Dead Meat

by Sue Coe, Alexander Cockburn (Introduction)

A nationally prominent, politically oriented artist offers an unsparingly critical view of the meat industry in scores of illustrations, documenting the skewing, flaying, dismembering, castrating, debeaking, electrocuting, and decapitating of animals.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Food, Graphic Novels, Art, Comics

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 23, 1996

About the author

Sue Coe grew up next to a slaughterhouse in Liverpool. She studied at the Royal College of Art in London and left for New York in 1972. Early in her career, she was featured in almost every issue of Art Spiegelman’s groundbreaking magazine Raw, and has since contributed illustrations to the New York Times, the New Yorker, The Nation, Entertainment Weekly, Time, Details, The Village Voice, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Esquire and Mother Jones, among other publications. Her previous books include Dead Meat (winner of the 1991 Genesis Award) and Cruel. Among her many awards are the Dickinson College Arts Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art, and a National Academy of Arts Award (2009).

Reviews

[Peacegal · Rating 5 out of 5]

With haunting charcoal sketches, Sue Coe gives readers a disquieting visual account of her visits to numerous slaughterhouses. Sparse written accounts accompany the pictures, with evocative asides such as what happens to “surplus” chickens: They’re live-fed into a macerator and spread on nearby fields. Those walking through the fields can occasionally find horribly wounded, but still living, chicks.

This is not an uplifting book or a happy book. But works like this are needed, if only to remind of us the everyday ceaseless horror that occurs all around us.

[Karie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sue Coes is a lovely lady who is passionate about animal rights. I can say this because I was lucky enough to attend one of her lectures and get an autograph from her when I lived in Memphole. While I normally shy away from this issue in the arena of art and politics, Coe somhow manages to gets it right. Her drawings connect our food back to its source and show the darker side of commercial farms, ecologically, economically, socially and ethically.

[Lisa Vegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly disturbing and moving book by a writer and artist which contains her artwork and diaries she created when following the lives & fate of farmed animals around the U.S. Very graphic pictures and descriptions. Very sad and infuriating. Not for those who want to be in denial about where their animal based foods come from.

[Josie Varela · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book illustrates the hidden and well ignored world of mass animal slaughter in the U.S. The author, Sue Coe, dives deep into this world hidden from common awareness at great cost to her own well-being. The reality of commercial goats, horses, pigs, chickens, and the hired human help compile a nightmarish world that treats precious life as disposable objects. Though this book is very hard to get through because of the insane reality of mass slaughter, it is our human responsibility to see and understand exactly how we get the food in our fridges and on our dinner plates. It is our human responsibility to see and FEEL the true costs of our societal habits.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seeing Sue Coe's exhibition of these haunting and troubling artworks in Santa Monica, California (in 1991 or 1992?) finally compelled me to become a vegetarian. Just over a decade later I had the pleasure of meeting the artist when she visited St. Lawrence University (and on the spot drew a picture of a cat and a horse for me!). She's a strong personality, hilarious, and a brilliant artist.

[Mia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sue Coe speaks for the millions of murdered and tortured animals in her photobook. It is with all my heart that I recommend this book to everyone. If people were aware of what's going on, would they finally make a change?

[Jishnu Guha · Rating 4 out of 5]

:(

[Robin Ramone · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a reason why slaughter houses do not have glass walls. This book is the glass wall into the initial process of how animals end up on our plates. Dead Meat brings to the surface just how detached we are as a society when it comes to our food. It exposes heinous truths that will stay in the readers conscious for days, weeks, maybe permanently. There are no photographs in this books but the author's sketches tell the whole story.

I highly recommend this book to everyone - people who care about the environment, people who do not want to remain ignorant about how their food arrived at the grocery store, animal lovers, struggling vegetarians, and everyone who didn't fit into any of these categories. A shift needs to take place in western civilization. I am not on an anti-meat crusade but I believe we should stop being so ignorant about the meat and dairy industry. Our nonchalant attitudes are killing this planet and supporting vile and cruel industries.

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not necessarily a joy to read due to the subject matter -- an exposé of the slaughter industry. Honestly, I'm a fan of her work and methodology. I saw her speak soon after this was first printed at an art workshop (she was teaching drawing). She's hilarious and approachable, but she had half the crowd weeping by the end. She signed a copy to my wife and drew a little pig. I recently started following her feed on a social network; she's still fighting the good fight and making incredible art.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

The artist traveled around the country visiting slaughterhouses and stockyards. Her paintings and drawings convey a misery few photographs can capture and depict a system that is beyond our most frightening nightmares. In this book, animals and humans are the victims and she brings an empathy and compassion that every person can relate to.

[Sandra Bassett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not for the light hearted. Coe convinces a slaughterhouse to allow her in but they won't allow photos so she draws what she sees. She draws the pain and suffering and lends an artistic rendition to the soul of an animal.

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a major influence on my early thinking about the politics of food and the overlap between animal rights and human subjugation. The illustrations and the writing are awesome.

[Corrie Greening · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you can get a hold of this hard to find book, be ready to not each meat for a spell. this author and her art is completely honest and grotesque and beautiful.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't remember what class I read this for, but it was a visceral and eye-opening look at the slaughter industry.

[Jayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some really amazing drawings in this book, and it's really awesome to me how the author uses her art skills to raise awareness.

[Carol Dimond · Rating 5 out of 5]

almost made me think about wanting to be a vegetarian!!

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

predictable.

[Kim Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome.