Featuring the Anti-Jihad Hero, Pigman
We sat down with Bosch Fawstin, the creator/writer/artist behind the upcoming graphic novel, "The Infidel".
"The Infidel" introduces a new kind of hero--an anti-Jihadi named Pigman. Pigman fights the forces of Jihad terror in America and wherever he finds it.
Bosch was kind enough to fill us in on some of the finer points concerning "The Infidel", Pigman, his earlier graphic novel, "Table for One" and what's happening in the life of a graphic novel creator who takes on the decidedly non-Politically Correct subject of fighting jihad.
UPDATE: 3 pm February 18, 2008 Some additional material, as well as corrections and additions of several factual errors noticed by both DBKP and Bosch Fawtin are included. Read it now with complete confidence that you are among the best-informed on the subject of Pigman and "The Infidel" that exists in the blogosphere. |
[NOTE: While we always remind readers to "Click on images to enlarge them", we want to make it a point on this interview. The Bosch Fawstin illustrations are great when they're full-screen.
Just so you'll not say "You never told us!"]
PLACE: The DBKP Interview Room
WHO: Creator/writer/artist Boshch Fawstin, DBKP's Mondoreb and Little Baby Ginn
MONDOREB: Hi Bosch and thanks for coming and giving us a chance to talk about "The Infidel"
BOSCH FAWSTIN: Hi Mondo, Ginn. Thank you very much for this opportunity to get the word out about The Infidel/Pigman.
MONDO: Great! Let's get to it.
GINN: What specifically made you decide to get into the anti-jihad comics business? Were you thinking about it before 911 or did the events of 9/11 or the aftermath inspire you?
BOSCH FAWSTIN: For me, there’s before 9/11 and after 9/11 as a human being, as an American artist.
Whatever values I held prior to that day were amplified more than ever and I knew what I would be writing about for the foreseeable future. Being born into a Muslim family made the attack more personal and has added to my desire to create as strong an artistic counter-attack against The Enemy as I can create.
MONDO: Have you gotten any flak from the PC crowd on your themes? Anybody make any threats because of Pigman?
BOSCH FAWSTIN: I’ve gotten the typical thoughtless, emotion-filled responses that I expected, accusing me of being just as extreme as the terrorists.
It’s really an insane accusation that says more about the accuser than anything else.
In their desire to believe ‘Islam means PeaCe’ at all costs, they’ve avoided any and all readily available proof that it is Islam itself behind this jihad, and in place of attacking the truth, they attack the truth tellers.
GINN: That's a mouthful!
BOSCH FAWSTIN: Their frustration lies in the fact that Islam gives them no ammunition whatsoever to defend against those who make the case against Islam through Islam.
We have to accept the uncomfortable fact that Islam is on the side of al Qaeda. It is Islam that aids and abets the enemy, that gives them the pretense that they’re battling evil. It gives them the idea that their objective evil is transfigured as subjective good via Islam. It gives the enemy the emotional, ideological fuel that they require to commit their righteously evil acts.
When Islam’s Muslim and non-Muslim useful idiots can’t defend Islam on Islamic terms, they lash out at those who can condemn Islam on Islamic terms.
It’s perfect in its illogic, this evasion, denial, and avoidance of reality.
And it’s this evasion that has crippled our war effort and has left our hapless leaders in a foggy state of mind where they truly do not know what the hell to say or do against the enemy.
Still, a part of them demands that something be done, likely stemming from fear that we the people would get up in arms if they didn’t, so they continue this half-assed excuse for a war against an emotion called terror, which gives the enemy the edge and hope that so long as they remain undefeated, they’ll win through ‘death by a thousand cuts.’
As to threats, there’ve been a few Muslims who emailed me about how rotten I am for insulting Islam, etc., but I’m not really worried about those who deliver threats through email.
It’s the up close and personal ‘Allahu Akbar!’ that will do that.
MONDO: Emotional subject. Have you considered sending an autographed copy of the Infidel, when it's completed, to the Saudi embassy?
BOSCH FAWSTIN: Oh yeah, and ‘Our friends the Saudis’ will hate me even more for them loving the book.
Pigman is the jihad’s worst nightmare, but I see Mohammed himself as the greatest villain the Middle East has ever known. If not for his influence, that part of the world could’ve had a chance to live in the 21st century and compete with the rest of the world in unwarlike ways.
‘It’s a world where the bad guys won.’ is how the hero of The Infidel, Killian Duke puts it. Their adherence to Islam has retarded their culture; morally, intellectually, spiritually, and so physically.
Pigman himself is of Arabian descent whose given name was Mohammed.
GINN: Any ideas about what graphic novels are to come after the Infidel?
MONDOREB: If it's successful, will it become an ongoing series?
BOSCH FAWSTIN: I’ve got a few planned, ones that I intended to work on after Table for One until 9/11 hit, so those stories have been put on hold until The Infidel is completed.
One is a fantasy, a mind travel story that I’ve had in mind for a long time and that I’ll be good and ready for after saying all I want to say against the enemy through The Infidel.
Initially, The Infidel was intended as a 50 page punch of a book against Jihad, and then it grew bigger and bigger and has finally morphed into two stories in one, with the main story about twin brothers whose Muslim background comes to the forefront of their lives and breaks their bond on 9/11; One brother creating the Pigman comic book and the other fully submitting to Islam and following it to wherever it leads him.
GINN: Two stories?
BOSCH FAWSTIN: The Pigman and SuperJihad story is to be a super version of the twin’s story. From the outset of the project, I wanted to write about the kind of man who would create a Pigman comic book, and go from there about how a post 9/11 PC world would respond to a man like that, but Pigman has really taken on a life of his own.
GINN: Any chance you'll give away any secrets here?
BOSCH FAWSTIN: I know how both stories end, but I don’t know how long it’s going to take to get to the end and that’s fine with me. I am even more turned on by the book than I was when I began, so it could go on for quite a while. And the idea of creating a Pigman series somewhere down the line seems stronger than ever. He may demand it since he’s become a far more interesting character the more I’ve gotten to know him through writing.
MONDOREB: How did "Table for One" do or how is it doing?
Table for One is my first work and my first graphic novel, and it did as good as I expected it to do in the marketplace for a first effort, and I still regularly sell copies of the book through Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and comic book stores, and even in person at conventions.
Through Table for One I gained the endorsement of my favorite cartoonist of all time, Alex Toth.
It also brought me a ‘Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award’ nomination and an Eisner Award nomination for ‘Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition’. It was as good a welcome into the field as I could imagine.
[EDITOR'S NOTES: Alex Toth (June 25, 1928–May 27, 2006), pronounced with a long “o,” was an acclaimed professional cartoonist active from the 1940s through the 1980s.
Toth’s work began in the American comic book industry, but is best known for his animation designs for Hanna-Barbera throughout the 1960s and 1970s. His work included Super Friends, Space Ghost, The Herculoids, and Birdman. Toth’s work has been resurrected in the late-night, adult-themed spinoffs on Cartoon Network: Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.
The Will Eisner Comic Industry Award is a prize given for creative achievement in American comic books.
It is named in honor of the pioneering writer and artist Will Eisner, who was a regular participant in the award ceremony until his death in 2005, and includes the comics industry's Hall of Fame. The Eisner Award was created in response to the discontinuation of the Kirby Awards after 1987.]
GINN: What are your hopes for "The Infidel"? What would have to happen for you to consider it a success?
BOSCH FAWSTIN: My hopes for The Infidel is that I reach my kind of people, those who love the truth and follow it to wherever the hell it goes, No Matter What, and who want to see this enemy crushed once and for all.
I want to sell enough copies of the book to work on it full time with no unnecessary worries on that front. And if it sells well, it will show that there most definitely is a marketplace for a hardcore book of this kind where The Enemy gets it as he deserves and where the American people are the good guys.
It’s only when we fall short of living up to the American Way that we begin to have serious problems and find ourselves weak and unable to defend ourselves in words or deeds.
In other words, ‘Dhimmi Qarter’.
The Infidel will be a realistic book to counter the fantasy we’re living through today via our popular culture, our politicians, our media and our universities, who are not doing their part as Americans on the home front during a time of war.
We’re each and every one of us targeted by Jihad, but that half of us don’t seem to care tells us what that half thinks of themselves, that they’re not worth defending. And they’ve taken that low self-regard and encompassed their own country with it. My book is a corrective in that sense, setting the record straight about what’s really going on, but through an entertaining, dramatic and at times, satiric way.
I think there’s an audience good and ready for a strong response to Jihad. I know this is the book I myself have been waiting for since 9/11.
MONDO: Bosch, this was great! Great for us and great for DBKP readers also. Thanks for stopping by and filling us in on what's coming up in the world of Bosch Fawstin and the upcoming anti-Jihad graphic novel, "The Infidel", starring Pigman.
BOSCH FAWSTIN: Glad to do it, Mondo, Ginn. Thanks for having me.
I was born in the Bronx, New York to Albanian/Muslim immigrant parents. I Began drawing at a very early age and have never stopped, falling in love with superhero comic books and finally making a career out of it. On that front, there’s a 6 page profile of me in the March 08 issue of The New Individualist magazine that touches on my life and career in general and The Infidel/Pigman in particular and I’ve even contributed a few drawings of Pigman in it. Check it out, you can order a free copy of it for a limited time, more info here: Get your free copy of the New Individualist magazine |
GINN: Any final words, Bosch?
BOSCH FAWSTIN: The book has been a labor of love….and hate, but I cannot imagine working on anything else.
MONDO: That's been our interview with the creator/writer/artist of "The Infidel", Bosch Fawstin.
* Information on ordering "Table for One", Bosch's first graphic novel at Amazon.com.
* Information on ordering "Table for One" at Barnes & Noble
PIGMAN
The Icon against jihad. Pigman is a ruthless, counter-jihad superhero comic book created by an ex-Muslim cartoonist as a response to 9/11. It brings Pigman's creator face to face with the enemy in the form of his brother. From the upcoming graphic novel THE INFIDEL by Bosch Fawstin.
Get some nifty Pigman shirts, mugs, or send your favorite jihadi a Pigman greeting card! Readers might especially be interested in checking out the Pigman "Support the Troops in their mission" and "PIGTIME!" themes.
* To order Pigman T-shirts and other merchandise from "The Infidel"
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Bosch Fawstin's websites:
* Bosch Fawstin
* Bosch Fawstin's The Infidel
by Mondoreb & LBG
images: Bosch Fawstin
Sources:
* Interview with Bosch Fawstin, 2/17/08
* Alex Toth
* Eisner Award
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
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