Opening his window in the village of Pindos, Samarina, the hero of the illustrator / creator of comics, George Konstantinos, notices a different atmosphere from what he was used to. The cool breeze that forced him to always carry a sweater with him in the summer has been replaced by the suffocating, warm and dry atmosphere. The drought in the forest is now evident and the sheep that grazed in the fields and fed on the rich grass, find it difficult to find their food. Several thousand kilometers away, in Porvoo, Finland, the character designed by illustrator Kaisa Leka is unhappy with this winter. Rain with sun, snow, sunshine, strange temperatures and icy roads were all that he saw from his window throughout January 2022. The image of climate change can be seen from any window that opens, wherever he is, in Austria, in The Netherlands, Turkey, Greece. This is the message that Dutch illustrator-journalist Eva Hilhorst wants to convey through her Window Comics project, Climate Change before our eyes. Dozens of comic book creators and illustrators through their sketches and comics meet on the online platform Drawing the Times and tell stories about climate change and its effects that can be seen even when they look out the window.
“I started this project with Judith Vanistadale, a comic book creator and journalist. She told me when we started that climate change is an urgent issue and she thinks we should address people making comics about her, because the message has not been conveyed yet, despite the fact that scientists present graphs, numbers and statistics. Therefore, if you tell stories about climate change, people can identify and relate more. That is why we have chosen climate change as our theme. This problem is huge. It is everywhere, it is dangerous and even people have not understood the danger and the urgent need that exists for this issue. We thought we should start very close to our homes, what we see, what is already happening in our environment, maybe only then people will realize that climate change is everywhere and affects everyone. “So we decided to start Window Comics and ask people to design what they can see through their windows,” Eva Hilhorst, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Drawing the Times platform, told the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency. Through this project, the creators of the comics were invited through their own eyes to describe the urgency of the situation, the climate crisis. The floods in Austria, the uncontrollable fires in Turkey and Greece, the unprecedented drought in the Ardennes in Belgium and the heavy rains that followed are some of the issues that the illustrators are grappling with.
“Drawings and graphics are a very direct way to convey a message. Artists can translate the news visually. Many people when they see a large text with many words do not have the appetite to read it, but if they see a picture they immediately understand what has happened. For example, the disasters in Turkey from the fires. The comic depicts firefighters and animals running to save themselves from the fire. This immediately creates a feeling that it is something bad. It is a strong image, while if one had to read a text, one should make an effort to understand what is happening “, Ms. Hilhorst points out in APE-MPE.
“I think that when people see what is happening because of climate change in different countries, they will realize that it is everywhere, that it is not something temporary or accidental that happens in each country separately, so we all need to do something together to deal with it. “, Notes Mrs. Hilhorst.
The exhibition “Window Comics” was hosted at the Hellenic American Union in the context of Comidom Con Athens that took place a few days ago in Athens.
Launched in 2015, Drawing the Times is a platform where journalists and cartoonists from around the world publish works that inform, entertain, and address readers about global issues and local stories.
They can be stories in the form of comics, reports, vivid sketches, graphs, cartoons and much more.
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