War in the Neighborhood

by Seth Tobocman, A.K. Thompson (Introduction)

Book by Seth Tobocman

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, New York, Graphic Novels Comics, Nonfiction, Politics, Activism

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Radical comic book artist who has been living in Manhattan's Lower East Side since 1978. Tobocman is best known for his creation of the political comic book World War 3 Illustrated, which he started in 1979 with fellow artist Peter Kuper. He has also been an influential propagandist for the squatting, anti-globalist, and anti-war movements in the United States.

Reviews

[Eli Bishop · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of Seth Tobocman's squatter-related stories from World War Three Illustrated and elsewhere. Great as a political polemic, a piece of New York history, a graphic tour de force, and especially a many-angled study of some real people who couldn't quite live together because no one wanted them to, and because no one really knows how to, yet. I don't know whether to be in awe of Tobocman's achievement, or to conclude that this is what any very good artist should have done after observing those events.

[Derek Minno-Bloom · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing read of the struggle for squatting, homelessness, and the fight against gentrification on the lower east side of Manhattan!This book is beautiful, gritty, honest, complicated. When one still walks around Tompkins Square part today, the spirit of this struggle can still be felt!

[Hannah Garden · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was so popular with my book club but I really didn’t get into it. The art is meant to evoke that Lynd Ward woodcut style but it just made me feel like I was reading flyers for events I wouldn’t want to go to. The writing I found similarly unnuanced and flyer-like: Tobocman montages his text and images, hammering his politics in so bluntly that his stories are reduced to slogans and his characters to caricatures.

I mean honestly a lot of what turned me off though is just how fucking boring I always find this world view, the aspirational punker squatter fetishization. It’s too married to other world views that are inherently exclusionary and while I hate capitalism for the grave that it is, Tobocman’s vision for salvation is not mine, or even one I find interesting.

[Meepelous · Rating 5 out of 5]

Visually poetic and deeply honest, this book is going to be tough to beat as far as favourite book of 2017 goes. I really appreciated the nuanced way in which Tobocman approached this story, especially because while this is based off of his real life experience he does not seek to argue that it is a 100% factually accurate from everyone's perspective. So he had a lot more room to make himself look good and romanticize the cause in general, and he didn't take it. IMHO anyway, that's not to say his perspective isn't biased a certain way, based on his personal experiences, but that he's willing to even hold people who are on "his side" as well as himself to account for racist and sexist behavior.

I would not recommend this to people just getting into comics as they may have some trouble following the text, which sometimes ends up in very expressive (Rather then entirely user friendly) places. But as I said at the start of the review, as someone who is very comfortable in the genre I did not find that Tobocman's layouts were unskilled, but rather extremely poetic. He also uses visual metaphor similar to Maus.

Simultaneously thinking and not thinking about gentrification more than I used to, I did find this text highly instructional in the culture of gentrification. The very real war these sorts of creeps wage on the people they replace. Hopefully I will be able to integrate more anti-gentrification action into my life.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, this was an important book. I saw a documentary film about squatters about 10 years ago. There aren't many writers and artists dealing with this phenomenon since it is so controversial. But affordable housing is rare already and gentrification only makes the problem worse. Tobocman describes his experiences living in a squatting community in New York City. It is the best representation I've seen of solidarity and strategic direct action in resisting powerful city governments. To me, it seemed realistic, showing problems honestly. He focuses a lot on how racism, sexism and classism are addressed in a community of squatters. Also, addiction, violence, intimidation, fairness, inclusiveness and security are problems they struggle with. It was interesting to see them work out solutions to difficult problems over time, making decisions or not by consensus. In the end, the building was taken from them by sheer force. Was the struggle worth it? You must read the book to find out. You will find it entertaining as well as informative from a perspective you most likely have not heard from before.

[Lawrence P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but difficult to finish. The blunt, combative tone is energizing in small doses but gets tiresome after 80 pages or so. The art style can be engaging, but is often difficult on the eyes. I understand why it was originally published in brief segments - I don't think this sort of art is well suited to lengthy graphic novels.

[fire_on_the_mountain · Rating 5 out of 5]

I greatly appreciate Tobocman's dedication to the truth and his unflinching honesty in recounting the events that he experienced in the Lower East Side squatters movement. That, as well as his art that is full of feeling and expression, is what gives this work its power.

[Mateen Mahboubi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great use of greyscale to tell a riveting story of homelessness and squatting that is easily forgotten today. At times it got bogged down with small details but fascinating throughout.

[Daniel Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

No Housing No Peace
House the Unhoused
Solidarity Forever
ACAB

[Ursula Pflug · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote a blog post about this wonderful book which is posted on my website. I also talk about the time I spent living in the Lower East Side in the late 70's, the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe, and the artist Anton Van Dalen.

"My first New York apartment was on 5th Street between 1st and 2nd. It was a ground floor railroad flat with a bathroom and kitchen, and the rent, inclusive, was less than I was paying at the time in a shared two storey place on Queen West in Toronto. When I first moved from Toronto I stayed on Avenue A with a family friend, the artist Anton Van Dalen and his family. I was eighteen, I wasn’t in school; my visits had painted a picture of a dodgy but compelling neighbourhood. Toronto was to some extent still ‘Toronto the good’; in spite of the incipient Queen West scene it was a place you wanted to leave for somewhere more alive and interesting. Untreated, I was on the run from my mother’s suicide and in Loisaida I found parts of myself that have stood me in good stead ever since. I was writing, but thinking more about voice and language and perception than actually writing, and some of those thoughts have returned just when I needed them in the intervening decades.

"So few of the people who have lived through interesting times ever actually write about them. In his stunning LES graphic novel, War in the Neighborhood, Seth Tobocman careens between poetry and history and of course a poet/artist is the best kind of historian to be. While reading, I made notes of particularly edifying or inspiring lines I might quote but Tobocman is a fine writer and very soon there were too many to choose just one or two. The book was first released in 1998 and will be republished this fall."

Read more here.

[Arawak Amargi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Manhattan, années 1980. Couvre-feu, violences policières, expulsions... Les politiques sécuritaires et spéculatives s'abattent sur le quartier populaire du Lower East Side. Mais ses habitants résistent : squats, manifestations sauvages, émeutes... Ce roman graphique majestueux, déjà un classique de l'autre côté de l'Atlantique, rend compte de cette histoire par une succession de portraits où se croisent les vies tumultueuses d'immigrés, de sans-abri, de punks et autres pauvres pour qui la solidarité et l'auto-organisation deviennent des armes. Au plus fort de son art du reportage BD, Seth Tobocman, compagnon de route de Peter Kuper et d'Eric Drooker, signe un livre dune rare finesse, écrit sur plus de dix ans, alors qu'il squattait lui-même à deux pas du centre mondial de la finance.
Biographie de l'auteur
Seth Tobocman, compagnon de route de Peter Kuper et d'Eric Drooker, est un artiste majeur de la BD underground américaine. Il est l'auteur, entre autres, de You Don't Have to Fuck People Over to Survive (AK Press), Disaster and Resistance (AK Press), World War III Illustrated : 1979-2014 (PM Press) et de Len, A Lawyer in History (AK Press).

[Spicy T AKA Mr. Tea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first Seth Tobocman graphic novel and I was hooked on it after the first few pages. The art is what drew my eye in and then the writing was a pretty good analysis of squatting in the Lower East Side of NYC. It is a memoir of Tobocman's time living in the squats. It talks about the community gardens, squats, and programs set up by the neighborhood and then the resistance to the mayor's move to destroy it all in favor of developers and gentrification. It also dealt with interpersonal politics like sexism, racism, classism, homophobia, and abusive relationships. From a more macro point of view the comic also talks about how the people resisted the state in order to save their homes and their lives. In the end Tobocman questions how far even self-proclaimed radicals and anarchists have come when there is so much abuse within the movement. The artwork is beautiful and sharp--painting a picture of things that could be understood even without the txt. I really liked it!

[Benjamin Britton · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We were right in pursuing a diversity of tactics. The legalization of territorial claims came after a decentralized campaign which involved first amendment activities, non-violent civil disobedience, squatting, some dialog with politicians, some courtroom litigation, and occasional acts of violence. All of this was necessary to make the city give up land and in the end it got results.

We were right in asserting that the most radical force in society is the community, where individuals can participate in direct democracy without the mediation of political professionals. Homeless people usually know what’s best for homeless people, people with AIDS usually know what’s best for people with AIDS, the residents of a building usually know whats best in that building, and even in those cases where they make a mistake, their subjectivity is a necessary component in any solution to their problems."

[Selena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book outlines a long, hard struggle for autonomy and the desperately sought self-sustainability we are deprived of by systems demanding our submission and arbitrary payment. The setting is a timeline on the scene of the Tompkins Square Park seige. Obscene military force and police brutality meet the public's cry for independence, repeated time and time again since the beginning of our history.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A graphic novel about life in the squatter scene in Lower East Side New York City in the 1980's.

[jack]

great story great art.

[Sardonyx · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a pretty incredible, frustrating, inspiring read.