Comics journalism site Cartoon Movement just published a pretty incredible piece about Blackwater’s 2007 massacre of 17 Iraqi civilians. Dan Archer’s interactive comic strip superimposes various perspectives—Blackwater employees, Iraqi civilians, police—over a map and 15-minute timeline of that afternoon, allowing the reader to toggle through viewpoints minute-by-minute. It’s pretty startling how much more impactful a story becomes with even a low level of interactivity—I’d read about the Nisour Square massacre before, but clicking through Archer’s piece generated a level of heart-pounding anxiety that just reading a news story rarely does.
I already know the basics about the massacre. I’m sure this is very well done, and I’m glad Archer created it, but I’m not going to read it. It’ll upset me too much.