Acclaimed Japan-based comic creator Sean Michael Wilson is making a rare visit to the UK this week, to promote his latest graphic novel, Freedom Shall Prevail: The Struggle of Abdullah Öcalan and the Kurdish People, drawn by Keko.
The new book, recently published in English by PM Press, also available in German, Turkish, Kurdish and Arabic languages, with French to come soon. Written by Sean and illustrated by a Kurdish artist, Keko, the book was created with backing and research help from Peace in Kurdistan Campaign and the International Initiative ‘Freedom for Abdullah Ocalan – Peace in Kurdistan,’ groups with long term and impassioned commitment to the cause of Ocalan and the Kurdish people’s freedom
Sean will be giving presentations to mark the launch of the graphic novel at Cambridge University tomorrow, 3rd October, and the Kurdish Community Centre in London on Friday 4th October, alongside Reimar Heider, representing the International Initiative. The events have been organised by the Democratic Kurdish Center in Britan (Navenda Demokratik a Kurdên Britanya, NADEK), Jiyan Women’s Assembly and PJAK.
Highly regarded around the world, Ocalan led the Kurdish freedom struggle as the head of the PKK from its foundation in 1978 until his abduction by the Turkish state in 1999. He has, so far, spent twenty-five years in captivity. In Freedom Shall Prevail, we learn, in his own words, what Ocalan’s childhood was like in the partially Kurdish areas of Eastern Turkey and how his political awareness and commitment grew as a student in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Through the personal struggle of Ocalan we also see the terrible devastation that Kurdish people have suffered and learn about the tumultuous and dramatic history of the relationship between the Kurds and the Turkish state.
The book also dives into the theories developed by Ocalan that continue to influence the ongoing struggle today. Expanding on these, the second part of the book gives us a wider consideration of the issues and policies around women’s freedom, democratic confederalism and paints an inspiring picture of one of the most impressive attempts to build a genuinely grassroots democratic system anywhere in the world. The struggle going on in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, also known as Rojava, is one that is directly combatting gender and racial discrimination and the abuses of the capitalist economic system – in truly interconnected ways.
Sean Michael Wilson is an award-winning graphic novelist from Scotland living in Japan. His more than forty books cover themes of history, politics, and social issues, including: Parecomic (on participatory economics, with Michael Albert, introduction by Noam Chomsky), Fight the Power! A Visual History of Protest; Portraits of Violence: Ten Theorists on State Violence (with Brad Evans), Such, Such Were the Joys, the childhood autobiography of George Orwell; The Many Not the Few; and The Faceless Ghost, which was nominated for an Eisner Award. His book Secrets of the Ninja won an International Manga Award.
Keko is a Kurdish graphic artist living in Spain. Freedom Shall Prevail is his first graphic novel.
• Freedom Shall Prevail (English edition) is available direct from PM Press here | AmazonUK (Affiliate Link) | ISBN-13: 979-8887440347
• Freedom Shall Prevail Presentation 1.00 – 3.00pm Thursday 3rd October 2024 the Cambridge University Sociology Department Seminar Hall
• Freedom Shall Prevail Presentation 5.00pm Friday 4th October 2025, Kurdish Community Centre, 16 Howard Road, London N4 1HU
• Sean Michael Wilson is online at seanmichaelwilson.weebly.com
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as 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.
Categories: Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Events, Other Worlds
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