Drawing Power
Eisner Award Winner and NY Times' Best Comics of 2019 - Inspired by the global #MeToo Movement, Drawing Power: Women’s Stories of Sexual Violence, Harassment, and Survival is a collection of original, nonfiction comics drawn by more than 60 female cartoonists from around the world. Comprised of a diverse group of many ages, sexual orientations, and races—and personal stories convey the wide spectrum of sexual harassment and abuse that is still all too commonplace. With a percentage of profits going to RAINN, Drawing Power is an anthology that stokes the fires of progressive social upheaval, in the fight for a better, safer world.
My piece is an 8 page short story that looks at how the taboo nature of sexual abuse can affect a child within the context of a conservative south asian family network.
I am also front cover artist for this book.
I've recieved positive responses for my contribution to the book;
Publisher's Weekly
"Sabba Khan, uses deceptively soft colors and linework to portray the isolation and despair assault imposes upon women"
The Conversation.com
"In Borders Broken, Edges Blurred, Sabba Khan tells an extraordinarily powerful story about child sex abuse, rendering a maelstrom of experience in delicately drawn panels that are almost whimsically washed in pastel pink and blue.
In one panel, Khan draws a map of a doll’s house-like home, tucked inside an intricately drawn neighbourhood, where “a little one, not yet a teenager” is sexually assaulted in the midst of a family gathering.
It is soon apparent the child’s parents are more worried about the shame that may be brought on the family than concerned for their child.
“But how can this be? We are family! Family does not do these things,” they say. “How will we show our faces in our circles?”
In panel after panel, shattered bricks follow the lonely figure of the child, piling up to form a wall. Inexorably the wall becomes a silo and then a pit. “A hell. A hole.”
“I’ll stay quiet,” says the child. “I won’t tell anyone.”
My full piece is available to view as part of the free online preview:
Borders Broken, Edges Blurred Online Preview