Where: Lazarides Gallery, Greek Street, London
When: 6th – 28th November 2009 (Tues-Fri, 11am-7pm, Sat 12pm-5pm)

Ctrl.Alt.Shift, a youth charity aiming to bring social justice to public attention via digital and contemporary media, are launching a month-long Soho exhibition and accompanying comic book anthology promoting sequential art as a channel for political activation.

The exposing of injustice through the comic medium is nothing new, even if there’s always been a shortage of artists who genuinely have something to say. Joe Sacco’s Palestine has as much oomph as the finest documentaries – fans of Sacco should check out Ctrl.Alt.Shift’s excellent interview with him here – while Bryan Talbot’s A Tale of One Bad Rat drove home the lasting effects of child abuse. These artists and more will be featured at the show, including Dave McKean, Pat Mills, Peter Kuper, Dan Goldman and the winner of a related competition earlier this year. The exhibition will also include a collection of vintage superhero awareness specials that were popular in the 70s and 80s, such as Heroes against Hunger, in which Superman confronts the famine in Ethiopia.

Part of the 2009 Comic Festival (www.comicafestival.com), Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption will also be several intriguing workshops at the ICA, details of which can be found at www.ctrlaltshift.co.uk/collaboration/comica.

As previously mentioned, if you can’t make the exhibition there will also be an opportunity to buy the Ctrl.Alt.Shift Unmasks Corruption anthology, which will sell for a mere £4.99 in comic stores, and profits from the 5,000 copies printed will go to the charity. The Lazarides Gallery will also be selling limited edition screen prints of the original artwork.

And finally, here’s a sample from Sacco’s Palestine, followed by the first part in Daniel Merlin Goodbrey’s on-line strangeness Empire of Odd (www.e-merl.com):

Other contributing artists include:
Aleksandar Zograf
Alex Smith
Ben Dickson and Warren Pleece
Cole Johnson
Daniel Merlin Goodbrey
Dave McKean
Dylan Horrocks
Ferry Gouw
Floodworks (Ethan Ede / Adam Rosenlund)
Fredrik Stromberg and Jan Bielecki
Gianluca Costantini and Elettra Stamboulis
Jason Masters
Josue Menjivar
Lee O’Connor and Pat Mills
Lightspeed Champion
Patrick Dean
Paul O’Connell and Marcus Bleasdale
Sean Michael Wilson and Michiru Morikawa
Vishwajyoti Ghosh
VV Brown, David Allain and Emma Price
Woodrow Phoenix and Adele Austin