Preview: ‘Are You Willing To Die For The Cause?’ — Chris Oliveros’ Look At Radical Separatism In 1960s Canada

Better known as the publisher of Drawn & Quarterly, Chris Oliveros returns to making comics with Are You Willing to Die for the Cause? a nonfiction work looking at the rise of a radical separatist group in 1960s Canada.

30 years on from founding D&Q, Oliveros returns to comic making with what looks rather like a fabulous work that we’re previewing below and you can find in stores from 10 October.

Here’s the D&Q PR…

“A deep dive into a contentious and dramatic period in Canadian history—the rise of a militant separatist group whose effects still reverberate today.

It started in 1963, when a dozen mailboxes in a wealthy Montreal neighborhood were blown to bits by handmade bombs. By the following year, a guerilla army training camp was set up deep in the woods, with would-be soldiers training for armed revolt. Then, in 1966, two high school students dropped off bombs at factories, causing fatalities. What was behind these concerted, often bungled acts of terrorism and how did they last for nearly eight years?

In Are You Willing To Die For The Cause? Quebec-born cartoonist Chris Oliveros sets out to dispel common misconceptions about the birth and early years of a movement that, while now defunct, still holds a tight grip on the hearts and minds of Quebec citizenry and Canadian politics. There are no initials more volatile in Quebec history than F-L-Q. Standing for the Front de libération du Québec (or in English, the Quebec Liberation Front).The original goal of this socialist movement was to fight for workers rights of the French majority who found their rights trampled on by English bosses. The goal became ridding the province of its English oppression by means of violent revolution.

Using dozens of obscure and long-forgotten sources, Oliveros skillfully weaves a comics oral history where the activists, employers, politicians, and secretaries piece together the sequence of events. At times humorous, other times dramatic, and always informative, Are You Willing To Die For The Cause? shines a light on just how little it takes to organize dissent and who people trust to overthrow the government.”

And if you’re wondering just how good it might be, a few bits of advance praise for you…

“Chris Oliveros is the most under-appreciated master-cartoonist of the last 40 years. With this new graphic novel — brilliantly told and beautifully drawn — that should all be about to change.” – Seth, author of Clyde Fans.

“Chris Oliveros’s Are You Willing to Die for the Cause? takes on the improbable, chaotic, rag-tag origins of the FLQ in Quebec in the 1960s. With cartooning that is at once charming, humorous and gritty, Oliveros captures the people behind this movement that began with noble ideas and descended into tragedy. He reveals Montreal in the 1960s in all its dreamy, working class squalor and glory.” – Heather O’Neill, author of When We Lost Our Heads.