#ComicsBrokeMe and The Labor of Comics (with Shea Hennum)

Ian speaks with journalist Shea Hennum about their article on #comicsbrokeme, in which workers in the comics industry shared their stories of tight deadlines, unreasonable workloads, and low pay following the death of cartoonist Ian McGinty. For the article, which appeared at solrad.co, they applied an analysis that synthesized communist and anarchist traditions in order to identify a multitude of sites of political struggle, challenge systems of domination and violence, and chart possible ways forward, similar to analysis applied in the movement to abolish the Prison Industrial Complex.

They discuss past efforts to organize within the comic book industry as well as current organization efforts, such as the formation of the United Workers of Seven Seas, a union of workers at Seven Seas Entertainment, Comic Book Workers United, a union of workers at Image Comics, and Cartoonist Cooperative, a cohort of cartoonists committed to mutual promotion, skill and info sharing, and efforts to make industry wages and practices more transparent. They also discuss possible ways for comic book readers to offer support.

Further reading and archived documents referred to in the chat:

• Solrad article: https://solrad.co/comicsbrokeme-shea-hennum-on-what-is-to-be-done
• Comics Guild Meeting Report May 1978: https://thefinalstrawradio.noblogs.org/files/2023/09/Comics-Creators-Guild.pdf
• United Workers of Seven Seas: https://www.uw7s.com
• Comic Book Workers United: https://www.cbwupdx.com
• Cartoonist Cooperative: https://cartoonist.coop