http://www.alternet.org/images/slideshows/houduras_coup/illustration.php
'Comic' retells Honduran coup and Manuel Zelaya arrest
Graphic history frames overthrow of president in relation to century of US skullduggery in central America
The Honduran Coup, a Graphic History by Dan Archer and Nikil Saval. Photograph: Dan Archer & Nikil Saval /Archcomix
At first glance it could be a children's comic – but in fact it's a journalistic take on the Honduran crisis with an attention to context that puts conventional media coverage to shame.
The Honduran Coup, A Graphic History by Dan Archer and Nikil Saval frames the overthrow of the president, Manuel Zelaya, in relation to a century of US skullduggery in central America.
Most media reports go back only to June this year when conservative opponents ousted the leftist leader because he was getting cosy with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez.
With a leftist slant, Archer, a "comix journalist and instructor" at Stanford University, and Saval, a PhD candidate at Stanford, zip through the main events: Zelaya's arrest and exile, his sneaking back into Honduras last month, his refuge in the Brazilian embassy and the security force crackdown on his supporters.
But to explain how and why it came to this, the authors then jump back to the 1900s when – with White House support – two US fruit giants (now known as Dole and Chiquita) turned central America into one big plantation. We fast-forward to the cold war and see the US toppling leftists and propping up rightwing governments and their murderous militaries.
Archer and Saval do not accuse Obama of fomenting Honduras's current trauma but they do suggest, like many analysts and Latin American leaders, that the administration could be doing more to restore Zelaya to power. By flipping the pages of history this graphic novel reminds us why the White House is dragging its heels.
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