O. Smith: Artivist

Orlando Smith is a graphic artist whose drawings carry urgent political demands. A self-described “artivist” — both artist and activist — he uses pencil and paper to chronicle the senselessness of the criminal legal system and to indict abuses of power in the United States and around the globe. Smith, who is currently incarcerated at San Quentin prison, began drawing more than forty years ago, initially inspired by Marvel Comics. Since then, he has created 783 original characters and nearly seventy graphic novels under his own imprint, Skullthuggery Comics. After witnessing the devastation of COVID-19, he redirected his comic approach toward illustrated journalism “to reveal the truth from inside the prison itself.”

Now in his late fifties, Smith is particularly attuned to the struggles of San Quentin’s long-term aging population, whose chances for release are bleak despite a near-zero recidivism rate. “I just run and stay the course,” he writes. “Continue to better myself. I don’t have time to waste. None of us do. The goal is creating safer communities and a better life for ALL Californians.” Driven by an irrepressible creative force — and a deep belief in the humanity of all people — Smith’s work fearlessly confronts injustice while crying out for universal civil rights. It is righteous, loud, and productive: a new kind of American Gothic.