Illustration alum Brian Wood is garnering attention in a recent article in Print Magazine. Author and artist of DMZ, a comic book he creates with artist Riccardo Burchielli, Wood tackles the tricky issue of war in his work, creating a re-imagined America ripped apart by disunion. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
A rocket explodes in a neighborhood in the middle of a war zone, and a U.S. Army division arrives to survey the scene. The commander turns to the embedded photojournalist who’s been traveling with them and suggests a way to characterize the photographs he’s taking: “Insurgent cell defeated en route to engage American forces’ or something. Whatever. And crop out the small bodies.”
It could have happened last week in Baghdad or Fallujah. But this scene is set in downtown Manhattan, in the future—in the comic book DMZ for Vertigo/DC Comics. Writer Brian Wood and artist Riccardo Burchielli’s ongoing series, which imagines a devastating civil war in the United States, is one of a new class of mainstream comics: stories that are clearly responding to the war in Iraq without referring to it directly. Using settings and characters that are futuristic, surreal, or satiric, these new comics go where the network news fears to tread.
Make sure to read the rest of the article here. Visit DC Comics/Vertigo to pick up the most recent issue of DMZ (on sale today!). Congrats to Brian on his thought-provoking work. We’re proud to call him an alum!