Ad Astra Comix is a publisher, web
platform and distributor of political, historical and activist comics located
in Toronto. Their primary focus is on education, promotion and production. In
particular, their focus on education was something that I found really struck a
chord with me. French is my first language and I learned English by reading
comic books at age 5. To this day, I highly recommend comic books as a great way
to learn a new language.
Nicole Marie Burton of Ad Astra Comix gracefully agreed to talk with me about Ad Astra Comix and their current tilt campaign to get posters of Dogs, a webcomic about the findings of a Qikiqtani Truth Comission, printed and sent to schools across Canada. Dogs is a story based on the findings of the Qikiqtani Truth Commission, which reported that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police slaughtered hundreds of dogs in Inuit settlements. During our discussion, we talked about the campaign and other topics. I have edited a few things for flow.
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Philippe Leblanc: For those
readers who may not be familiar with Ad Astra Comix, can you tell us what Ad
Astra Comix is about?
Nicole Marie Burton: Ad
Astra Comix was founded in 2013. The name comes from the phrase "Ad astra
per aspera", which means "To the stars through difficulties". This
is the state motto from of Kansas, where I grew up (Lawrence was my hometown in High School). I moved to Canada from the United States in 2003 and we`ve been using
this imprint in both countries. We're a Toronto-based company that retails,
publishes, produces, creates and promotes social justice comic books or comic
books with progressive political themes. Our mandate essentially works in two
ways. The first is that we work with comics to amplify the voices of
marginalized audiences: the voice of women, people of color, indigenous people,
folks from the LGBTQ community and creators from outside of North America and
Europe. The second is that we work to promote comics that challenge oppressive
framework. What do I mean by this? Racism is an oppressive framework; sexism is
an oppressive framework. Even colonialism is an oppressive framework. We want
to use and promote comics that challenge those ideas and expand with new ideas.
That is essentially our mandate.
Our vision for the future
of the business in the next few years is to be producing and retailing a line
of comics and also engaging in community events and workshops that work towards
personal empowerment, community involvement and social change.
PL: So far have you received
a good response with regards to achieving those goals you've set out to
accomplish?
NMB: Yes, reception has
been amazing. It's always a gamble when you start a business, but it's been
amazing so far. It's a challenge when you are essentially branding yourself as
trying to redraw the lines in the comics industry within a particular genre.
"Political Comics" is not really a thing per se. You can't go to your
local comic book store and go to the "political comics" section; it
doesn't really exist. When we set out to really build Ad Astra Comix and
develop a brand, we've asked ourselves a lot of questions as to where to take
it. This isn't like opening up a comic book shop, although it is challenging
enough to run a comic store. We were focusing more on the fundamental concepts
of what we were trying to promote: What is a political comic? What does this
theoretical genre entail? What defines it? Who is the target audience we want
to reach? Where do we fit in the comic book industry? We cast a wide net when
we started: we were retailing; we were giving workshops, presentations; we were
throwing parties; we were doing movie showings; we were tabling at events; we
published a comic in 2014; we were consulting with comics creators about their
comics; and we were writing articles for our website. Basically, we were all
over the place.
In the last year, we've had
a lot of people come to us saying that they'd want to help us develop the
business, but we need to know more about what we really want to do. We're doing
all of these general things, but what do we want to do in the future, what is our
focus? No one can do everything. We decided that the real place that our specialization
means the most is in curating and original production. Curation as readers are
looking for knowledgeable folks to help with the compilation of resources,
reading lists of comics that revolve around certain subjects. For instance, you
can go to a comic book shop to ask for the latest Brian K. Vaughan, or the
Image Comics section. In our case, people come to us and say: "What comics
do you have on the Israelo-Palestine conflict" or "what comics do you
have about immigration, or race or gender." We come up with resources
around that.
The other area we felt we
could be most useful is in the original production. There are political comics
that come out from mainstream publishers or from independent publishers, but
those publishers, wherever they fall, don't necessarily have a mandate that is
political or social justice oriented. What we're finding is that there's a
growing number of comic creators and readers who are looking for content that
is created with this kind of directive. Comics that are conscious about
questions of diversity, colonial mindset and decolonization. From what we've
gathered, comic creators with those ideas of social justice comics are looking
forward to having a publisher in the North American market that is focusing on
this type of comic with a narrower focus towards social justice production.
That is probably the role that we are going to move to fill in the next 12 to
16 months. We have four to five publishing projects underway that we'll launch
in the next 6 months. We'll be moving into high gear in launching our first
line of comics by the end of 2015.
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| Nicole Marie Burton & Hugh Goldring |
PL: You mentioned you feel
it's difficult finding political comics as it isn't really a category. The
definition certainly has evolved over time. I visited the Billy Ireland Cartoon
Museum and Library recently and
something that was clear was the fact that cartoons and comics are closely
linked with the political going all the way back to the early 1800's. It has
changed over time. Moving back towards this conception of a "political
comic" is interesting.
NMB: What is considered
sacred in society is a moving goal post and comics, or cartoons more
accurately, roots are deeply founded in political satire and criticism of the
elite. There is a theory that the word cartoon comes from the Italian word
"cartone" back in the 15th or
16th century Italy which meant cartons. What became common was for people to
create this sort of caricature of their landlord or noble that were made in the
back of food cartons; at the time it was this sort of heavy duty paper as it
was a cheap way to store edible goods. The great thing about cartoons was that
you didn't need to be literate to understand the jokes. If you drew your
landlord with exagerated features, his eyes or his nose, or even drawing your
boss in a sexually compromised position, was something that could bring
together your community for a good laugh.
What was so magical about
cartoons when they started was how powerful they could be without any words. I
read this quote attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte in which he said that what were
instrumental to his downfall, even more so than any European army, were
cartoons. Marie Antoinette was considered the first victim of tabloid
journalism and was notoriously drawn in sexually compromising positions and was
constantly ridiculed in political cartoons. At the time, these were untouchable
elites in the eyes of commoners; they were considered invincible, but the
cartoons brought them back to a human level. This was the power of cartoons.
Over time, cartoons became more intertwined with journalism and yellow
journalism even more so. Competing newspaper companies had an interest in
producing cartoons that depicted their views on whatever topic was in the news
at the time.
I find it to be hilarious
that there are still cartoonists out there who behave as though nothing has
changed in society and you can get away with anything. When we say we publish
political cartoons, people immediately bring up the touchy Muhammad cartoons
debate. People ask us "hey, you guys are doing political cartoons, let's
talk about the Muhammad cartoons. Where are your images of Muhammad, or your
mocking the Iranian mullahs". Our mandate and what we
want to accomplish requires us to be filtered and thoughtful in what we curate. We believe in social justice comics, and this is where the future of political comics is heading towards.There is nothing untouchable about the prophet in today's world. Muslims as a
whole have been the victim of American military violence constantly for over 30
years, both physically and through media-led attacks. The free speech aspect of
comics and the idea that they must prevail above all else is ludicrous. There is
nothing revolutionary about drawing the prophet. The real future of
"political comics" is to move beyond this towards helping us better
understand our world and articulating what we want to change in the structures
surrounding us. We don't even know how to dismantle patriarchy or how to
dismantle colonialism, let alone all the ways it affects our daily life. Today, any political leader can fall - most will be replaced, but the cycles of systemic oppression continue. They are the new Goliaths of our time - not any individuals. We believe comics are a great way to take them on.
PL: Using cartoons as a
beacon towards understanding the other and articulating the way forward.
NMB: Exactly.
PL: Another of your goals
is the aspect of Education. I was wondering how you've approached comics as an
education tool so far. As a personal experience, I can tell that I'm a
French-Canadian and French is my first language and I've learned English by
reading comic books. I remembered as a kid reading comics and eventually
understanding the language in them. I've always known intuitively that comics
can serve as teaching tools, but I'm curious as to how you approach using
comics for other educational elements.
NMB: I think we've only
begun scratching the surface of what we can do with education with comics.
We've done a few workshops on how comics can convey complex information in a
short period of time. We've also done a workshop on how to use comics in the
classroom. The main areas we work around are history, language and science.
Comics are great for learning a second or third language. We think comics are
interesting as you can look at something visual and absorb information. Words are visual symbols, like images, but their meaning can only be interpreted by deciphering, A picture
can be absorbed much faster than a paragraph, it's not linear so you can absorb
all of it at once. There is no intermediary in your brain recombining this
information; it is immediate. I could spend a paragraph writing the description
of a house and then drawing that house and a person would absorb the visual
faster than the written paragraph describing it. I really resent the argument
that comics are dumbed down forms of entertainment. It is a medium that can be
used in different ways. There is a growing body of literature in the education
world that shows that a lot of people are visual learners as opposed to oral or
verbal learners. A lot of people are naturally more inclined to learn with
visual association of information and comics are tying into that in terms of
harnessing that energy in a creative way.
PL: Portraying an idea
visually certainly helps to understand it better. A pie chart or a graph of any kind are tools to help you
process information. Putting more complex information in a comic book format allows
you to expand on it and convey information that you
might struggle with in a purely written format.
PL: Ad Astra Comix
currently have a tilt campaign to print posters of the comics Dogs.
This comic was originally published in March 2015 and created by Hugh Goldring and yourself with the goals of amplifying the findings of
the Qikiqtani Truth Commission. Can you
tell us more about that?
NMB: Hugh is from Ottawa
and he has family connections to Arctic history. Both of his parents are historians
and one of them spent a major part of their career studying Arctic history with
a focus on 20th century history. Hugh had done research in the past about
the Qikiqtani Truth Commission (QTC)
before the report was even completed. He learned about what is often referred
to as the "Inuit Sled dog slaughter" or the "Inuit Dog
slaughter". This was a period of time in the Eastern Arctic during the
1950's and 1960's when the RCMP, relatively new to the region at the time,
instituted something called "The Dog ordenance". On the surface, this
ordenance looked like an effort to ensure law and order in the settlement and
instituted in the interest of public safety. However, it called for Inuit dogs,
or any dogs, to be shot on sight if they were not tied in the settlement.
Additionally, if a dog was not identified, or if the owner was not present or
unknown, the dog would be shot. What became of this is something that many
inuit communities associate with the push from the Canadian government to
confine Inuits, largely migratory communities to settle. Dogs weren't pets,
they were a part of the community, part of the families, they were used for
transport, they were part of the culture. For a lot of the inuits who experienced
the loss of their dogs, this was a very traumatic time period. Hundreds, if not
thousands, of dogs were shot by the RCMP during this time. The Inuit were not
blind and noticed that the dogs belonging to the RCMP or the Hudson's Bay
Company would not get shot regardless of the situation. This became a clear
sign that the government was forcing the Inuit to settle and essentially adopt
customs, practices and products from the South. It was traumatic and seen as
unresolved in their ancestry and community history and the QTC was struck to
develop a record, primarily of oral history, from those that it affected. The
RCMP, in true RCMP fashion, did an investigation of themselves and found that
although slaughter had taken place, they refused to admit it was due to a
larger plan to force settlement and never apologized for it. Many Inuit,
including Peter Irnik, has said that, if
they apologized we can forgive, but there needs to be an apology. The
question then becomes will there ever be any accountability and any apology in
this context?
The creation of the comic
was about directly amplifying the findings of the commission. We did the best
we could as settlers, white people, to not speak for the Inuit,
they're perfectly capable of speaking for themselves, but it really showed us
that this isn't an untold history, but rather that it was just not being
listened to. We wanted to amplify this history and distribute in Canada where
it is needed the most; in centers of learning, classrooms, libraries, community
centers, and into people’s homes if they wish it. We want to get the word out.
We're horrified to hear that our police would do such a thing as shooting dogs.
It may be more common in the United States, but it's a really heartbreaking and
atrocious thing to happen. And the mass scale of this was truly terrible as
this happened in such a short period of time and nobody knows about it.
PL: The timing for this
comic seems quite timely as the report came
out less than two weeks ago (on June 3rd 2015) and there is a willingness to be
more invested in these stories.
NMB: I can only hope so.
With you being in Ottawa, I can assume it has generated more discussion. I
haven't had a lot of in-person discussion about it in Toronto, though my social
media feed has been quite active on this report. We want to use the comic as a
conversation starter. All of us Canadians have a stake in this history, we are
all responsible for this history. I may not be the RCMP, but as a settler, I
understand what they represent and have a vote of confidence regarding their
structure and for me to be outraged enough that I feel I must express it means
that a serious discussion must happen and I hope many Canadians feel the same
way.
The Truth and
Reconciliation reports shows us that it's time to be investigating, to get
informed about indigenous voices and history. It's important for the country to
have a conversation about this and really give ourselves the space to consider
how profound and far reaching the implications this history has had on everyone
in this country. We're talking a lot about a history of cultural genocide, but
the Qikiqtani Truth commission shows
that there is also, to a lesser extent, a physical genocide. I think we can't
ignore this.
PL: It's interesting since
it's not a definitive report either. It's meant as a way to move forward
towards a better understanding of Inuit culture. This comic, amongst other
cultural productions, can be a step in the right direction.
NMB: We hope that is the
case. We've had conversations with people in and around the Qikiqtani Truth Commission. We're
in conversation with the QTC to put the comic up on their website so people can
access it as a resource. It's currently being translated into French so as to
reach a broader Canadian audience. Part of this history happened in Northern
Quebec.
PL: When you approached
this comic, how did you manage distilling the amount of information you had
into what is essentially a fairly short comic?
NMB: Hugh is trained in
writing, research and history, so he has this uncanny ability at summarizing
information. He's good at taking in a lot of information and boiling it down to
it's essential parts. A big part of that process goes to him and his talent.
In terms of how we wanted
to lay it out, we felt as though what was needed was a general contextual description
of the situation at the time, what led to an increased presence of the Canadian
State in the North, part of that was the Cold and Northern Sovereignty, but
also the prospect of natural resources which is to this day a big part of the
industry in the North. We thought it was important to show the perspective of
the Inuit both before and after the event took place. Upon distilling the
information of the report, we felt it was important to note that the Inuit noticed
that their dogs were being murdered, but not the dogs from the Hudson's Bay
company. It was important to us to draw out the panels where we see the
violence against the animal in a very somber way. Particularly the panel where
we see a man's back facing away from the reader, there is no text and it feels
quite empty, but the second panel is him dropping to his knees, harness in hand
and just a few drops of blood.
We tried to use colors
sparingly while trying to capture the color of the Canadian North. It's not all
white and snow with cloudy skies. We chose to use a palette of pink and yellow
in addition to those colors while keeping it really somber to allow for those
instances of red and blood to have a bigger impact in people's mind.
I feel as though there's a
literary piece, a political piece and an aesthetic piece to this comic that we
tried our best to join as seamlessly as possible. This comic is, in a lot of
ways, a test as a production team to take some of our theories on how to make
political comics a more vibrant genre and put it to the test. So far, the
feedback we've received seems to indicate we're right to an extent, or that
we're at least going in the right direction.
PL: The comic itself is
quite interesting. Your tilt campaign you have at the moment is to print
posters of the comic that would be distributed in Canadian schools. You've also
included the disclaimer you wrote and posted after the comics online. Why did
you feel it was important to do that?
NMB: We felt that we didn't
feel personally comfortable publishing this comic without a disclaimer. We felt
that way too often indigenous stories and histories are told by settlers. For
us, and particularly for an artistic rendition of a history that was so
sensitive and so painful for many, we really felt the need to publish the
disclaimer at the same time. We wanted to ensure people knew that we recognized
that we're settlers, we produced this comic to amplify what has already been
said and that we undertook the project without the full accord of the QTC. We
had spoken and consulted to many around the commissions and they agreed it was
a good idea, but it wasn't a full cooperative process. We wanted to outline
what our process was like to be as transparent as possible and show people what
we're all about. Far too often, settlers or non-indigenous people take on these
projects without consulting or engaging the communities they're talking about and
aren't engaging in open dialog. We wanted to avoid that error. The posters will
include the disclaimer, and we’re also encouraging people to visit the Qikiqtani Truth Commission website. It
should serve as an introduction and those who want to learn have a wealth of
resources they can access.
PL: This ties into the next
question I had for you. In your disclaimer, you and Hugh Goldring “both had
mixed feelings about telling such a sensitive story – both because we are
white, and because it is difficult to depict it in all its painful complexity.” You’ve
also said: “Handling indigenous subject
matter is always a challenge for settlers, and to be clear, we are white
settlers. We have done our best to avoid speaking on behalf of the Inuit who
are more than capable of making themselves heard when qallunaat take the
time to listen. But it is a narrow beam to balance on.” I’ve seen a similar
statement from Martin
Laroche, a French-Canadian movie director who recently directed “Les manéges
humains” (Fair Sex). It’s a faux documentary about a
young African-Canadian woman filming a documentary about the travelling
amusement park where she works, but slowly, the documentary becomes her way to
deal with her own life and coming to terms with the pain and stigma caused by
the genital mutilation she suffered as a child. Laroche
mentions the inability of being able to fully grasp the realities of the
subject of his film, but also of the importance of understanding the topic,
through research and dialog and empathy.
The story of Dogs is
important and, without necessarily wanting to speak for the Inuit community,
you also want to raise awareness and speak “about” the issue. In this case, the
disclaimer is your way to navigate this murky territory?
NMB: Absolutely. Hugh and I
feel that it's going to become more and more an issue as we see these people in
positions of privilege start to feel a sense of obligation about the systemic
challenges and injustice that face the people around them. Whether its man to
woman, white people to people of color, settlers to indigenous people, we're
going to see more and more people in positions of privilege want to take on
those stories. They see it as their way to resolve their sense of
responsibilities towards these issues. It's good in some ways, but it can also
be problematic in other ways. I think our disclaimer is good as it reflects our
concerns toward the issue, but it's difficult to balance this. You don't want
to imply that you're taking the lead on someone else's struggle. You don't want
to speak for someone or over someone and this can get tricky for someone who is
blinded by their privilege.
I feel like the answer to
respond to this is consultation. I find it hard to imagine a scenario with too
much consultation. I think that a major component to dismantle oppressive
framework is the establishment of trust. When people of privileges take on
projects that concern the welfare of oppressed people without consulting those
affected by it, one has to wonder about the motive and the agenda. If it is in
the interest of furthering the advancement of that group or people, why not
connect with them and consult about what you're trying to do? If it is not in
the interest of furthering the advancement of that group, then what is your
project all about? Self promotion? It certainly comes across as doing something
for cookies when you don't consult.
PL: Doing something with
the intent of receiving praise for it rather than actually being engaged in the
project.
NMB: Exactly, like someone
defending a woman or saying something feminist in a meeting, or saying
something anti-racist in front of people of color and expecting immediate
rewards and gratification for your surface level show of solidarity.
I think what a lot of
people are looking for in terms of solidarity and dismantling those
oppressive frameworks is an understanding that the systems we're up against is
much bigger than a comic, or a report, or a movie. These are long term goals
and they are going to take years to achieve. It will take us years to unlearn
those systems and for trust to be reestablished. I think that's one of the
lessons of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
PL: Understanding,
collaboration and consultation in the hope of moving the conversation forward, to help
heal the pain and become more aware of history and others.
NMB: And it's a long
process. It’snot a button you can press, it's not a t-shirt that you can wear.
It's not a catchphrase that you can use. This is a part of the lesson that we
are trying to instill. We have a quote at the end of the comic that says "History
is about more than self-congratulatory vignettes, it can help us be accountable".
I like this quote as it's a reminder to the reader that this isn't the end.
We’ve told this story and the reader can learn from it and understand that he
has his work cut out for him afterward. If you wonder how to be an ally or a
supporter of this or that movement, you can start by promoting those
marginalized voices in history, and in the present day and in the communities
that we live in and in the virtual space we occupy as well.
PL: What would you hope to be
the best outcome you reach with this comic?
NMB: Well, I want to be
cautiously optimistic about the future. We've had lots of conversations with
people about this comic, both online and in person. One I vividly recall was a discussion
with this young guy from Edmonton who mentioned liking the comic and asking if
we wanted to produce a comic with people from Northern Alberta about their
history. I thought that this would be amazing, but I think preferably, I would
like to see this type of work sprout like mushrooms with or without me. At the
end of the day, it would be incredible to see this type of effort happen in
this medium that I feel so passionate about.
People are looking for more
creative ways to look at information, but also looking to be more creative in
how to present information and comics is perfect for that. I feel that we're on
the verge of a political comic renaissance and being able to contribute and
hopefully show examples to steer them in the right direction is the best
outcome I could possibly imagine.
In 2013, publishers weekly
announced that the comic and graphic novel section were the most popular section
in American libraries with books being taken out with an overwhelming frequency
and volume compared to other sections of the libraries. Comics are into schools
and community centers; they're being developed for educational programs, for
health care plans, for youth and mental health programs. And it's all happening
at a time where there are huge discussions around feminism, around indigenous
rights, around fundamental changes in direction within our society. It's such a
perfect storm and I hope comics will be used more often to inform this. That
would be the best outcome. I hope Dogs opens that window just
a little bit more.
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- To contribute to the Tilt campaign to bring Dogs to Canadian schools
- For more details on the other projects
of Ad
Astra Comix, visit their website
- Please visit the Qikiqtani Truth Commission for
more information on the process and report
- Please visit the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to learn more information about the
commission and the report
