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Irish Illustrator Pan Cooke’s Cartoons Amplify Awareness on Police Violence
After the Minneapolis police killed George Floyd in the summer of 2023, the entire United States witnessed protests against police brutality that shook cities from coast to coast, sparking a national conversation on race and justice. It also captured the attention of Irish illustrator Pan Cooke, who lived thousands of miles away from the ongoing protests. As a white man, the racial reckoning gave him the opportunity to educate himself about why police brutality had been dominating headlines.
Cooke stated that police brutality was a topic he was ignorant about but wanted to learn more about it. During his research, Cooke came across the story of Eric Garner, a Black man who was killed by Staten Island police in 2014. To educate himself, Cooke created and shared cartoons illustrating Garner’s story, as well as other cases connected to police brutality and racism, on his Instagram page, which he did only with the intention of self-education.
With the recent murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd on his mind, Cooke began to create comics about their lives and how they were cut short by violence. Despite being a portrait painter illustrating portraits of celebrities commissioned by customers, Cooke lost his passion for it and started to focus on drawing cartoons when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2023.
Each of the single-panel illustrations drawn by Cooke tells the story of specific police violence-related incidents that occurred. Throughout each panel, Cooke recaps what happened during the encounter while avoiding graphic depictions of the event. So far, Cooke has drawn comics telling the stories of Atatiana Jefferson, John Crawford III, Amir Locke, and Daunte Wright, among others. He has even drawn a comic to tell the story of Eugene Goodman, the U.S. Capitol Police officer who diverted rioters from the U.S. Senate chamber during the January 6 attack.
Cooke has had an overwhelmingly positive response, as his following on Instagram grew from under a thousand to over 300,000 in a matter of weeks. He says that his comics’ impact becomes evident as people learn from them, making it almost as if they are learning together. While the comics began to take off across social media, Cooke says he’s still continuing to learn about police violence, emphasizing that he’s in no way trying to be a subject matter expert on this.
Cooke’s artwork has been more positively received than negatively, as one of the main feedbacks he gets is that people can get an idea of the story without directly viewing the violence. With videos containing violent and deadly content incredibly stressful to watch and process, Cooke’s art serves as a bridge between staying informed on the cases without having to directly watch the footage.
Cooke hopes his artwork will continue to bring attention to police violence, with his art becoming a stepping stone towards people taking positive action. His future plans include continuing to draw comics while writing a memoir called Puzzled, which details his experiences growing up with obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety.
