Jan. 28th 2010: Seth Tobacman Shares his History of Anarchism Comics, and Street Art.

Seth Tobacman is an illustrator, comicbook maker, anarchist and activist based in New York City who came up to Guelph last week to launch some books and to paint a mural with local Guelph students in the University Centre on the University of Guelph of Campus.

We did our interview before Seth arrived in Guelph, over the phone.

Seth talked about his history with Anarchism and comics and communicating through comics. Making comics about things that were going on around him. In 70s Seth was involved in tenants rights activism in the lower eastside of New York City.Seth got involved in Anarchist politics in New York City. "The Anarchist Solution was lets go do something about it right now". Worked with the squatter movement in New York City. He was making comics to promote actions, and comics to document actions that he was personally involved in.

In our interview, Seth talked about starting the magazine World War Three illustrated with Peter Kuper as an attempt at politicized comics at a time when politicized comics were hard to find.

In 1979 there was not very many comics being published. '"The underground comics had fallen apart in the 70s and there was kind of nothing" Says Seth.

He has many books out worth checking out. Disaster and Resistance, You Don't Have to Fuck People Over to Survive, War in the Neigbhourhood. He is working on a new book called "Understanding the Crash" about the recent economic crisis.

I ended by asking Seth to tell me about Drawing and Metaphor. I am glad I asked him that question. Contact me to get a copy of the interview to hear what he says.