Reader's Diary #2014- Gord Hill: The Antifa Comic Book

Gord Hill's illustrations in The Antifa Comic Book reminded me a lot of Ed Piskor's in his Hip Hop Family Tree. As a fan of that series, this is a good thing. However, it also made me compare the writing. Piskor slows down the history of hip hop to a snail's pace and in doing so, he's able to better flesh out the characters and stories to make it all more palatable, more than a simple timeline of facts. Hill however covers all the way from World War 1 to the present in 127 pages and at times it's near impossible to keep track of all of the various fascist and anti-fascist groups.

It's still a good, educational read. I appreciated in particular the way that he destroyed the myth that Europe and North America is civilized (compared to the rest of the world, as was implied during my own schooling and upbringing). I also thought it quite fascinating and worthy of noting how many groups co-opt positive or progressive sounding names for their fascist, right-wing, racist ideologies.

Fascism itself is a term that I've never fully understood beyond a catch-all definition for asshole dictatorships. However, Hill does an excellent job defining it on the very first page and if readers don't think immediately of Trump they're quite frankly idiots and/or fascists themselves.