Kristian Williams

The current Comics Journal has two of my reviews. One is a longish piece on After 9/11: America’s War on Terror (2001- ). The other is a short review of the first six issues of Terry Moore’s Echo. Neither are online.

I’ve also had two articles re-printed recently.

Back in October, Counterpunch ran an excerpt from my book American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination. Under the title “Torture at Area 2,” the article provides background on the long-running Chicago torture scandal, which recently resulted in the arrest of retired police commander Jon Burge.

My piece isn’t online. But for information on the Burge case, see the Chicago Reader’s archive of John Conroy’s coverage:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/policetorture/

More recently, an excerpt from my 2005 Columbia Journalism Review article appeared in the anthology Language, Literacy, and Inquiry: World Literature. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2009.)

The original CJR piece is on the web: http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2005/2/ideas-essay-williams.asp

I have two reviews in the current issue of The Comics Journal.

The first is a long review of This Book Contains Graphic Language: Comics as Literature by Rocco Versaci. In it, I question how much justification comics criticism really needs.

The second is a short review of The Twilight Zone: ‘The After Hours’ and ‘Walking Distance’. In the magazine the piece is mis-attributed to Kent Worcester (a mistake owing, I think, to our sharing the same initials).

Neither is online. If you want to read them, you’ll have to find the paper version.

The Guide asked several of its contributors to comment on the forthcoming presidential election. Four of us did, and you can find our remarks online here:
http://www.guidemag.com/magcontent/invokemagcontent.cfm?ID=39D1AD1D-F48F-4E29-857A580B07471890

My piece is tagged “Expect Election Hangover,” and in it I argue that we shouldn’t pin our hopes on political parties or their candidates. (I’d also encourage people to read Yasmin Nair’s contribution, “Class in Drag,” which appears immediately following my little essay.)

In keeping with the notion that it’s what happens after the election that matters — Remember, remember: November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day, in memory of the only man to enter parliament with honest intentions.

Learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes

I’ve written a review of Darius Rejali’s massive study, Torture and Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2007):

“Hidden Torture, False Democracy.” International Socialist Review. September-October 2008.

You can read it online at: http://www.isreview.org/issues/61/feat-torturedem.shtml

This essay largely directs criticism toward Rejali’s idea of “democracy.” In a forthcoming piece for Make/Shift I will also examine his definition of “torture.”