In the course of learning about contemporary cattle raiding in Sudan, we found ourselves sifting through a recent edition of the annual Small Arms Survey. It’s an informative publication, no doubt, but also mind-numbingly dense; our eyes glazed over midway through Chapter Three, during the extended exploration of “security enhancement projects.”
Thankfully, the survey’s authors must have realized the dryness of the material. And so they decided to break up the monotony with this eight-page comic booklet (PDF), entitled “Adventures of a Would-Be Arms Dealer.” Highly recommended if you’d like the quick-and-dirty version on how millions of assault rifles make their way across the globe. We especially liked the back-of-the-envelope calculation regarding the profit to be made from selling rifle bullets in Somalia, for 75 cents a piece.
Bobby // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Ha, excellent! After that, you can check out Legofesto for some of the aftereffects.
Brendan I. Koerner // Jul 28, 2009 at 4:39 pm
@Bobby: Oh…oh, my. That 7/16 Sri Lanka entry alone is utterly damning, and utterly brilliant. Thanks for sharing.
Robert Kelly // Aug 2, 2009 at 11:11 am
Well that was interesting. Looking for an alternative line of work? Or… not.
Reminds me a bit of the war correspondent David Axe. I picked up a copy of his graphic novel War Fix, and I hear he has a War Is Boring book on the way. Should promise more dark humor, War Fix is just very very dark.
Brendan I. Koerner // Aug 3, 2009 at 9:08 am
Just spent a fair bit of the morning perusing War is Boring. Great stuff–esp. liked Axe’s dispatches from Chad a year ago. Though he probably ruined his chances of ever working for that nation’s tourist board.