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In Wake Of Castro Death, Cartoonist Bosch Fawstin Quests For Alt-Right Glory

this-is-castro-4-blog

Bosch Fawstin is an Eisner-nominated cartoonist for his 2004 graphic novel Table Of One, which received praise from the press and comics pros at the time:

fawstintableofone

He is also famous for his 2011 book The Infidel, self-described as:

THE INFIDEL is about twin brothers Killian Duke and Salaam Duka whose Muslim background comes to the forefront of their lives on 9/11. Killian responds to the atrocity by creating a counter-jihad superhero comic book called PIGMAN, as Salaam fully surrenders to Islam. Pigman's battle against his archenemy SuperJihad is echoed by the escalating conflict between the twins.

That book received a good deal of praise as well, despite its controversial subject matter:

infidel1 infidel2 infidel3

…and it netted him an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Fawstin, an Albanian born Muslim, turned to atheism, and against Islam. His views on the subject seem similar to those of Frank Miller, who, in the wake of 9-11, was obsessed with publishing a Batman story where Batman takes on Islamic terrorists, eventually ending up as Holy Terror when DC wisely didn't want to touch that land mine. But unlike Miller, who has remained largely in the mainstream, Fawstin has since travelled far further down that particular rabbit hole.

Fawstin made the news again in 2016 when he was the winner of an inflammatory contest to draw pictures of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, a controversial act forbidden by the religion which had recently resulted in a brutal terrorist attack against the French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo. The contest, sponsored by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), provoked a terror attack itself which ended, thankfully, only in the deaths of the attackers.

This time around, Fawstin received no praise from the comics press. In fact, some didn't even mention his Eisner nomination in their reports when Fawstin was named the leader of a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

https://twitter.com/BoschFawstin/status/595833714598354945

This time, the most notable pull quote for Fawstin's latest endeavor came from SPLC's Heidi Beirich, who said that while AFDI was already on its list, Faswtin would be added individually:

He's like the artist of the movement. His views, they are hate views.

Not as impressive as an Eisner nom, right? Or maybe it is, depending on how you look at it.

In the wake of the death of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Fawstin has set his sights on a new target:

https://twitter.com/BoschFawstin/status/802573107646976000

https://twitter.com/BoschFawstin/status/802596583778881536

And no, that target isn't Fidel Castro, though we understand why you might be inclined to think so. In truth, Fawstin is targeting the media, and the mainstream itself itself, expressing righteous outrage that something Fawstin views as evil is being let off the hook so easy. It's not so different a message than his message about Islam. It's a message which resonates with the same audience that shocking drawings of Muhammad do. Some call it the "alt-right." Others use less forgiving terms, like "neo-nazi." Whatever you call it, America is currently coming to grips with the unsettling idea that this is a demographic with more power than a lot of people wanted to believe – that is, before they played a major role in electing a president.

What accolades will Fawstin receive for his work this time? We're guessing those might be quite scarce from the comics world, but that doesn't seem to be the kind of attention Fawstin is seeking, at least not anymore. To illustrate that point, a pinned tweet on Fawstin's timeline points out:

https://twitter.com/BoschFawstin/status/802201274431086592

Breitbart? Daily Caller? Newsarama? Any takers?


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Jude TerrorAbout Jude Terror

A prophecy once said that in the comic book industry's darkest days, a hero would come to lead the people through a plague of overpriced floppies, incentive variant covers, #1 issue reboots, and super-mega-crossover events. Sadly, that prophecy was wrong. Oh, Jude Terror was right. For ten years. About everything. But nobody listened. And so, Jude Terror has moved on to a more important mission: turning Bleeding Cool into a pro wrestling dirt sheet!
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