- Shooting War
"Shooting War" is a
webcomic andgraphic novel by writerAnthony Lappé and artistDan Goldman . It originated onSMITH Magazine , a web magazine about storytelling in all its forms. The story is set in the year 2011 withJohn McCain as the American president. It tells the story of a video-blogger named Jimmy Burns. Burns films a terrorist suicide bombing attack on aStarbucks inBrooklyn and becomes an overnight media star. Shortly after, he is sent to cover the still-ragingwar in Iraq for the fictional Global News Network. Jensen, Jeff; Tom Russo; Sean Howe. (November 23 ,2007 ). "What's New In Comics". "Entertainment Weekly ". Pg. 79]The webcomic received recognition from magazines, newspapers and websites such as "
Rolling Stone ", the "Village Voice ", "Entertainment Weekly ", "Wired Magazine " and "Publishers Weekly 's" The Beat blog, and was nominated for the 2007Eisner Award s as "best digital comic". ["Eisner Award Nominations Overwhelm with Variety", from [http://www.comic-con.org/cci/cci_eisners_main.shtml official website of Comic-Con 2007] . Retrieved on 27 April 2007.] The online comic was acquired byWarner Books (now calledGrand Central Publishing ) for publication as a graphic novel. The 192-page full-color hardcover book was released in the U.S. in mid-November 2007, and was published in the UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in early November. "USA Today " chose it as their "big fall graphic novel", calling it "a subversively buzz-worthy online comic."(September 6 ,2007 ). "Big Fall Graphic Novel". "USA Today ". Pg. 6D]Writer Lappé drew upon his previous experiences in the Iraq war zone as producer of the
Showtime documentary "".McCullough, Troy. (June 11 ,2006 ). "Terrorism, the cartoon: Web graphic novel expands genre". "The Baltimore Sun ". Pg. 2C] Outside of his artwork on "Shooting War", Goldman is a co-founder of theACT-I-VATE webcomics anthology (along withDean Haspiel ,Josh Neufeld , and others). (November 1 ,2006 ). "Warning: Graphic Scenes of War". "Creativity". Pg. 8]Storyline
The online preview of the story spans 11 chapters. The book has an additional 110 pages of material.
Chapter 1
In 2011, blogger Jimmy Burns has just gotten his new Samsung MMXI video camera and is taking it for a test drive by making his
vlog . He was standing outside of aStarbucks explaining his view and complaints oneminent domain when suddenly a bomb inside the Starbucks detonates. He is blown twenty feet away. After he recovers himself he goes to help other people hurt in the blast. An employee of the news companyGlobal Television , sees his vlog and almost instantly gets it placed on live television.Chapter 2
Later after the terrorist attack Jimmy has become somewhat of a national celebrity. This chapter shows his popularity with news stations and magazines. Near the end of this chapter the head of
Global News , a controversial news network which shows graphic violence, offers Jimmy a job as one of his reporters.External links
* [http://www.shootingwar.com Shooting War website]
* [http://reason.com/news/show/123919.html "Reason" review]
* [http://www.alternet.org/story/37632/ Alternet.org review]
* [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-smith/shooting-war_b_25423.html "Huffington Post" review]
* [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.10/play.html?pg=9 "Wired" review]References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
