Anonymous Iranian dissidents launch online comic about Iranian current events

Gina from kick-ass comics publisher FirstSecond sez,

First Second Books is pleased to announce a new online serial project: Zahra's Paradise, a graphic novel about the social and political situation in today's Iran, will be serialized on line beginning 12:00 a.m., February 19, 2010 and be published in book form in 2011. In the beginning, the serialization will reflect events in Iran's recent past, but in the months to come, as current events unfold in Iran, they will be woven into the story.
Written by Amir, a human rights activist, and illustrated by Khalil, Zahra's Paradise tells the story of an Iranian blogger's search for his brother, Mehdi, a nineteen year old protester who has disappeared in Tehran after the June 2009 unrest. As the blogger and his mother, Zahra Alavi, begin their search for Mehdi, we are drawn into the underbelly of the Islamic Republicâ€"an elaborate labyrinth in which countless dissidents have vanished over the past decades. Although the characters are fictional composites of actual people in Iran, the context and events are real. The project is a roman Ãƒ clef of history as it happens.

Zahra's Paradise (Thanks, Gina!)

(Disclosure: I'm happy to say that FirstSecond will publish a graphic novel based on one of my short stories)

Previously:

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Anonymous

12am in what time zone? IRST?

IRST is UTC+3:30

I will be looking forward to this.
jinxmap

For the ultimate filmed graphic novel about life in Iran, check out Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi’s and Vincent Paronnaud’s animated 2008 coming of age. I can’t imagine that Zahra’s Paradise won’t be informed by this seminal flick.
Nadreck

Not a Charter Member of the Axis of Evil for nothing!
Anonymous

still getting the 404 error on that link. Persepolis is awesome though http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGdJtK8fNW0
Anonymous

Just clicked on the link embedded in the article – already mutated to an Error 404 page, it seems.
efergus3

The title is in English and I imagine they want max coverage.
AlveKatt

http://www.zahrasparadise.com

The 404 is just due to some clumsy linking on behalf of Cory, or possibly the way the BoingBoing website parses URLs.
querent

Sounds awesome. In Farsi?
briolson

SWEEEEEEEET.