Cartoonists Occupy Webcomics in ‘Beginning of the American Fall’ and ‘Occupy Sketchbook’

Known to ComicsAlliance readers for publishing Susie Cagle's What Every Woman Should Know -- about the faith-based "crisis pregnancy centers" that have been cropping up in California -- and several pieces in support of assaulted cartoonist Ali Ferzat, Cartoon Movement has quite naturally been all over the Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City and elsewhere. The site and its contributors have been documenting scenes and anecdotes from the controversial protests around the United States, and the results so far have been the first seven-page installment of Minimum Security cartoonist Stephanie McMillan's "The Beginning of the American Fall" and the first Occupy Sketchbook, featuring work by Cagle as well as Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man, I Thought You Would Be Funnier) and Sharon Rosenzweig (The Comic Torah). You can see some of this material after the cut.McMillan's narrative, The Beginning of the American Fall depicts the convergence of two independent protests in Washington, D.C. -- "Stop the Machine" and Occupy D.C. -- and some of the challenges that come with the prospect of merging the two groups. It's a close and honest look at the day-to-day activities of an Occupy camp, and something we haven't really seen in the mainstream media.

You can read the entire first installment of McMillan's The Beginning of the American Fall at Cartoon Movement, and you can learn more about her experience in the Occupy movement on her blog (where you can also find a PDF download of a small political comics pamphlet she created with Ted Rall). The second part of ...American Fall will be published by Cartoon Movement in a few weeks.

McMillan isn't alone, of course. Susie Cagle (who CA spoke with about her arrest at Occupy Oakland) Sharon Rosenzweig, and Shannon Wheeler are just some of the many cartoonists and comic book creators who've become involved or otherwise taken an interest in the Occupy protests, and Cartoon Movement has compiled some of their work into its first Occupy Sketchbook, which is free to read online. A second edition will be published next week and feature work reflecting the experiences from different cities.