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Comics and Columbine: An outcast look at comics, bigotry and school shootings
THE SCHOOL SHOOTER WHO DIDN’T SHOOT.
Growing up an autistic loner Thomas Campbell’s schooldays were a living nightmare of bullying and abuse that saw him in psychiatric care by age 8.
The target of entire classrooms, he developed a lifelong hatred of all things educational. This hatred – the shared thinking of the school shooter – has gifted him with a unique insight into the slaughter we are witnessing in our schools now.
For the first time a book is written from the perspective of the classroom avenger, one that explores their distorted thinking and reveals the ‘socially acceptable’ evils that provoke such a lethal response.
‘In this angry, tender, and extraordinary work, Thomas Campbell writes with fierce immediacy from the cultural ultra-violet of the Asperger spectrum, allowing us a crucial glimpse into the emotional gulag to which we thoughtlessly sentence thousands daily, and perhaps moderating our disingenuous surprise when another awkward loner takes an assault rifle to class for Show and Tell. Written with a lucid honesty, unafraid of its own unavoidable subjectivity. Comics and Columbine is the slap in the face that we badly needed and deserved, delivered in a clear and ringing voice from the white-hot heart of the experience. It is a voice that we ignore to our considerable loss, and at our considerable peril. Campbell has written what in my opinion is a beautiful narrative about an irredeemably ugly subject. I really cannot recommend this vital and necessary book too strongly.’
-Alan Moore, Author of Watchmen/V for Vendetta/ From Hell
EXTENSIVELY ILLUSTRATED
Growing up an autistic loner Thomas Campbell’s schooldays were a living nightmare of bullying and abuse that saw him in psychiatric care by age 8.
The target of entire classrooms, he developed a lifelong hatred of all things educational. This hatred – the shared thinking of the school shooter – has gifted him with a unique insight into the slaughter we are witnessing in our schools now.
For the first time a book is written from the perspective of the classroom avenger, one that explores their distorted thinking and reveals the ‘socially acceptable’ evils that provoke such a lethal response.
‘In this angry, tender, and extraordinary work, Thomas Campbell writes with fierce immediacy from the cultural ultra-violet of the Asperger spectrum, allowing us a crucial glimpse into the emotional gulag to which we thoughtlessly sentence thousands daily, and perhaps moderating our disingenuous surprise when another awkward loner takes an assault rifle to class for Show and Tell. Written with a lucid honesty, unafraid of its own unavoidable subjectivity. Comics and Columbine is the slap in the face that we badly needed and deserved, delivered in a clear and ringing voice from the white-hot heart of the experience. It is a voice that we ignore to our considerable loss, and at our considerable peril. Campbell has written what in my opinion is a beautiful narrative about an irredeemably ugly subject. I really cannot recommend this vital and necessary book too strongly.’
-Alan Moore, Author of Watchmen/V for Vendetta/ From Hell
EXTENSIVELY ILLUSTRATED
326 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 20, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 16, 2019
How many times do we hear in the aftermath of the latest school shooting the shooter described as an antisocial loner with mental health problems? How often do we hear how the shooter was bullied and ostracized by his peers? How many times before society wakes up to the reality of the situation and be proactive, and start looking to prevent these tragedies from happening? Is it easier to just wait until it happens in order to take the easy way out and recognize a villain?
In Tom Campbell's frankly astonishing work, we finally get an origin story of sorts that gives us an insight into such a mind at work and what do we find? Hateful at times, yes. Angry throughout, yes. But these emotions are only the tip of the iceberg that make the news. In addition to these emotions and thoughts, - no, beyond them - we discover the sensitivity and true depth of feeling and realize how it can be warped and weaponized by the natural tendency of society to point cruelty at the outsider. Tom Campbell is literally the school shooter that did not shoot, and for that we have a chance to listen. We have a moral duty and obligation to listen, because preventative measures are not being taken. Kids are being victimized and bullied in every school in the world, and in the US where guns are so easy to get, a bad situation frequently takes a tragic turn.
This is a book for every parent whose child is a bully or a victim, for every school official that sees everything and does nothing, for everyone who's watched the news unfold regarding the latest school shooting and ONLY thought of it in the most black and white child-as-villain terms. I'm not saying that we need to give our sympathy to the shooters because of their childhoods. They're rightly villified because they made the absolute wrong choice, but how many people ever wonder why? How many people even care? We need to START caring about what causes this and then look to prevent it from happening again. This book, stunningly open and forthright, and not sugar-coated in any way, is a hard book to read because not only does it give insight into the kind of tortured mind that so often snaps, it also shines the harsh light of reality on those of us who choose to do nothing about it.
If you're a parent, if you're a teacher, if you're a victim, if you're a bully who has enough self-awareness to realize what you're doing is not right, this book is required reading.
In Tom Campbell's frankly astonishing work, we finally get an origin story of sorts that gives us an insight into such a mind at work and what do we find? Hateful at times, yes. Angry throughout, yes. But these emotions are only the tip of the iceberg that make the news. In addition to these emotions and thoughts, - no, beyond them - we discover the sensitivity and true depth of feeling and realize how it can be warped and weaponized by the natural tendency of society to point cruelty at the outsider. Tom Campbell is literally the school shooter that did not shoot, and for that we have a chance to listen. We have a moral duty and obligation to listen, because preventative measures are not being taken. Kids are being victimized and bullied in every school in the world, and in the US where guns are so easy to get, a bad situation frequently takes a tragic turn.
This is a book for every parent whose child is a bully or a victim, for every school official that sees everything and does nothing, for everyone who's watched the news unfold regarding the latest school shooting and ONLY thought of it in the most black and white child-as-villain terms. I'm not saying that we need to give our sympathy to the shooters because of their childhoods. They're rightly villified because they made the absolute wrong choice, but how many people ever wonder why? How many people even care? We need to START caring about what causes this and then look to prevent it from happening again. This book, stunningly open and forthright, and not sugar-coated in any way, is a hard book to read because not only does it give insight into the kind of tortured mind that so often snaps, it also shines the harsh light of reality on those of us who choose to do nothing about it.
If you're a parent, if you're a teacher, if you're a victim, if you're a bully who has enough self-awareness to realize what you're doing is not right, this book is required reading.
February 13, 2021
Heartbreaking, provocative, intense and relatable.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews