June 2016 UPDATE: The Complete Bessie Comix Collection
Here are ALL my current works of graphic journalism, memoir, and editorial cartoons which have appeared in The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Los Angeles Times, Pacific Standard, FUSION.NET, The Nib and Truthout. Thanks to all the wonderfully talented graphic journalists/artists I’ve worked with thus far: Josh Neufeld, Jason Novak,Marc Parenteau, Dan Carino, Dan Archer and Arthur King. Below, you can find interviews, scholarly articles, and contact info. CLICK ON THE TITLE TO ACCESS THE COMIC!
No Shame in Staying Alive: How Medical Marijuana Helped Saved Me from Brain Cancer (with Marc Parenteau at Fusion)
A Scanner Constantly (with Josh Neufeld at Pacific Standard).
Analysis of “Scanner,” by author of Pink Ribbon Blues Gayle Sulik PhD: “The Dehumanizing Impact of Biomedical Surveillance”. Breast Cancer Consortium.
See also: The Comic Book Cure for Cancer (a brief personal essay discussing the role of comics writing in my cancer journey, Brain Tumour Magazine, June 2016). The title is inspired by Salvatore Iaconesi’s “My Open Source Cure for Cancer,” which is discussed in “A Scanner Constantly.”
Playground Purgatory (with Jason Novak at The Boston Globe)
The War on Everything (with Jason Novak at The LA Times).
The Mythical Beasts of 21st Century Technology (with Jason Novak at The Boston Globe)
An American Tradition (with Jason Novak at Truthout). This is our first panorama comic (inspired by Rube Goldberg and other early newspaper artists).
The Stages of Housing Grief (with Jason Novak at The Boston Globe)
The Lesser Known Features of Teacher Housing (with Jason Novak at The San Francisco Chronicle)
The Teacher Ghetto (with Jason Novak, at The Atlantic)
Notification: You’ve Got Cancer (with Josh Neufeld, at The Boston Globe)
Pink Ribbon Envy: Living with an Uncool Cancer (with Dan Archer, and Medium’s The Nib)
And here’s an insightful analysis by Gayle Sulik, author of the stellar book Pink Ribbon Blues, who was the interview subject for “Pink Ribbon Envy”: Visualizing Social Change: The Power of Graphic Arts
Children of the Code: Big Data, Little Kids (with Dan Carino, at Truthout)
This School Is Not A Pipe (with Josh Neufeld, at Truthout)
The Disaster Capitalism Curriculum: The High Price of Education Reform (Episode 1) (with Dan Archer, at Truthout)
Murky Water: The Education Debate in New Orleans (with Dan Archer, at Truthout)
The Finnish Alternative: Reclaiming Public Education From Corporate Reform (with Dan Archer, at Truthout)
The Gates Education Reform Hype Machine and Bizzare Inequality Theory (with Dan Carino, at Truthout)
Automated Teaching Machine: A Graphic Introduction to the End of Human Teachers (with Arthur King, at Truthout)
-Thanks to journalist Lukas Plank for compiling an early version of this list on his website.
http://comicsjournalism.net/2014/10/29/adam-bessie/
Interviews on Graphic Journalism:
Truthout TV on The Gates Foundation Education Reform Hype Machine (with Dan Carino)
Russia TV’s “Breaking the Set” with Abby Martin on Automated Teaching Machine
Segment starts at about 2:30
“From Kafka to Computers, a Graphic History of Automation in Education,” Chronicle of Higher Education, Megan O’Neil. On “Automated Teaching Machine”
Selection of Scholarly Articles on Comics:
“Warning: This Article Contains Graphic Journalism,” Truthout. Includes interviews with established graphic journalists Ted Rall, Sarah Glidden, Matt Bors, and Dan Archer. 2011
“Literacy and the Graphic Novel: Prejudice, Promise, and Pedagogy.” From Critical survey of graphic novels : history, theme, and technique / editors, Bart H. Beaty, Stephen Weiner. 2012
Entry on Guy Delisle’s “Burma Chronicles.” From Critical survey of graphic novels : independents and underground classics / editors, Bart H. Beaty, Stephen Weiner. 2012
“Uncensoring Comix Journalism: An Introduction for Educators” . Prepared for English Council of California Two-Year Colleges Conference, 2013.
“Unmasking the Graphic Novel: Learning Summary and Close Reading Through Comics.” Inside English: Journal of the English Council of California Two-Year Colleges. 2009. Winner of 2009 ECCTYC Best Article of the Year. Republished in Visions Across the Americas, 8th Edition (Sterling Warner, Ed). [Email for a copy]
FOR INQUIRIES: adam.bessie at gmail dot com
Chronicle of Higher Education Review of ATM
Arthur and I were honored that our non-fiction comic “Automated Teaching Machine” was reviewed in the Chronicle of Higher Education. I never thought I’d write that sentence…
From Kafka to Computers, a Graphic History of
Automation in Education
By Megan O’Neil
As the debate about the role of technology in education builds, two California community-college professors have published their own commentary on the automation of teaching—in the form of an illustrated comic.
The comic was published by the news site Truthout and has been circulating among faculty members on California community-college e-mail lists.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/from-kafka-to-computers-an-illustrated-history-of-automation-in-education/46149
The Disaster Capitalism Curriculum: The High Price of Education Reform (with Dan Archer)
Last year, I had the honor to work with the illustrious illustrator and journalist Dan Archer on our series “The Disaster Capitalism Curriculum,” a three-part non-fiction expose of the reality of education reform at Truthout. Here’s a taste, with a real interview with a Washington DC English instructor:
By Adam Bessie and Dan Archer. Courtesy of Truthout.Org
Part I focuses on Washington DC:
http://www.truth-out.org/art/item/9391-the-disaster-capitalism-curriculum-the-high-price-of-education-reform-episode-i
Part II on New Orleans:
Part III on Finland (including an original interview with Pasi Sahlberg):
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