- Courtesy Illustrated Press
Since 2011, local collective Illustrated Press has given the comic format more immediacy with its graphic journalism. (The 2013 Reader cover story “How to Survive a Shooting” won the Association of Alternative Newsmedia’s format-buster award earlier this year.) Comprised of DNAinfo reporter Darryl Holliday and illustrators Erik Rodriguez and Jamie Hibdon, the Illustrated Press’s latest venture, a second full-length book entitled Kedzie Avenue, takes readers up and down that Chicago street, retelling stories and analyzing the diverse communities that surround the thoroughfare as it cuts through the north, south, and west sides.
Overall, Holliday says the book will visit 15 different neighborhoods and highlight dozens of stories from Chicagoans across the city. The ultimate goal of Kedzie Avenue is journalistic to its core: to bring stories from the community to the community. “From the beginning, a lot of our work has had to do with going into these communities and bringing the story back to them as opposed to just taking the stories and never interacting again or never really showing up or not keeping in touch,” said Holliday. “It’s about how we bring the stories back around to the community in the ways that actually inform them of what’s going on.”
