The Dead Eye and the Deep Blue Sea: The World of Slavery at Sea-A Graphic Memoir

Too poor to pay his pregnant wife's hospital bill, Vannak Anan Prum left his village in Cambodia to seek work in Thailand. Vannak was kept as a laborer for over a year before an NGO could secure his return to Cambodia. Indeed, very little is known about what happens to the men and boys who end up working on fishing boats in Asia, and these images are some of the first records. At the harbor, they were taken into a police station then sold by their rescuers to work on a plantation. In regional Cambodia, many families still wait for men who have disappeared across the Thai border, and out to sea. After five years away, Vannak was finally reunited with his family. Vannak documented his ordeal in raw, colorful, detailed illustrations, first created because he believed that without them no one would believe his story. Amid violence and cruelty, including frequent beheadings, Vannak survived in large part by honing his ability to tattoo his shipmates--a skill he

Ben is also an accomplished author and award-winning blogger. While looking for work on the Thai border, he was detained as a slave on a fishing boat for four years until he escaped by literally jumping ship. Upon his return, he drew pictures of what he remembered in order to prove and explain his whereabouts during his hellish years as a modern-day slave. . VANNAK ANAN PRUM is a Cambodian survivor of human trafficking. Though he never had any formal educati

. Ben is also an accomplished author and award-winning blogger. Though he never had any formal education or training in art, Vannak had long loved drawing--first in the dirt, then on wooden boards with dried clay, until one day in his youth when a Vietnamese soldier gave him paper and pencils.JOCELYN PEDERICK and BEN PEDERICK are award-winning filmmakers and writers. About the AuthorVANNAK ANAN PRUM is a Cambodian survivor of human trafficking. Together they have directed and produced more than twenty films, and they are half of the four-member team that comprises the Australian film company goodmorningbeautiful. His rescuers on the Malaysian coast sold him to a plantation, where he labored for another year before an NGO helped him return to his family. While looking for work on the Thai border, he was detained as a slave on a fishing boat for four years until