MONTREAL - An artist who survived the Rwandan genocide is marking the mass killing's 10th anniversary this month with a comic book that details his experiences.

Montreal-based Rupert Bazambanza's Sourire malgré tout, or Smile Through the Tears, tells the story of the Rwanga family -- his friends who were killed in Rwanda a decade ago. Creating the book, which he began two years ago, has been a way for the artist to honour their memory.

"My friends, they had ambitions, but they didn't live long enough to accomplish all they'd dreamed of," Bazambanza said through a translator. "I felt maybe it was up to me to speak for them."

Far from a mainstream comic book, Smile Through the Tears instead follows in the tradition of the underground or independent comics and graphic novels that chronicle historical events or daily life.

In his work, Bazambanza doesn't shy away from depicting the brutality he witnessed first-hand. His illustrations show Tutsis being killed with guns and machetes.

Though the images still haunt him, the act of putting his experiences to paper was a form of therapy. "After the genocide, we needed therapy to deal with everything we went through," he said. "In doing this comic book, that's what I did. I got everything out that was in my head.

"I had to write and draw what I lived through because it had to be expressed in images -- a medium that I know well. I love to draw and to bear witness to the whole world."

Sourire malgré tout, which received its official launch during an anti-racism event in March, is currently on sale in Montreal. The English version, Smile Through the Tears, will be available through Chapters stores across Canada starting in May.

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