The publication of the first two volumes of the graphic novel trilogy March has received wide acclaim, which reveals both the contemporary relevance of its subject matter and the artistic/pedagogical possibilities inherent to the graphic novel/memoir form. The product of a collaborative effort among civil rights leader and U.S. Congressman John Lewis, co-writer Andrew Aydin, and illustrator Nate Powell, the trilogy chronicles Lewis’s own involvement in the Civil Rights Movement as a protagonist of the African-American struggle to end segregation and pursue that freedom long denied to black Americans by Jim Crow legislation. Drawing inspiration by yet another comic book of the early 1960s (Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story), March illustrates the potential of the genre in the memorialization of the past and the awakening of consciences, its combination of text and images constituting a perfect vehicle for narrating racial conflict in U.S. society. While entering into dialogue with an existing tradition of African-American graphic novels dealing with black history and its iconic figures, March also raises some issues regarding its legitimate status as an ‘African American text’—especially in light of its mixed white and black American authorship that cuts through its (equally mixed) visual and textual fabric.
Visualizing Black Leadership: The African-American Civil Rights Struggle in Two Contemporary Graphic Novels
Bosco, Stefano
2016-01-01
Abstract
The publication of the first two volumes of the graphic novel trilogy March has received wide acclaim, which reveals both the contemporary relevance of its subject matter and the artistic/pedagogical possibilities inherent to the graphic novel/memoir form. The product of a collaborative effort among civil rights leader and U.S. Congressman John Lewis, co-writer Andrew Aydin, and illustrator Nate Powell, the trilogy chronicles Lewis’s own involvement in the Civil Rights Movement as a protagonist of the African-American struggle to end segregation and pursue that freedom long denied to black Americans by Jim Crow legislation. Drawing inspiration by yet another comic book of the early 1960s (Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story), March illustrates the potential of the genre in the memorialization of the past and the awakening of consciences, its combination of text and images constituting a perfect vehicle for narrating racial conflict in U.S. society. While entering into dialogue with an existing tradition of African-American graphic novels dealing with black history and its iconic figures, March also raises some issues regarding its legitimate status as an ‘African American text’—especially in light of its mixed white and black American authorship that cuts through its (equally mixed) visual and textual fabric.
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