Today we’re pleased to present a guest interview with Melissa Chan and Badiucao, creators of You Must Take Part in Revolution, conducted by Street Noise Books publisher Liz Frances.
If you’re not familiar with the graphic novel, it features a near-future dystopian story about technology, authoritarian government and the lengths that one will go to in the fight for freedom. The graphic novel is available now.
by Liz Frances
Melissa and Badiucao, this is your first graphic novel! What made you two decide that you should go from journalism and political cartoons to making a graphic novel — why this format?
Melissa: I’d been a journalist for almost two decades — writing articles and also as a correspondent for broadcast and video reports. It started to feel as if whatever I reported on didn’t really matter — that so much of it was reaching audiences who kind of agreed with me already about human rights and democracy. I’ve enjoyed graphic novels over the years, and it kind of dawned on me that this was the book I’d always wanted to write.
Badiucao: Yeap, graphic novels take serious topics like human rights and geopolitics and make them more accessible to groups who might not know the subjects well. I’d always want to break through the circles of my usual readers and speak to younger groups who are comics readers, gamers — basically to leverage the power of pop culture. You know that famous “tank man” from the Tiananmen Square student protests? How about making figures like that as cool and as popular as Spider-Man!
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