By: Graham Millar, Art Editor
Police brutality is nothing new in America; however, the disparity between interest in public welfare and reckless expenditure in the name of domestic “defense” has never been more apparent than the summer of 2020. A public health crisis rocked the nation’s understaffed and underfunded hospitals while police forces across the country opened fire on Black Lives Matter protestors with shiny, new “non-lethal” weapons. State College residents participated in a handful of protests organized by the 3/20 Coalition in support of the concurrent protests and in response to the death of Osaze Osagie at the hands of State College Police in March of 2019, and there was, fortunately, no violent police response to these protests. But that does not exclude State College, or more specifically, Penn State, from the institutional violence displayed by American police. These instances supply the exigence for Penn State and the War Machine, a protest zine written by English Department post-docs, doctors Max Larsen and John Schneider, with illustrations by Penn State English PhD student Dillon Rockrohr.
“Penn State & The War Machine” Cover illustration by Dillon Rockrohr
Protest zines became popular during the Cold War with the advent of photocopying and the ever-looming threat of nuclear warfare on the horizon. Zines are fringe culture projects that intertwine the disciplines of collage, comic illustration and gonzo-journalism. Comic book writer Grant Morrison even cites them as equally influential to his work as the comics he read as a child.
Excerpt from “Flex Mentallo” by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, examining the comparison of anti-bomb zines and comic books.
Penn State and the War Machine is a condemnation of the university’s economic interest in the development of non-lethal weaponry deployed domestically and abroad and Penn State’s controversial relationship with arms dealers and the U.S. Military. The cover of the pamphlet depicts a caricature of President Barron in uniform, riding on a Raytheon missile, like the finale of Doctor Strangelove. The allusion to the Stanley Kubrick’s tale of bureaucratic incompetence cannot be ignored, especially in light of the university’s tumultuous handling of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The first page of the pamphlet is designed to mimic that of a patent file. It evokes the industrial commitment that Penn State has made to America’s defense department. The following page is an illustration of the Nittany Lion introducing the readers to the topic of the zine.
This introduction establishes the idea that the following information should be revealed to students at orientation as it is largely a secret. Blocks of text by Larsen and Schneider lay out the findings of the investigation, and they will be expanded upon as the zine continues. Their thesis is simple: Penn State is morally culpable for the violence that is shown in their research. Larsen and Schneider provide budget figures detailing the discrepancy between Naval research programs and programs outside of military interest and how that influences the projects Penn State supports. Collaged elements of old Collegian articles exhibit the “open secret” of Penn State’s history with the defense department.
This has been an ongoing stain on Penn State’s name since the late 1940’s. The inclusion of the headlines detailing former protests seem to be a call to…well, not arms, but retributive action for students, as it displays the concern students used to exhibit about the university’s involvement with defense contractors. While the 1972 protests fed off of the fear generated by America’s contributions to the Cold War, “Penn State & the War Machine” draws attention to the university’s recent involvement with the development of “non-lethal” arms such as those used by domestic police (for example, pepper spray spiked with depressants and a “puke ray”).
A few pages of comic illustration establish Penn State’s connection to the deployment of non-lethal weapons on domestic protestors. The zine ends with the poem “American Football” by Harold Pinter, calling to mind Penn State’s willingness to ignore consequences of their most profitable endeavors, be it the deaths at the hands of torpedoes designed by Penn State employees or the crimes committed by their former assistant football coach.
Graham Millar is an English Major at Penn State and an aspiring cartoonist. Some would say that Graham draws comics in his free time, but Graham doesn’t consider that his free time—it’s his vocation. He completed his first mini-comic, ‘Mozzarella; Rumble in the Jungle’ last February. Graham has a vested interest in professional publishing. Graham believes a book can function as an art object, and not just a nice story. Fortunately, Graham also has an appreciation for arts that aren’t printed on pulp-paper.
published 4-15-21