US National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden is to transcend the worlds of news and fan fiction now that a new comic strip series is to focus on a fictional version of his life.
To be titled Beyond Edward Snowden, the comic series is to be published by Bluewater Productions with Valerie D’Orazio having pitched the idea. She is also the series’ author.
When speaking to Business Insider, D’Orazio admitted that when she was originally coming up with the concept, she had wanted to do a totally non-fiction telling of the events leading up to Snowden leaking NSA documents, revelations of cyberspying by the US government, and the subsequent manhunt for his arrest.
However, after looking into it further, she decided to tweak the truth slightly and create a story around the years following up to his decision to leak, going as far back as when he was 19 as a dropout from high school and working in a local comic book store.
D’Orazio added that Snowden was the perfect example to link too seemingly different mediums in current affairs and comic books and claimed “Snowden was perfect for this since he came from geek culture himself.”
She later went on to say about the thinking behind the series: “I came to the conclusion that what Snowden revealed was very important for the public to know.
“Having said that, I’m still unsure of his case and there’s a lot of questions to answer, like what he’s been doing with his time in Russia.”
The first comic is to become available online from tomorrow, 21 May, in both digital and print format.
