Greek comic artist seeks to highlight country’s personal stories as crisis continues

By John Freeman on September 21, 2015

How is Greece being affected by the ongoing financial crisis and the ongoing instability of its recently-re-elected government, still without a clear majority? Greek cartoonist Spiros Derveniotis hopes to cast an informative light on a dificult subject, told through the lives of ordinary Greeks.

Daily, we’re confronted with news from Greece, through multiple media. Meanwhile, on Facebook and Instagram, friends flood our walls with holiday selfies from the Greek islands (including myself) that may well suggest that despite everything, the country is doing just fine, and British holiday companies (some of whom have reportedly withheld payments to Greek hoteliers for months when the economic criss first hit) certainly wouldn’t want to dissuade you of this rose-tinted view. But what does Greek society really look like after years of austerity? And how has the crisis affected the Greek people?

We all enjoy a trip to Greece, but what’s really happening in the country? Photo © Annie Freeman

In the planning series Meanwhile in Greece, currently seeking crowd funding, Spiros, who has already gives us insight into Greek histoy with projects such as his cleverly-created Madefire comic, Revolutions, hopes to offer an insight on the situation from an altogether unique viewpoint: through a comics series based in the streets of Athens. In a crossover between graphic storytelling and investigative journalism, the project will delve into a wide spectrum of issues to offer background and perspective and the hope is that the resulting in a graphic narrative that will immerse the reader.

Born and raised in Athens, Greece, Derveniotis personally witnessed the detoriation of his country. Through his comics, he visualizes what the impact of years of political struggle, forced budget cuts, austerity, and political fiascoes has had on its citizens, and (potentially) the European Union as a whole.

For the journalistic cartoon series Meanwhile in Greece, Derveniotis will cooperate with Cartoon Movement, the online platform for journalistic cartooning, in collaboration with yournalism, whose platform hosts the croudfunding and whose collaboration with cartoonmovement spawned the idea.

“The first episode will focus on the elections of 20 September 2015,” says Spiros. ”

“How has the Greek political landscape changed after years of economic crisis? How have political opinions changed among the young and old; among the rich and poor; on the left and right wings? What will the post-election political landscape look like? The players, the agendas, the politricks, all explored first hand and in real time.

“This project will be fully financed by crowdfunding,” he hopes. “Every contributor will receive an episode of the comic, once completed, by email.”

• Find out more about the project here on the Yournalism crowd funding site

• Check out the work of Spiros Derveniotis on DeviantArt (Some adult imagery)

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.