Pia Guerra

Pia Jasmin Guerra is an American-born Canadian comic book artist and editorial cartoonist.

Greetings From The Wasteland by The Nib (2020)

 * I didn't start out wanting to be an editorial cartoonist. I loved drawing from the moment I learned how to make a crayon work. I'd tell picture stories with my mom years before I learned how to read. When I was 10, a visiting cousin left an X-Men comic on the coffee table and I was instantly hooked, and it wasn't long before I was drawing my own superhero adventures. It just seemed like a natural path for me. I would be a comic book artist someday and I'd be pretty happy.


 * I work with the TV on, lots of news, and as the 2016 campaign got more ridiculous I got more angry. I started venting my frustrations at all these eroding norms by drawing cartoons of Trump and then posting them online for friends. The responses were very positive and almost seemed like group therapy for those who shared them. People got a laugh out of it; they felt better, even. After the shock of the election I just kept going, and then suddenly it was January and my sister and I were at the Women's March in Washington D.C. holding signs made from one of my cartoons. The positive feedback was coming every few yards and I made a decision right there to make this a project-I would draw these cartoons until this guy was out of office because there's no way I can't not do it. When someone in the future asks me what I did during all this craziness I'd have this to show them. I did this.


 * And it's not just getting the anger out of my head (and sleeping very well having done so, thank you very much) but letting others know that they're not alone in feeling this way, that their anger matters and that things can change for the better if we remind ourselves there's more of us than all those who accept this normalized cruelty. I used what I had, my ability to draw, as a tool to speak up. I didn't plan to, I just figured out how. Anyone can do the same, just figure out what your tools are and get loud. And if you can piss off a few bullies in the process, even better.