Last summer, I was incredibly lucky to be selected for Tinta Plural / Plural Ink – a cross-cultural comics residency focused on the sustainability questions facing the industry. It involved two weeks of travelling around Colombia, alongside the Colombian artist also selected for the residency – Paula Carvajal – to have conversations with people across the comics industry about environmental sustainability, with a view to creating a comic based on the learnings. The residency was set up by Entreviñetas, an organisation dedicated to supporting the comics community across Colombia, in collaboration with Thought Bubble, a Harrogate-based comics festival, with funding from the British Council’s Circular Culture programme.
The two weeks began with six days in Bogotá, participating in Festival Entreviñetas – hosting a roundtable conversation on comics and sustainability, attending workshops, and speaking to as many artists, writers and publishers as we could about the significance of environmental sustainability to their work. We then travelled to Buenaventura, on the Pacific coast of Colombia, with a handful of other comics artists to take part in another comics festival there and learn about the differing meanings of comics and sustainability to communities that have been particularly harmed by the combined forces of capitalism and colonialism. Finally, Paula and I travelled to Cali, where we met a group of people working in comics for a sustainability-focused discussion, and learnt about some of the city’s rich art and design culture through a tour with Patricia Prado, creative director of design studio Casa Ternario.
After the fortnight of travel and conversations, Paula and I set to work on creating a 16 page comic inspired by what we experienced. Part way through this process, I also attended Thought Bubble festival to share a preview of the comic and have further conversations with exhibitors and visitors there about comics and sustainability. The comic is now finished and will be launched via an online event before the end of this year.
The whole experience was incredibly enriching. I had never visited Colombia before (nor anywhere else in South America), and it was brilliant to have the opportunity to do so through the lens of two of my great passions: comics and sustainability (once I’d recovered from the irony of flying halfway across the world for that purpose). I met so many brilliant people, including many other artists with an interest in the cross-over between comics and agroecology – such as Diego Zhaken, who has made a beautiful comic about a community growing project in Bogotá that he’s part of, and Azul de Bolsillo, a publishing studio dedicated to art and comics that explore people’s relationships with plants and their environments.
The opportunity to befriend and collaborate with Paula was really special too. There’s something really remarkable about meeting someone from such a different context with whom you have so much in common. From the get-go we were aligned about how we wanted to approach the subject – exploring the relational problems at the heart of the sustainability crisis and, correspondingly, emphasising the importance of the role that connection and community (between humans and other living beings) plays in any potential ‘solutions’. This really helped to make the challenge of condensing a complex subject into just 16 pages a little lighter and more joyful. And, while our drawing styles are quite different, with deep mutual respect for one another’s work and a commitment to fluidity, we were able – we believe – to create a coherent visual narrative.
I’m not going to say anymore about the content of the comic or the conversations that we had on this subject as I would like the work to speak for itself when it is eventually published. So for now, please see the sample pages below and watch out for an announcement on my instagram about the launch. You can also check out a few more photos and thoughts (in English and Spanish) about the experience in this post.
With immense thanks to the whole team at Entreviñetas – particularly Daniel Jiménez Quiroz, Director of Entreviñetas – the whole team at Thought Bubble, and the British Council.
Two sample pages from the comic