Continuing the long-running investigative comics journalism series (previously called Ladydrawers) as a collaborative endeavor, Melissa Mendes and Anne Elizabeth Moore recently completed a 16-month series for Truthout that explores water, land, and housing rights in and around Detroit, Michigan. Through in-depth interviews, shoe-leather reporting, deep research, and brilliant, thoughtful graphics, the series seeks to explore challenges to survival and personhood in a contemporary American city.
Water:
- “Where There Is No Water” offers a look at the Detroit water shut-offs through the eyes of water activist Nicole Hill.
- “We’re Not Gonna Drink That” describes the Flint water crisis in an interview with researcher and organizer Melissa Mays.
- “#WageLove” introduces readers to the legal responses these two related crises have spurred, largely at the behest of civil rights attorney Alice Jennings.
- “Making Us All Sicker” presents recent findings that Detroit water shut-offs are increasing the likelihood of water-borne diseases in the Detroit Metro Area.
Housing:
- “Scenes From the Foreclosure Crisis” follows three individuals as they navigate the complexities of property tax foreclosures in Detroit, a process that has claimed one in four homes in recent years.
- “House on Junction I” narrates the history of housing rights from the perspective of a single, 110-year-old, single family home in Southwest Detroit up to the mid-1960s.
- “House on Junction II” concludes our story from the Southwest Detroit home of Joseph Bates, partially demolished while he was still in residence.
- “BLIGHT!“offers a close investigation into this little-understood—and surprisingly profitable, for some—housing designation.
Land:
- “Digging In” introduces readers to a beloved local eatery and the challenges it faces acquiring land and healthy soil.
- “The Bid” looks at Detroit’s failed pitch for Amazon’s second headquarters, and the vast swaths of land it promises the retail giant in exchange for almost no benefit to city residents.
- “Sanctuary” talks to two beekeepers who help produce organic honey on the city’s vacant lots and provide safe haven for a growing population of pollinators.
- “The Shape of Things” investigates the visible and invisible municipal boundaries that give Metro Detroit its shape.
Presentations of this series have been given at the Humboldt Park Branch of the Chicago Public Library; AmadoraBD in Amadora, Portugal; the Museum of Contemporary Arts Detroit (MOCAD); Bowling Green State University; Columbus College of Art and Design; and on the main stage at ICON10, the Illustration Conference.
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BookRiot named it one of “50 Webcomics You Have to Check Out Now.”
The Comics Journal interviewed Melissa and Anne here.
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This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
