible to the American public, so it was a rare opportunity to actually be able to experience the place beyond headlines and distant photos. One of the benefits of telling this story in comics is that illustrators can fill in the gap around what's censored. Instead of publishing the photos of the prison, artists can use them as visual reference, a jumping-off for their illustrations."

When representing the book, Kenshole says it, "does not ask the simplistic question of whether Guantanamo is 'good' or 'bad.' Instead, it documents a history that's happening right now, creating a deep, dynamic, and sincere understanding of how Guantanamo shapes our world."

The comic will be published in 2020.