Unknown Soldier’s Road to the Eisners…
Though nominated, Unknown Soldier did not win for Best New Series in 2009.
That honor went to Invincible Iron Man. Congratulations to writer Matt Fraction, artist Salvador Larroca, colorist Frankie D’Armata, letterer Chris Eliopoulos, editor Warren Simons and assistant editorAlejandro Arbona.
However… the Examiner.com did something really cool. They interviewed me before the Eisner competition and then caught up with me afterwards, and published both things as separate articles.
You can find what I had to say the day of the award ceremony here.
And then my response the next day, after loosing, here.
August 12th, 2009 at 7:17 am
Hey… saw a bit in the NY Times about your book… my father was in Uganda during the Idi Amin regime, had a close call with soldiers that almost killed him. The only way he got out of it was that one of the soldiers had the same first name as him. Some quick thinking allowed him to convince the soldier that killing someone with the same name would haunt him for the rest of his life. He recently wrote a book that marries his real life experiences with fiction. Has some good chapters about his time in Uganda… I’m going to tell him about your work when he visits me in NY in a few days.
I lived in Africa during the 80’s while my parents worked for UNICEF (Nigeria in the height of it’s corruption, Ethiopia during the famine, Rwanda before the genocide)… saw a lot of dark stuff (lynching, shootings), but also met a lot of great people.
It’s great that you’re opening up a part of the world that most folks in the US never even think about. It’s a nation with a lot of promise, but way too much tribal/religious war and insane amounts of corruption. Congo is the darkest stain on Africa right now…
August 12th, 2009 at 8:44 am
Thanks so much for writing, John! It’s interesting, if you ever get around to reading the comic you’ll see that our primary protagonist is also the son of a Ugandan, one who fled the Amin regime.
What an amazing childhood you had. So much psychological weight, but at the same time I’m sure it’s given you an wide and real perspective on the world.
August 13th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Hey… definitely will pick a copy up. Yeah, living there did open my eyes, and give me a perspective and attitude towards different cultures that simply can’t be emulated otherwise… and also allowed me to see what true poverty is. With all due respect and empathy to those in the US that are living in hard conditions, there really just is no comparison to current 3rd world situations.
Anyway, best of luck!