Another day, another social media storm. The speed, brevity and simplicity with which scandals, protests and debates are dispatched on Twitter and Facebook often undercut the seriousness of the issues that prompted the digital outpourings of support or scorn.
Cartoonist David Blumenstein has taken a decidedly old-school approach to looking at the people embroiled in a public protest in his just published (in paperback) comic #takedown: My evening on a pier with pick-up artists and protesters.
Blumenstein followed the story of the “international pick-up artist (PUA)” Julien Blanc on his controversial tour of Australia last November and so signed up for a free seminar with “International Pick-up artist (PUA) Instructor Julien Blanc”. Blumenstein found himself witness to anti-PUA campaign launched organised by protestors who had rallied under the social media banner #takedownjulienblanc.
In the comic book — of which a few pages are reproduced below — Blumenstein draws those involved in the protest at Melbourne’s St Kilda Pier as a volatile mix of protestors and wannabe pick-up dudes waited for Blanc.
According to the comic book’s publisher Pikitia Press, the comic is a “playfully drawn true account of one evening introduces you to the people on both sides of the protest line”.
David Blumenstein is an award-winning cartoonist who has drawn comics for Guardian Australia, Crikey, Junkee and Australian MAD Magazine. He and his cartoonist wife, Sarah, are co-founders of Squishface Studio, an open comic artists’ studio in Brunswick in Melbourne.
