Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Nuking Alaska, A Comic about Alaska During the Cold War

Growing up in Alaska in the 60's and 70's put you on the front lines of the Cold War. We learned to overlook the fact that nuclear annihilation was a real possibility, living and playing in the shadow of the implements of mass  destruction. What was that like? Kind of like this. Thanks to The Nib for publishing this piece of comics journalism.

4 comments:

  1. Terrific stuff, Peter. Totally engrossing. I am one of the fortune hundreds (thousands?) who have visited Site Summit (the Nike launch facility) that you portray here. Visited, that is, some 30 years after it was decommissioned and lay in moldy wind-blasted ruins. In Prague, I have seen a Cold War museum (of a sort) down 60 feet from the city streets, inside a Soviet-built nuclear-war bunker that the Czechs have repurposed, so to speak. It would be so fitting and enlightened if U.S. authorities in league w/ "Friends of Nike Summit" and the Army at Fort Rich were to spend the millions necessary to convert that mountaintop ghost facility into a similar museum. Maybe your story will move them along on that path. I hope so.

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    Replies
    1. Hey Pico, Thanks! I know that Jim Renkert and friends are working hard to make something along those lines happen.

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  2. Beautiful work. The illustrations are layered with meaning, rewarding close attention, yet have a loose, improvised texture. And the narrative has the same duality- engaging and complex, yet with a simple and devastating conclusion.

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