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Friday, October 20, 2017

Graphic novelist Brian Fies: account of losing his home to recent CA wildfires

I'd like to thank Mike Archer for introducing me to Brian Fies through his October 19th (2017) edition of Wildfire News of the Day. I was intrigued by his description of Fies' work:
In an 18-page web comic titled "A Fire Story", a graphic artist who lost is home in Santa Rosa's Tubbs Fire tried to capture how 50 mph wids turned that blaze into a 'napalm tsunami.'
Archer then linked to a CNN story focusing on award winning graphic artist Brian Fies account of losing his Santa Rosa house to the Tubbs Fire (as I write this on October 20th, 36,432 acres burned at 93 percent containment), you may find the October 18th CNN story on Fies' 18-page web-comic account of losing his house here. Here is an excerpt from the CNN story:
Brian Fies sat down with some Sharpies and some paper to process his pain the way he knows best. 
He began to draw. 
The result is "A Fire Story," an 18-page web comic that recounts the heart-wrenching devastation the California wildfires has wrought.
It details how 50 mph winds turned the Tubbs Fire into a "napalm tsunami." How the blaze devoured his family's home in Santa Rosa, leaving it a heap of burned ash. How all that's left for survivors like him is to inventory prized possessions they'll never see again.
I have no first hand experience in anything that comes close to the experience of losing a house to a wildfire or other natural disaster. Fies is one of thousands who have lost their homes and/or businesses to the recent California wildfires. Perhaps his story is similar to those elsewhere who have lost homes and or businesses to wildfires whether it be this year or in years past.

So I went to Brian's blog and read his web-comic. A Fire Story, where he writes and draws about his family's experiences. First the evacuation, then going back to find that his house is gone, and then the aftermath. Brian Fies' web-comic  account of losing his house to the Tubbs Fire may be found on his October 15th blog entry. Here is an excerpt from Brian's October 15th blog:
It's a first-person report from the front line. They're not always pretty. 
Page 9 has some profanity. Actually, it has nothing but profanity. Sorry. I wrestled with that, but that's exactly the way it happened and I am an honest reporter.
Thank-you Brian for this first person account, and sometimes painful account, of losing your home with us. Words escape me. I wish you and the other families who have lost their homes Godspeed in the coming weeks, months, and years.





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