Jubilee Park-ers Know How To Get Readers’ Attention: With An Action-Packed Comic Strip!
By Daniel Rodrigue – When Patrick checked in with the Jubilee Park residents last week, we reported that just because the Dallas Independent School District had called for a "time-out" of sorts while it looks at other possible alternative sites for a new site for O.M. Roberts Elementary, one group of home- and business-owners isn't going to stop opposing the district's attempt at using eminent domain to grab their land. If DISD thought that these folks would quiet down and lose momentum after the district willingly put a six-month kibosh on the condemnation proceedings, well, no such luck.
When they protested outside of DISD's Ross Avenue HQ last Thursday evening, the group was armed with a slew of new material to help with their protests, including a banner, a flag and matching purple anti-"land-grab" T-shirts. And this morning, Norma Hernandez, who has been fighting to save the home where her parents Rolando and Angie Lozano have lived since 1972, sent along as two-page comic illustrated by Jake Ewing of Awesome Comics, who we've been unable to reach all day. (Hernandez says in her e-mail that she colored the panels herself over the weekend.)
The comic paints DISD as an agenda-driven "The Municipal Monster" hell-bent on demolishing Vickery Wholesale Greenhouse and the residents' homes. The comic's message doesn't deviate from what the residents and Vickery have been saying since day one. And, after the DISD monster demolishes their properties, the final panel asks: "What will happen to the good people of Jubilee Park if this horrible story becomes a reality?!"
The comic then provides a phone number for District 9 school board trustee Bernadette Nutall. The Jubilee Park-ers plans on passing the comics out to, well, "everyone" as it seeks to bolster support for their cause.
And what will the group add to its arsenal of ammo next? Well, according to Hernandez, the group's putting together some sort of viral video.