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The Nib #13
The Nib #13
In this issue: terrible bosses, strikebreaking, freelance gigs, working moms
116 pages, ebook
Published August 31, 2022
27 people want to read
About the author
Matt Bors
59 books58 followersMatt Bors is a cartoonist, writer, editor, and the founder of The Nib. He was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist for his political cartoons in 2012 and 2020 and is the co-writer of the dystopian satire Justice Warriors with Ben Clarkson.
His cartoons have appeared in The Nation, The Guardian, CNN, The Intercept, and were collected in the book We Should Improve Society Somewhat. He also drew the graphic novel War Is Boring written by David Axe.
His cartoons have appeared in The Nation, The Guardian, CNN, The Intercept, and were collected in the book We Should Improve Society Somewhat. He also drew the graphic novel War Is Boring written by David Axe.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 10, 2022
One of my fav issues to date. Full of notable history, stats, & interesting stories on many aspects of work.
January 3, 2023
This is the first Nib I've checked out.
Definitely mixed feelings.
I love "serious" comics when I can find them. I love unserious, nerdy comics too, but I get to enjoy comics AND feel smart when I read the serious ones.
I like the idea behind The Nib, and this "Work" issue in particular.
The execution, the actual content, is 50/50.
The longer pieces are quite good. There's a really interesting bit on service/work dogs. There's a good read on the Pinkertons. A good piece on the many benefits of shorter work weeks, another on work and disability, another on the history of "company towns." And a great bit on childcare and working families.
And most of the stats and trivia thrown in are interesting.
The shorter pieces, however, are pretty awful.
Consistently bad.
All the theory and actual knowledge in the long pieces is good. But then the short pieces, the little personal stories that seem to be intended to show how that all plays out in real life, are just bad. They come across not as examples of worker exploitation, but as whining.
That's harsh. I wish I could think of a better word for it.
My own experiences make me both more sympathetic to and more annoyed with work and poverty issues.
I grew up very poor and spent the first decade of my adult life poor. I know how hard it can be and how forces can conspire against you to keep you down; I also know that personal choices can often play a role. I have worked in vocational services for years, helping people with disabilities and histories of addiction and mental health issues find good employment. I spent most of that time in management. I know how horribly workers can be treated, but I also know that many employees just suck, and that even the best employers can't make miserable workers happy.
The stories here do not strike me as examples of the truly exploited worker. We've got the nurse who is very sure he knows more than any of the mean old doctors, the furry porn writer who resents not being taken seriously or having porn blocked from certain sites, the guy who thinks he's rebelling against the system by doing a shitty job at work and getting fired when he spends his time getting drunk and not showing up for the job, and so on.
Unimpressive. Uninspiring. Not the best way to illustrate the real exploitation and generally lousy treatment of so many workers.
Drop the little vignettes and this is a good book.
Keep the vignettes and it is "meh."
Definitely mixed feelings.
I love "serious" comics when I can find them. I love unserious, nerdy comics too, but I get to enjoy comics AND feel smart when I read the serious ones.
I like the idea behind The Nib, and this "Work" issue in particular.
The execution, the actual content, is 50/50.
The longer pieces are quite good. There's a really interesting bit on service/work dogs. There's a good read on the Pinkertons. A good piece on the many benefits of shorter work weeks, another on work and disability, another on the history of "company towns." And a great bit on childcare and working families.
And most of the stats and trivia thrown in are interesting.
The shorter pieces, however, are pretty awful.
Consistently bad.
All the theory and actual knowledge in the long pieces is good. But then the short pieces, the little personal stories that seem to be intended to show how that all plays out in real life, are just bad. They come across not as examples of worker exploitation, but as whining.
That's harsh. I wish I could think of a better word for it.
My own experiences make me both more sympathetic to and more annoyed with work and poverty issues.
I grew up very poor and spent the first decade of my adult life poor. I know how hard it can be and how forces can conspire against you to keep you down; I also know that personal choices can often play a role. I have worked in vocational services for years, helping people with disabilities and histories of addiction and mental health issues find good employment. I spent most of that time in management. I know how horribly workers can be treated, but I also know that many employees just suck, and that even the best employers can't make miserable workers happy.
The stories here do not strike me as examples of the truly exploited worker. We've got the nurse who is very sure he knows more than any of the mean old doctors, the furry porn writer who resents not being taken seriously or having porn blocked from certain sites, the guy who thinks he's rebelling against the system by doing a shitty job at work and getting fired when he spends his time getting drunk and not showing up for the job, and so on.
Unimpressive. Uninspiring. Not the best way to illustrate the real exploitation and generally lousy treatment of so many workers.
Drop the little vignettes and this is a good book.
Keep the vignettes and it is "meh."
January 16, 2023
I should've read this for work, not pleaure.
April 23, 2023
Another good Nib issue, this time focused on Work. By the time I read the hard copy I had read most of the individual comics online but it was still good to read anew.
June 20, 2023
The Nib is great
December 24, 2023
I will miss the Nib!
January 2, 2024
finally making my way through these, RIP The Nib!
loved this edition, we should all be eating fruit and bartering for goods
loved this edition, we should all be eating fruit and bartering for goods
March 6, 2024
Very good issue, the nature of the theme means that the pieces naturally hit pretty hard. Workers of the world unite.
March 6, 2023
*3.5, rounded up
Earlier this month, I convinced myself I had to cancel my subscription to The Nib. I hadn’t touched the past two issues, and I wanted to start budgeting more seriously. However, the day I was planning on cancelling, this issue arrived in the mail.
While I didn’t immediately start reading the issue (sometimes the detailed and different graphics can be overwhelming for my eyes), I finally managed to pick it up and start reading. My favorite works from this issue are “Working Like a Dog” by Yifan Luo and “I Draw Horny Furries for a Living” by Em Hoover.
The Nib never shies away from engaging in Black and queer temporalities, which is probably one of the main reasons I still subscribe. However, this issue felt lacking in terms of representation of Black, and in general non-white, women and their role in the labor movement. There were also very few global perspectives this issue. Besides the wonderful strips by Gerardo Alba and Yanan Hicham, few comics this issue encompass a worldly view beyond the typical Nordic countries that are seen as most progressive in terms of workers policy. While I don’t disagree that a 32-hour work week, comprehensive maternal health packages, and subsidized childcare should be what we strive for, this issue is very western and white focused, lacking in any stories that focus on prominent Black labor leaders in our country, and international labor exploitations (such as in the garment industry) that disproportionately impact non-white people around the world.
Despite these fallbacks, I still enjoyed this issue. Amazon’s surveillance state, histories of company towns, and reproductive labor are all issues that when discussing labor I can never shut up about. The different approaches to how artists think about work was also fascinating, and as per usual, the illustrations were amazing.
To keep my subscription to The Nib is to hope for improvement, and also cherish the platform it gives to artists. The Nib is a reminder of the sacredness of comics and graphics in storytelling. I am happy to keep subscribing.
Earlier this month, I convinced myself I had to cancel my subscription to The Nib. I hadn’t touched the past two issues, and I wanted to start budgeting more seriously. However, the day I was planning on cancelling, this issue arrived in the mail.
While I didn’t immediately start reading the issue (sometimes the detailed and different graphics can be overwhelming for my eyes), I finally managed to pick it up and start reading. My favorite works from this issue are “Working Like a Dog” by Yifan Luo and “I Draw Horny Furries for a Living” by Em Hoover.
The Nib never shies away from engaging in Black and queer temporalities, which is probably one of the main reasons I still subscribe. However, this issue felt lacking in terms of representation of Black, and in general non-white, women and their role in the labor movement. There were also very few global perspectives this issue. Besides the wonderful strips by Gerardo Alba and Yanan Hicham, few comics this issue encompass a worldly view beyond the typical Nordic countries that are seen as most progressive in terms of workers policy. While I don’t disagree that a 32-hour work week, comprehensive maternal health packages, and subsidized childcare should be what we strive for, this issue is very western and white focused, lacking in any stories that focus on prominent Black labor leaders in our country, and international labor exploitations (such as in the garment industry) that disproportionately impact non-white people around the world.
Despite these fallbacks, I still enjoyed this issue. Amazon’s surveillance state, histories of company towns, and reproductive labor are all issues that when discussing labor I can never shut up about. The different approaches to how artists think about work was also fascinating, and as per usual, the illustrations were amazing.
To keep my subscription to The Nib is to hope for improvement, and also cherish the platform it gives to artists. The Nib is a reminder of the sacredness of comics and graphics in storytelling. I am happy to keep subscribing.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews