Graphic Novel Illustrates Tragic Somali Olympian's Untimely Demise Adrift In Mediterranean Sea

During recent Los Angeles travels, I stumbled in to Meltdown Comics on Sunset Boulevard in search of a new five-ringed graphic novel, "An Olympic Dream: The Story of Samia Yusuf Omar" by Reinhard Kleist.

The store did not yet have this title in stock, but thanks to a review copy from the publishing house, Self Made Hero, and its domestic distributor, Abrams, I did get to read this recent release on the heels of reviewing "Trashed" by John Backderf.

In about 150 pages, Kleist illustrates the too-short and true life of a Beijing 2008 Olympian who competed in athletics, specifically the 200m sprint. "An Olympic Dream" opens on an upbeat note as Yusuf Omar appears on the small screen in her family's Mogadishu living room with relatives and friends gathered to cheer for Samia.

While the Beijing experience inspires the stadium crowd and Yusuf Omar's new dream to return to the Olympic stage at London 2012, her Somali homecoming quickly evolves into a years-long marathon of increasingly awful challenges including gender and faith bias in her war-torn home town. 

Forced to flee Somalia to find safety with family in Europe, and still clinging to her London Olympic dream, Yusuf Omar embarks on an international journey through Ethiopia, Sudan and Libya in search of sea passage to Italy. One can only imagine how much worse her final weeks must have been before boarding an overloaded watercraft akin to those in use today by Syrian refugees fleeing to Greece. 

Kleist's illustrations in black pen and/or India ink bring to the page a life that is both hopeful and heartbroken. Yusuf Omar's POV is sometimes portrayed through Facebook posts or texts to family anxiously awaiting updates. Readers may almost smell the burning trash or taste the gritty dust kicked up by African winds and warlords clouding Omar's chances for a happier conclusion.

According to the book's Preface by Kleist, the author learned about Omar's fate as much of the world did following London's Games. 

"Thanks to the help of journalist Teresa Krug, who had befriended [Yusuf Omar], I was able to speak personally with [Samia's] sister Hodan Yusuf Omar, who in 2006 had fled to Helsinki," wrote Kleist.

Kleist also mentioned the Olympian's actual Facebook posts provided content and context, though most of the posts in the book are fictionalized except for Yusuf Omar's plea for help while stranded in Tripoli. Krug provides a detailed Afterword for the text as well.

Though "An Olympic Dream" provides the antithesis of a happy ending for five-ringed-hopefuls, the book does provide inspiration and a look at the struggles tens of thousands still face today in Africa and Asia. Kudos to Kleist for shedding more light on this contemporary Olympic story. "An Olympic Dream" will hit Meltdown Comics and bookstores everywhere starting April 12 (pre-sales available here).

Images via SelfMadeHero.com

My Kind of Garbage

Before a career in public relations, Olympic work, college and high school jobs and mowing lawns as a fifth grade entrepreneurial business, my lofty employment goals extended all the way to the corner of our suburban Oklahoma City driveway.

I wanted to be a garbageman.

As a third-grader at home enjoying summer break, on Tuesday and Friday mornings in Edmond, Okla., I leaped out of bed, threw on shorts and a tank top, striped tube socks and Nike shoes, and grabbed some garden gloves to anxiously await the arrival of the city sanitation truck.

And with my mother's permission, for a couple of morning hours I would join the local garbage men in heaving bags of trash into the back of their truck.

Slinging Hefty bags and moving full trash cans -- in those days without wheels and rarely made of lightweight plastic -- is hard, messy work. But it has its perks.

In 1982, soda can recycling was fairly new to Oklahoma, and it was fun to retrieve a few empty Dr. Pepper or Shasta containers for the next trek to the aluminum collection at Wynn's IGA.

One time, a crew member even let me pull the handle to engage the truck's compacting machinery, and he gave me 25 cents -- a whole quarter -- telling me "thanks" and "good job." It was great!

My garbage collection early retirement day arrived July 3, 1982. That morning, I overslept and ran out of the house with tennis shoes sans tube socks.

On the mile-long trash walk from house to house, I earned some major blisters on my sockless heels and toes, forcing cancellation of a highly anticipated decorated bike ride in the July 4 parade. My feet still hurt the following trash day, and after another week my parents and youthful friends (and their parents) talked me away from again joining the brigade of municipal workers collecting refuse.

My garbage collecting summer memories got renewed attention this week while reading an outstanding graphic novel titled "Trashed" by the illustrator/cartoonist John "Derf" Backderf.

Backderf is best known as creator of the weekly cartoon "The City," a dry-humor gem which skewered American suburban culture and politics during its run of nearly 25 years (1990 to 2014). I used to clip and save Derf items from the "City Pages" in Minneapolis and later from alternative weeklies in St. Louis and Atlanta, and wrote about Backderf in early 2009 on this blog.

Raised in an area between Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, Backderf also wrote the book "My Friend Dahmer" about his classmate named Jeffrey (yes, that Jeffrey Dahmer).

Backderf worked as a garbageman just after his high school years, and "Trashed" is a fictional story infusing some of the experiences.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Trashed" for several reasons.

The artistry is excellent, with the story unfolding in long-form panels reminiscent of "The City" and of another outstanding graphic novel, "The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb."

One of the great things about Backderf's drawings is the way he accentuates quirks and idiosyncrasies of the most eccentric characters.

For example, on "Trashed" pages 104-105 readers are introduced to a loathsome landfill manager, and through Backderf's pen and ink you can almost smell the guy sharing inappropriate jokes with the main trash men driving their truck.

Several community members -- folks leaving out their trash at the curb -- get star treatment; I imagine a creative way Backderf got the last word on some of the more difficult personalities he encountered in the field at age 19.

Backderf elected to present "a year in the life" of his protagonist garbage collector in four seasons. I liked how throughout each quarter-year, and in the book's prologue section, Backderf dropped in detailed and recent facts and figures about trash collection across the U.S.A.

This blend of history and by-the-numbers data jumps from the page in beautiful infographic form that reminded me of dizzying numbers on the pages of "The Big Necessity" by Rose George.

Did you know each U.S. citizen is responsible for about 2.89 pounds of trash per day? That's a staggering 1,054 pounds per person per year (!!!), according to one statistic cited by Backderf.

I laughed out loud as several page turns revealed large illustrations (one including a bee-keeper helmet is priceless), the mayor's reactions during a first visit to the Sanitation Department, and punk kids picking on the workers (and the garbagemens' version of revenge).

There are even a few classic comic tricks and tactics used, such as the occasional "POW!" or Backderf's brilliant, musical illustration of a trash truck devouring an upright piano.

A scene featuring roadkill may make some readers squirm even more than the data on diapers disposed by a single family in one year (Hint: garbage collectors deal with a LOT of sh*t!).

Backderf even traces trash collection history back to ancient Crete, in 3,000 B.C., about the same time things were happening to shape sports history in nearby Olympia, Greece.

According to the author's notes, "Trashed" started as a 50-page comic book, and the new paperback version is a quick read with 240 pages.

I highly recommend folks check out Backderf's look at the Olympics of garbage collection in "Trashed."

Just be mindful of the paper waste created when they print receipt!

Cover art via Abrams; all other illustrations from the pages of "Trashed" and the site for "The City" cartoon archive by John Backderf. Playmobil image via Pixabay.