The stories of 30 self-made places around the world: Tired of your country's bad politics? Feeling powerless to change things? Start your own utopia instead! This nonfiction graphic novel collects the stories of 30 self-made places around the world built with a dream of utopia, whether a safe haven, an inspiring structure, or a better-run country. These are the empowering and eccentric visions of creators who struck out against the laws of their homelands, the approval of their peers, and even nature itself to reshape the world around them. Travel around the globe, from the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands to the Indian rock garden of Nek Chand, the micronation of Sealand to the pirate-founded, anti-slavery community of Libertatia. Organized into 5 chapters: intentional communities, micronations, failed utopias, visionary environments, and strange dreams. Fans of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis and Bryan Caplan's Open Borders will love the graphic novel This Land is My Land. The hope that tomorrow will be better than today is shared universally and depicted through the stories of people who were dissatisfied with the status quo, so they chose to build something better.
Authors
Andy Warner creates nonfiction comics. He is the author of Pets & Pests, This Land is My Land, Spring Rain, and the NY Times Best Selling Brief Histories of Everyday Objects. His books have been translated into Russian, Chinese, Korean, French and Spanish. He is a contributing editor at The Nib and teaches cartooning at Stanford University and The Animation Workshop in Denmark. His work has been published widely, including by Slate, American Public Media, Popular Science, KQED, IDEO.org, The Center for Constitutional Rights, UNHCR, UNRWA, UNICEF, Google X and Buzzfeed. He was a recipient of the 2018 Berkeley Civic Arts Grant and the 2019 and 2021 Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park Artist-in-Residency. He works in a garret room in South Berkeley and comes from the sea.
