[Video: book trailer.]
Clark Stoeckley, the artist who has driven the “Wikileaks Truck” on to the Fort Meade Army base for nearly every day of the United States vs. PFC Bradley Manning trial and sketched the participants in this historic trial, is doing a graphic novel about the case. It will be available in September 2013 as either a paper book or ebook.
I visited the trial a few weeks ago and spent some time with Clark, watching him do his work and watching the expressions on the faces of the guys on base when he drove up in the Wikileaks Truck, emblazoned with “Release Bradley Manning” on the back and “Mobile Information Collection Unit” on the side. He’s one dedicated artist, and it takes a special kind of grit to pull that off. From the book blurb:
Drawing and writing in real time from inside the courtroom, artist and WikiLeaks activist Clark Stoeckley here captures first-hand the extraordinary drama of The United States vs. Pfc. Bradley Manning, one of the most important and secretive trials in American history.
In the course of the trial, Private Manning insists that his release of the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs to WikiLeaks was an act of conscience, justified by the urgent need to reveal to the world the atrocities committed by the US military in the ostensible cause of freedom. At the prosecution table, military lawyers for the American government seek to set an example and discourage future whistle blowers by locking away Manning for decades, possibly the rest of his life.
Stoeckley’s vivid sketches from inside the court and beyond, together with carefully selected transcripts of the proceedings, trace the arguments as they move back and forth between the defence and the prosecution. His rendering of the trial provides both a vital record and a uniquely compelling read.
The United States vs. PFC Bradley Manning [OR Books]
A few preview images from the book, below.
