There is nothing new about comics depicting tragedy.
Comics and graphic novels have been covering serious topics for years. Art Spiegelman’s classic graphic novel, Maus, the story of how Spiegelman’s father survived the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, and Alison Bechdel’s memoir Fun Home, about growing up with a closeted father who was the town funeral home director, are two examples of powerful stories told in comics form.
So it’s no surprise that The Nib, which has been publishing hard-hitting journalism, essays, and memoirs, all in comics form, daily since 2014, recently published, “Cruel and Usual: The History of Lethal Injection.” Written by Liliana Segura, and drawn by Jackie Roche, the piece is so incisive, well-written and illustrated, it perfectly conveys the cruel absurdity of the death penalty in the U.S., and the insistence that there is such a thing as painless state killing.
Here are just a few of the panels:
You can read the whole story here.