Rolling Blackouts Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq

Sarah Glidden — 2016

A cartoonist follows reporters across the Middle East, learning about journalism and how stories are told Cartoonist Sarah Glidden follows up her acclaimed debut, How to Understand Israel in 60 Days or Less, with Rolling Blackouts, which details her two-month long journey through Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. Glidden accompanies her two friends--reporters and founders of the journalistic non-profit The Seattle Globalist--as they research stories on the Iraq War's effect on the Middle East and, specifically, the war's refugees. Joining them is a former Marine and childhood friend of one of the journalists whose deployment to Iraq in 2007 adds an unexpected and sometimes unwelcome viewpoint, both to the people they come across and perhaps even themselves. The crew works their way through the region with the goal of asking civilians, refugees, and officials: "who are you?" Everyone has a story to tell: the Iranian blogger, the United Nations Refugee administrator, a taxi driver, the Iraqi refugee deported from the US, the Iraqis seeking refuge in Syria, and even the American Marine. The journalists struggle equally with how to tell these stories and with how to market them into articles people will want to read. Glidden records all that she encounters with a sympathetic and searching eye--What is journalism? What is its purpose? What is honesty? Painted in her trademark soft muted watercolors and written with a self-effacing humor, Rolling Blackouts cements Glidden's place as one of comics's most original nonfiction voices.

Reviews

Ozge Kara@ozgevon

May 25, 2023

2.5 stars only for the graphics. This is a graphic novel of a bunch of annoying Americans doing “journalism”. One confused marine. And one journalist of journalist who is actually not a journalist because journalism is portraying something, not just typing down the tape recorder.

Maggie Gordon@maggieg

Aug 13, 2022

When I picked up Rolling Blackouts, I expected a book more like Glidden's former, a memoir about her Birthright trip to Israel. This new graphic novel, however, is substantially different. It's a narrative about journalism and what that means in today's complicated world, particularly when journalists from America go overseas. The set-up is that friends of Glidden started a news service called The Globalist. They reported on a lot of local news, but they also did large trips abroad to capture other types of stories. Glidden decides to follow them on a trip to Turkey/Syria/Iraq in order to report on the process of reporting (how meta!). It's a fascinating journey through the thoughts of people dedicated to telling people's stories, but also trapped in a capitalist model that requires them to sell these stories. Along for the ride is an old friend of one of the journalists, a former marine returning to Iraq to see a bigger image of what happened than just what he experienced in the army. The book does cover some of the reporting that this team does in the Middle East, but much of the narrative is focused on what journalism is (or should be), how it should be done, and why journalists make the choices that they do. It is a deeply personal look at a complicated subject, and it leaves readers to ponder quite a bit about the state of modern journalism. All in all, a fantastic account of journalists trying to do their best, amazing art, and a lot of thoughts to consider about humans and our behaviour. Rolling Blackouts is a must read!