History Bits 4; Africville

 

Episode 4 of Canada's History's new animated shorts History Bits is  Remembering Africville.

And while I've been posting the first four, they have been putting more up here

Railroad Porters at History Bits

The railroad porters are having a moment. A few years ago Cecil Foster's They Call Me George: The Untold Story of Black Train Porters and the Birth of Modern Canada had a lot of success.  The CBC has a drama series -- tho' gotta say from the trailers it looks more soapy than documentary. (Update, Feb 18: This article about "The Porter" admires it, actually; it premieres on CBC-TV/Gem Monday, February 21.  Update: Feb 21:  More love for "The Porter" here and here. Mighta got the wrong impression.

And now History Bits from Canada's History offers the story in a short graphic history version:  "Railway Men."

Heritage Comix 2: Dust and Depression

Another sample from Canada's History's new venture. Details and more animated histories from History Bits

Heritage comix from Canada's History

 Canada's History launches a new line of Heritage comix:  short graphic vignettes about moments from the Canadian past.  This one, "Flying and Spying" has a story of Kam Len ("Doug") Sam, Chinese-Canadian wartime flier, text by Nancy Payne, graphics by Alex Diochon.

Heritage Minutes spend a lot to achieve that movie-quality look and sound in their productions. "History Bits" has more of that graphic-novel insouciance. 

Four History Bits are up now, and the whole series is available here.  I'll post some more in the coming days. 

History of the Plains Cree and Freedom of Information

The Writers' Union of Canada announces that David A. Robertson is the winner of its Freedom To Read Award for this year. Robertson, of the Swampy Cree Nation, is a prolific author of graphic nonfiction on indigenous history, culture, and current events, including 7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga, and Betty: The Helen Betty Osborne Story, and The Chief: Mistahimaskwa.  

What got him the Freedom to Read Award was having several of his works featured on "not recommended" lists by provincial and local educational authorities in Alberta.  Here's his own statement on that from the Freedom to Read website: 

In the fall of 2018, I learned of a book review website created by Edmonton Public Schools. The website listed books to weed out of school libraries and classrooms. The books were primarily by Indigenous writers. My graphic novel series 7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga—a four-part epic that follows one Cree family over three centuries—along with several other books were “not recommended” for use. For 7 Generations, the reviewers had multiple concerns: “The graphic novel series contains sensitive subject matter and visual inferencing of abuse regarding residential schools"....

More evidence that graphic art as a historical teaching and storytelling form is exploding, much of it below the (or my) radar, and First Nations artists are becoming leaders in the field. And "comics" still have a subversive edge to them, 'tseems.  

Book Notes: Joe Sacco, Paying the Land

Jesse Brown, proprietor of the journalism-review blog/podcast Canadaland calls Joe Sacco's Paying the Land “the best journalism about Canada that anybody published last year.”  I'm thinking it could be equally consequential for mass market historical writing.

Joe Sacco is an American journalist who turns his reporting into graphic nonfiction on topics that include the conficts in Gaza and the former Yugoslavia. Some years ago he made two visits to the Northwest Territories and then spent several years turning that material into Paying the Land, an immense book about the Dene, life on the taiga landscape, treaties, indigenous politics, religion, residential schools, the Indian Act, resource extraction, and such essential things as how to skin a moose and to dry fish for winter. 

It's a big and intensely political book. For a picture book, it's also a challenging read, so packed with scenes, characters, and text boxes that each page demands sustained attention. It's also, perhaps, one model for where general interest historical and current-events writing is going.  

Indeed there are quite a few other graphic history examples around already, from Chester Brown's Louis Riel to the products of the Graphic History Collective -- mostly, it would seem, on the progressive end of the ideological range. It's a long way from a revised academic monograph, and a long way from Pierre Berton too. It may be a natural read for audiences now trained by social media to get its information in clips, bits, collages, and the assumption of "pix or it didn't happen." 

Though maybe it harks back to the early-twentieth century graphic history of C.W. Jefferys.  I wonder if Joe Sacco has heard of him.