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So obviously this was an Occupy Wall Street story. The moment was playing out in realtime while I drew it, and I had a few objectives for it without knowing how things would go. Reflecting on Occupy in 2011, it was many things that I think this story captured: a community, an unfocused and leaderless idea, a failure, a beginning, do-gooder tourism, a line in the sand to cross. We see echoes of it today; much of this generation describes Occupy as their awakening to activism, a place they cut their teeth. But we can also see how it was destined to go. At the heart though, we have a story about OP’s cast giving serious thought to the future. |
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Between the bank bailout and the BP oil spill there was a lot of unfocused rage towards disasters by unaccountable corporations in the early 2010s. I wonder if the Occupiers and Tea-partiers could have made a difference if they found common cause…
Tea party was a bunch of complete assholes trying to deregulate the economy even more to the profits of companies. So unless that miraculously changed then it's a pretty good thing they never united.
Um…did some of them not, and that was a part of the ascension of Trump? There were news stories here of Bernie supporters going on to support Trump, like the desire to shake up “politics as usual” crossed traditional party lines.
Certainly, in the UK, Brexit and Boris owe a lot to a desire to shake up “politics as usual”, as do the politically diametrically opposed Corbyn and Scottish Independence movements.
Of course, the evil genius of Trump and Boris Johnson is in persuading people they’re plucky outsiders rather than privileged millionaires who are very much part of the corporate world, but that’s a whole nother rant…
This is the beginning of marek and hannahs split, which is probably my favorite break up arc in any medium. I love how understated it is, its told almost entirely through the emotional state of the characters and a difference in their reactions to things, it's so well employed
Oh man, it's so sad but I'd completely forgotten till now that Occupy Wall Street even happened. So much hope, solidarity, dreams, all with a basic fundamentally correct concern: capital gains always outstrip economic growth, guaranteeing increasing inequality…
And it all petered out in a mess of filth, lack of clear demands, completely confused message, overwhelming whiteness (Eve is your Most Ethnic Person) , and all the crazy groups who just piled in like violent anarchists (most are not violent) and anti-semites.
But it makes for some great strips!
It at least succeeded in changing the national discourse. "The 1%" is a phrase that came out of OWS times.
Jane?
Trying to call out Octopus Pie as not doing enough to be socially conscious seems pretty fucked lmao
When this came out I thought this was a really bold storyline. Mad respect.
It was published only a month into OWS, when nobody had any idea what the end result was going to be— and Gran put Marek and Hanna's relationship right smack in the middle of it.
"Ripped from the headlines", except not a gimmick.
Occupy Wall Street accomplished many things. Among the most important, it shifted the 'national conversation' towards consideration of increasing wealth inequality and the decline of most people's standard of living. The related 'Grand Bargain' between Obama and the Republicans to cut or kill Social Security and Medicare went up in smoke. It created many links, or chances for links, between radicals and progressives (most of them passed up by the latter, but there was hope for a while). It was a meeting and a conversation, the creation of a space outside the power of the corporate media and the academic industry. It was not a government or party, hence it did not issue demands or attempt to take power. Except for anarchists, nobody seems to understand this, so they continue to misunderstand and deprecate it. But it lives on as a myth anyway.
So much hope then. And those urges… I am cursed with the knowledge that my nephew is an Occupy Baby and I will never let my sister live it down.
The line is so different in this comic than in the previous couple. Technique change, clearly, but is this digital vs ink on paper?