What It's Like To Go Back To Rikers
Narratively and the Vera Institute of Justice recently published a story in comic book form, about a man named Patrick Burke (at the subject’s request, his name was changed). Twenty years ago he was sent to Rikers to await trial. The process of waiting and the trial itself left him at Rikers for eighteen months. Eventually he was sentenced to Attica where he spent 20 years. The comic strip tells the story of how he went back to Rikers to visit his son. The Huffington Post interviewed the editor Brendan Spiegel and the writer W.M. Akers, as well as the illustrator Josh Kramer, to learn about how the story came together.
Why use the comic form?
Spiegel: We publish a lot of comics journalism on Narratively. Sometimes it feels like the right medium for a piece. When Patrick started telling his story and how his experience and his son’s experience were so similar we thought about how we could let readers see how the story repeats itself. Comics allow us to see the past and the present at the same time. The comic form is also a good solution for helping Patrick stay anonymous.
Patrick’s story was epic. A couple of decades in prison, three kids, a wife, and then his son ending up at Rikers. What was the process like to edit his story down to a comic book script?
Akers: Because the Vera Institute project has this focus on jails, it helped inform how I should structure the story. It wasn't necessarily the angle I would have taken. l usually write narrative nonfiction. But for this piece I only used his words. It was closer to what you’d do with a documentary film. You have your subject's words and you rearrange them to tell the story as clearly as possible. It was all about taking his powerful words and editing them to maintain his voice.
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