The artist Ben Chastney says that he has “been writing a set of short stories, cartoon strip like in nature, which hopefully illustrate some injustices our members sadly often face.” The first episode of ‘Molly’s adventures with Travellers’, is on the Leeds Gate website now.
In the blog post launching the comic Ben says “Most simply, I wanted to approach this issue, of inequality and discrimination, differently. We quite rightly present information, using facts, figures, hard case studies and research to draw attention to various inequities and unfairness experienced by Gypsies and Travellers. However, on occasion there is merit to taking a different approach, with a different tone and format. Not only does sometimes help attract a different audience, or get the same audience to think about the same issue slightly differently, but it can simply represent a little light relief.
It can be challenging to see, read and talk about unfairness or discrimination all the time. It is naturally harder still for our members who have to live and experience this directly. Instead of ignoring the subject, I have rather wanted to poke fun at some of the misunderstanding, hypocrisy or simply thoughtlessness which lies behind much discrimination. This approach hopefully addresses these serious issues but does so in a lighter fashion.”
