Warning: Graphic Content

Brian James Kirk geeks out

by Brian James Kirk

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Published: Mar 3, 2010

As attorneys conducted interviews with Abu Ghraib torture victims in Jordan and Istanbul, local artist Daniel Heyman sat across from the men, painting their portraits with watercolors. Heyman hoped his paintings, which were the subject of a 2007 City Paper cover story, flanked by snippets of horrifying first person accounts, would help the American public better understand their involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Like Heyman, comic book artists Jamar Nicholas and Josh Neufeld use a combination of words and images as a powerful method of storytelling. The three men will present their work and discuss techniques for creating nonfiction art before a screening of the animated adaptation of One Book, One Philadelphia pick Persepolis (pictured), Marjane Satrapi's black-and-white illustrated autobiography about the author as a young girl growing up during the Iranian Revolution. It's yet another example of the unique appeal of graphic storytelling.

Nicholas, currently working with education innovator Geoffrey Canada on an illustrated version of Bronx coming-of-age memoir Fist Stick Knife Gun, sees a parallel between youth experiences in Iran and in tough American cities. "When you live in the middle of a war-torn country, that's all you know. In the inner city, these kids grow up in a world that you may not have any idea what they're going through."

Neufeld, too, uses his art to catalog hardships, like his book, A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, a journalistic depiction of a group of people who survived Hurricane Katrina. Neufeld says part of the value of nonfiction is filtering history through the eyes of everyday people. Graphic art just happens to be how it's delivered. "Every time I do it, I remind myself and readers that comics are a medium and not a message."

Tue., March 9, 7 p.m., $15, Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 W. Lancaster Ave., firstpersonarts.org.

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