As I sink deeper into the delicious research and development phase of my next large-scale non-fiction graphic novel, Occupation: The Long Shadow, I find myself using again quick portrait studies. These sketches are more than exercises in likeness. They become conversations with the dead, a way of listening across time.

Recently, I completed studies of two men whose lives form the emotional and historical core of the project: my Norwegian grandfather, Gunnar Thorsen and my Canadian father-in-law, Ralph Bowers.

Gunnar was a pilot, lieutenant, and automotive inspector whose life was forever altered by the Nazi occupation of Norway. The central narrative of Occupation: The Long Shadow follows his imprisonment as a prisoner of war from February 26, 1942, until the end of the Second World War. Through archival research, family records, photographs, and visual storytelling, I am attempting to understand not only the historical facts of his captivity but also the long afterlife of trauma, memory, and survival that continued to shape subsequent generations.

Alongside Gunnar’s story is that of Ralph Bowers, who served with the Royal Canadian Air Force during the war. Ralph trained through the Operational Training Unit system that prepared Commonwealth aircrew for overseas service. His wartime experiences offer a parallel perspective on the conflict and the global machinery of the Allied war effort.

The project is also enriched by a profound collaboration with Ralph’s granddaughter, Emma Varley, as we investigate the impact of archives and our roles as custodians of stories we didn’t directly live but nevertheless carry.

At its heart, Occupation: The Long Shadow is a work about intergenerational memory, haunting, and archival storytelling. The farther I venture into the archives, the more I realize that drawing itself becomes a research method.

Graphic Novel Projects