Book Review: BLACK FORTUNES

BLACK FORTUNES
HARPER/Amistad – @HarperCollins @AmistadBooks

[This review was posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Shomari Wills – @ShoWills
ISBN: 978-0-06-243759-4; hardcover (January 30, 2018)
320pp, B&W, $26.99 U.S.

Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires is a non-fiction book written by journalist Shomari Wills.  Black Fortunes tells the story of the first six African-Americans who were born into slavery and then went on to become millionaires

According to Black Fortunes, there are an estimated 35,000 black millionaires living in the United States.  That includes celebrities like Beyoncé, Will Smith, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James.  Some are billionaires (Oprah Winfrey) or are near billionaires (Michael Jordan, Jay-Z).

However, these rich folks are not the first black people to become the “one percent.”  Between the years of 1830 and 1927, there was a small group of people among the last generation of blacks folks born into or during slavery.  Smart, tenacious, and opportunistic, these daring men and women broke new ground for African-Americans by attaining the highest levels of financial success.

These are the first six to escape the holocaust of American chattel slavery of African-Americans and find wealth:

1. Born in Philadelphia in 1814, Mary Ellen Pleasant built her wealth in California during the “Gold Rush” and used that wealth to further the cause of abolitionist John Brown

2. Born in 1939 on a cotton plantation outside Memphis, Tennessee, Robert Reed Church was the child of a slave who was a fair-skinned black woman and a married white man who owned a fleet of steamships.  Church would go on to become the largest landowner in Tennessee and a man of such political influence he was acquainted with President Theodore Roosevelt.

3. The daughter of a respectable professional family in Philadelphia, Hannah Elias, was the “Black Cleopatra” who “exhibited a peculiar influence over white men.”  She became the mistress of a New York City millionaire and used the land and money her lover gave her to build a real estate empire in the city, and in Harlem, in particular.

4. Born in Illinois in 1969, Annie Turnbo-Malone was an orphan who dreamed of making a business of doing people's hair.  She became a self-taught chemist and went on to develop “Poro,” the first national brand of hair care products and a franchise of beauty shops.

5. Initially an employee of and salesman for Annie Turnbo-Malone, Madam C. J Walker began her journey to riches by stealing her employer's hair care formulas to start her on hair care business.  She would go on to earn the nickname America’s "first female black millionaire,” and she openly flaunted her wealth.

6. The son of slaves, (Ottawa) O. W. Gurley was born in Huntsville, Alabama on Christmas Day 1868.  He moved to Oklahoma during the “oil boom” and using his business acumen and political savvy he developed a piece of Tulsa, Oklahoma, into a “town” for black craftsmen and tradesmen and wealthy black professionals.  Named “Greenwood,” this unofficial town that would become known as “the Black Wall Street,” before jealous white racists looted and destroyed most of it.

The astonishing untold history of America’s first black millionaires is now told in the new book, Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires.

We need books like Black Fortunes, and by “we,” I mean Americans in general, and black Americans specifically.  American history as taught to me at the elementary and high schools I attended was piss-poor.  Every school year, we began with Christopher Columbus and had barely began studying the 19th century by the time the school year ended.  I think we only once got anywhere near the Civil War, and slavery was touched upon only a few times.

Luckily, I had Black History month and African-American teachers who had graduated from Southern University and A&M College (in Baton Rouge, Louisiana) and legendary Grambling State University who were determined that we ''learn about our ancestors and the people who came before us.”  In spite of their best efforts, I found that white kids from pricey private and parochial schools knew more about “Black History” than I did.

I have learned a lot from books like Black Fortunes, which are both history and story books.  And the truth is that Black Fortunes and books like it tell stories that are as much American as they are specifically African-American.  In the case of these six individuals here, their lives are often in the center of the maelstrom that was the time period from the administration of President Andrew Jackson to the 1920s (the “Roaring Twenties), a time of great change and growth for the United States of America.  You cannot read this book and understand these six individuals and the scope of their achievements without grappling with the larger context of a turbulent 100 years.

On an individual level, the thing that surprised me most about these men and women is how much they hustled.  The term “hustler” has a negative connotation, being related to black criminals and male sex trade workers.  But the stars of Black Fortune were always hustling more jobs, investments, and opportunities.  Mary Ellen Pleasant was a rich woman in California, and she was still catering on the side.  Robert Reed Church was a real estate magnate, a rich landlord, and he still operated his bar/jook joint from behind the counter.  The black women chronicled here built mansions and took in tenants to earn some extra cash?!

There is a lot to learn from Black Fortunes.  The history of black Americans is America's history.  The most important thing that one can learn from this book is this:  always hustle, grab that extra job, snatch  every opportunity, embrace a helping hand, and don't stop – even when the racists and haters are trying to hold you down.

I will also go so far as to say that every black high school student in America should have a copy of Black Fortunes.  It should be required reading for incoming freshmen at all HBCUs and at many other American universities and colleges, especially the ones that benefited from slavery and the oppression of black folks.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: DEFINING MOMENTS IN BLACK HISTORY: Reading Between the Lies

DEFINING MOMENTS IN BLACK HISTORY: READING BETWEEN THE LIES
HARPERCOLLINS/Amistad – @HarperCollins @AmistadBooks

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Dick Gregory – @IAmDickGregory
ISBN: 978-0-06-244869-9; hardcover (September 19, 2017)
256pp, B&W, $24.99 U.S.

Dick Gregory was an African-American comedian, civil rights activist, and entrepreneur.  Born Richard Claxton Gregory on October 12, 1932 in St. Louis Missouri, Gregory was also a writer and social critic.  Gregory died on August 19, 2017, a month before the release of what would be his final book, Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies.

Gregory was a pioneering stand-up comedian because of his “no-holds-barred” comic sets in which he addressed and mocked bigotry and racism.  Although he initially performed primarily before black audiences at segregated clubs, Gregory became one of the first black comedians to successfully cross over to white audiences.  He became the first black comedian to both perform on “Tonight with Jack Parr” and to sit on the couch and talk to host Jack Parr.

In Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies, Dick Gregory uses his trademark acerbic wit, incisive humor, and infectious paranoia as the basis by which he views key events in the history of Black America.  Defining Moments in Black History is a collection of five thoughtful, provocative essays, and an insightful introduction and epilogue.  Gregory discusses everything about Black people in America, from the diaspora and slavery to civil rights and Black Lives Matter, to Black historical figures and modern Black celebrities.

I first knew Dick Gregory as a comedian, and soon came to know that he discussed everything from entrepreneurship to the diet and eating habits of Black folks.  When I discovered that Gregory was involved in the Civil Rights Movement and that he was also a social critic, I found that I had a hard time imagining him as merely a comedian.  I was always interested in what Gregory had to say, and what he had to say was always provocative and almost always insightful.  Because he was a friend of and worked with civil rights luminaries like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Medgar Evers, I saw him as a person I needed to hear.

In 1964, Gregory became involved in the search for three missing civil rights workers:  James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, who vanished in Philadelphia, Mississippi.  Gregory played a large role in forcing the FBI to find the three young men's bodies.  After meeting with a local sheriff, Gregory became convinced that he (Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence A. Rainey) was complicit in the men's disappearance and with their deaths.  So obviously, Gregory wasn't just any black guy on stage telling jokes.

Defining Moments in Black History reflects that.  Gregory discusses the connection between money and slavery and the importance of Nat Turner's revolt.  He offers numerous examples of how solidarity was important to the progress of Black people in America.  To Gregory, the “Atlanta Compromise;” the founding of groups like the NAACP and the Urban League; and the actions of people like Rosa Parks, the Pullman Porters, the Little Rock Nine, and Shirley Chisholm (to name a few) brought Black people together to make change for Black people.

Gregory is also a believer in conspiracies, so readers may be uncomfortable with his ideas about “the truth” behind the death of Michael Jackson and public fall from grace of Bill Cosby and Tiger Woods.  I found the conspiracy essays a little embarrassing, but I am always willing to at least listen to a man like Gregory when he has a conspiracy he wants to discuss.  However, that should not keep readers from understanding the central arguments behind Defining Moments in Black History.  Gregory's argument is that “White supremacy” is the game being played on Black people in America.  The ones doing the playing are wealthy and powerful white people, according to Gregory, and he argues that even poor white people don't understand White Supremacy.

Gregory says that in order to fight the forces aligned against them, Black people must believe in themselves, in their beauty, in their strength, in their intelligence, and in their ability to learn and grow intellectually.  In this book, Gregory makes clear that he thinks Black people often do not think highly of themselves, accept stereotypes, and are even self-destructive or at least do things that are mostly bad for them.

I agree.  I see Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies as a final gift from a man who straddled the most important moments of Black history for the last six decades.  It is a book of history, a book celebrating Black perseverance, and a book that both encourages and warns.  The fact that we have President Donald Trump is a sign that we have not heeded such warnings.  Maybe Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies has to scream at us.

A
9 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: RED RANGE: A Wild Western Adventure

RED RANGE: A WILD WESTERN ADVENTURE
IDW PUBLISHING/It's Alive – @IDWPublishing

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Joe R. Lansdale
ARTIST:  Sam Glanzman
COLORS: Jorge Blanco and Jok
LETTERS: Douglas Potter
ISBN: 978-1-63140-994-3; hardcover (June 20, 2017)
112pp, Color, $19.99 U.S., $25.99 CAN

This review is based on a copy-for-review of Red Range provided by IDW Publishing, which the author of this review did not request.

Red Range: A Wild Western Adventure is a Western graphic novel written by Joe R. Lansdale and drawn by Sam Glanzman.  It was originally published in 1999 by Mojo Press and apparently was ignored upon its first release.  Lansdale is a prolific novelist and short story writer who has also written numerous comic book stories.  A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, Glanzman has been writing and drawing comic books since the medium's “Golden Age,” beginning with a story published in 1941.  Glanzman is probably best known for his Western and war comics.

It's Alive, an imprint of IDW, is bringing Red Range: A Wild Western Adventure back into print in a new full-color, hardcover edition with colors by Jorge Blanco and Jok and letters by Douglas Potter.  This new edition also includes essays and text pieces by Richard Klaw (Red Range's original publisher) and comics creator and publisher, Stephen R. Bissette.  This volume also includes a black and white comics short story, “I Could Eat a Horse,” written and drawn by Glanzman and first published in Wild West Show (Mojo Press, 1996).

Red Range opens somewhere in Texas (east Texas?) sometime in the 19th century (after the Civil War).  The Ku Klux Klan is in the middle of torturing and murdering a husband and wife, when a shot rings out that kills two of the Klansmen.  After more than half their number has been shot dead in the most brutal ways, the rest of the Klansmen flee in horror.  Who or what scared the bejesus out of them?

It's that notorious, Klan-killing Black vigilante, the Red Mask.  Once he was Caleb Range, a Black man whose wife and son were killed by evil White men before his very eyes.  Now, he is the monster in a Klansman nightmare.  Caleb takes Turon, the son of the Black couple murdered and tortured by the Klan, as his new partner.  Meanwhile, Batiste, Klan leader and survivor of the Red Mask's most recent attack, gathers a crew of morons and murderers into an ersatz posse to hunt and kill the Red Mask and Turon.  However, the final showdown between the Red Mask and Batiste will take them into the wild and wonderful world of the “Weird Western.”

The essayists of the Red Range: A Wild Western Adventure graphic novel apparently hope for some vindication for the apparently initially-ignored graphic novel with its new release.  I don't remember Red Range at all, and I assumed I was both an astute reader and follower of independent comic books at the time.  I don't even remember Red Range's original publisher, Mojo Press, although the name does seem oddly familiar.

The truth is that in 1999, Red Range was way, way ahead of its time.  I had a professor of Shakespeare at LSU who insisted that no one was “ahead of his time.”  Every creative person was “of his time.”  That may be true, but a person of his time can create a work that is ahead of its time, and that is exactly what Joe R. Lansdale and Sam Glanzman did.

My recollection of the 1990s was that there was deep resistance to comic books featuring African-American characters from certain segments of the comics media, comic book retailers, comic book publishers, and comic book readers.  Here comes Red Range with its unapologetic Black male hero who shot White men down as if they were rabid dogs.  The world of American comic books was not ready for what was essentially the marriage of “The Lone Ranger” and Django Unchained, 13 years before Django shot two white men and whooped one's ass before he shot him, early in Quentin Tarantino's Oscar-winning film.

Lansdale gleefully weaves a tale of ultra-violence and unfettered racial hate, and sprinkles the dialogue with racial epithets aplenty.  Glanzman, a master of graphical storytelling, turns Lansdale story into comics storytelling that is filled with gore, but skillfully picks up the sly and shade-throwing humor in Lansdale's writing.

Now, Red Range is ready for the world of American comic books, or is it the other way around?  Social media has given both African-American comic book creators and readers a voice to beat back those trying to hold them back.  The-economy-is-great-and-we're-all-fine, late 20th century America of President Bill Clinton is long gone.  Now, we have the post-President Barack Obama America in which the first Black president of the United States has been replaced by a President who shamelessly courts racists, religious bigots, White separatists, bullies, misogynists, etc.  Donald Trump's appointment as President by the Electoral College woke the naive up... finally.  We are not in a post-racial America.

There are more people in America who are like Batiste, the villain in Red Range, Batiste, than many of us would like to admit.  So it has to be okay for two White men to create fiction that depicts pure-dee, American racism and the fight against it in the most blunt storytelling language.

Lansdale and Glanzman were never over-the-top and mean-spirited, even back in 1999.  Readers simply did not recognize the genius and the A-game of Joe R. Lansdale and Sam Glanzman, who both, at best, probably only had a cult following at the time.  But like the ghosts of Mississippi, Red Range: A Wild Western Adventure is back for justice.  Please, read this graphic novel.  Also, when you consider the high quality and high production values of IDW Publishing's hardcover graphic novels and archival collections, Red Range is a steal... even shop-lifting at the price of $19.95.

A+

This book includes the following text pieces with illustrations:

“When Old is New and New is Old” – Introduction by Richard Klaw
“Beneath the Valley of the Klan Busters” - Afterword by Stephen R. Bissette
“A Brief History of Cowboys & Dinosaurs: Pop Culture Cowpokes & Carnosaurs” essay by Stephen R. Bissette

This book also includes the Sam Glanzman comics short story, “I Could Eat a Horse.”

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2017 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: HIP HOP FAMILY TREE #1

HIP HOP FAMILY TREE No. 1
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS – @fantagraphics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

CARTOONIST: Ed Piskor
EDITOR: Eric Reynolds
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (August 2015)

“Birth of a New Culture!!”

Cartoonist Ed Piskor combined his two great loves, comic books and Hip Hop, and began chronicling the history of Hip Hop culture and rap music.  This was done in the form of a webcomic, Hip Hop Family Tree, which he as been serializing in weekly installments at the website, Boing Boing (boingboing.net) since January 2012.  This is the history of Hip Hop as told through comics – the who, what, when, and where of a culture and music that, from the beginning, refused to be marginalized and relegated to the ash bin of history by its haters.

Fantagraphics Books first collected Hip Hop Family Tree in print in a graphic novel format with Hip Hop Family Tree Vol. 1: 1970s-1981 (December 2013), the first of three volumes, with a fourth nearly published (to date).  In the summer of 2015, Fantagraphics began reprinting the contents of the graphic novels as a monthly comic book series (the first monthly comic book in the company's four-decade history).

Hip Hop Family Tree #1 (“Birth of a New Culture!!”) reprints contents published in Hip Hop Family Tree Vol. 1: 1970s-1981.  Welcome to the very beginnings of Hip-Hop.  See the DJs, starting with DJ Kool Herc, who gave birth to a new music and culture in the tenement recreational rooms of the south Bronx in the 1970s.

A Bronx-based party DJ, Herc discovers that during his show, the audience really likes the instrumental “breaks” in the records.  An experimenter, Herc uses loops and mixing to extend the breaks and soon a talented core of other DJs begin to build upon the foundation that Herc develops.  Soon, emcees (or MCs) are “rapping” over the breaks and a new culture is born.  Also, pioneers Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa appear and see the man who invented the term, “hip-hop.”

I first heard about Hip Hop Family Tree in a press release I received from Fantagraphics Books.  I immediately knew that I wold be interested in reading it.  Hip Hop Family Tree is an excellent example of the comics medium as journalism, biography, and history  Hip Hop Family Tree as a comic book is a marriage made in heaven because both comics culture and Hip Hop culture are born of outside art forms.

Creator Ed Piskor’s vintage graphic design style, compositions, and graphical storytelling (complete with Zip-A-Tone and brown paper texture), gives Hip Hop Family Tree that distinctive 1970s comic book look.  His work has a dated feel, which is not a bad thing.  This striking visual and graphic aesthetic makes Hip Hop Family Tree look like a vintage, low-wattage documentary from the 1970s, while giving it the timeless sparkle and sense of fun that comic books (even old comics) have.

Hip Hop Family Tree #1 often reads like a college freshmen history essay written the night before its due.  It is all over the place and jumps from one historical figure and/or place to the next, but this is right process for the subject.  The history of Hip Hop is fast and furious; who did what and when is not always clear and agreed upon.  This is a story, and the story of Hip Hop is like a comic book story – brash and bold and against all the other proper and serious storytelling mediums (like novels, stage drama, poetry, etc.).  Do your thing and break the rules.  The fathers and mothers of Hip Hop did it their way and so does Hip Hop Family Tree.

Hip Hop Family Tree the monthly comic book offers new covers and splash pages drawn especially for the series.  Ed Piskor also presents a “director's commentary” that sights sources for the history of Hip Hop and also gives details on his motivations and processes and also on the research involved in creating each page.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2016 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Book Review: FORGOTTEN: The Untold Story of D-Day's Black Heroes

FORGOTTEN: The Untold Story of D-Day's Black Heroes, at Home and at War
HARPERCOLLINS – @HarperCollins

AUTHOR: Linda Hervieux – @lindahervieux
ISBN: 978-0-06-231379-9; hardcover (October 27, 2015)
368pp, B&W, $27.99 U.S.

Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day's Black Heroes, at Home and at War is a 2015 non-fiction book from author Linda Hervieux.  This World War II-era history book tells the story of an all-black battalion whose crucial contributions on D-Day have gone unrecognized to this day.

What is forgotten is what Forgotten remembers for us.  You did not see it in Steven Spielberg's 1998 Oscar-winning film, Saving Private Ryan, but African-American service men did participate in the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II.  In the early hours of June 6, 1944 (D-Day), the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, a unit of African-American soldiers, landed on the beaches of France (primarily Omaha Beach and Utah Beach).  Their orders were to man a curtain of armed balloons meant to deter enemy aircraft.

Although little was expected of these black man, their bravery and valor in not only maintaining the balloons, but also in rescuing fellow soldiers and in fighting the enemy earned praise from U. S. and Allied military officers and officials – from high to low rank.  They also earned the respect of some of the very White soldiers with whom they could not serve because the U.S. armed forces were segregated even during World War II.

However, the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, their exploits and service, were forgotten.  One member of the 320th, Waverly Woodson, would be nominated for the Medal of Honor, but it was an award he would never receive.  Over one million African-Americans served during World War II, but the nation’s highest decoration was not given to black soldiers in World War II, although many were recommended for the award.

Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day's Black Heroes, at Home and at War remembers them.  Author Linda Hervieux also chronicles the injustices of Jim Crow America, especially during the 1940s.  The past is brought to life in an extraordinary blend of military and social history.  Forgotten is the book that finally pays tribute to the valor of this all-black battalion; its crucial contributions at D-Day have gone unrecognized to this day, but no longer...  The recognition begins with Forgotten

When I saw director Oliver Stone's 1986 film, Platoon (which won the Oscar as “Best Picture” of 1986), it was the first time I saw a movie that depicted African-American soldiers serving during the Vietnam War as more than just background players.  The only reason I knew that Black soldiers served in Korea was because the assistant principal of my high school was a veteran of Korea.  Occasionally, I saw a Black actor playing a serviceman on the television series, “M.A.S.H.”  Popular media and pop culture and the arts to which I was exposed, especially as child, said very little about Black men serving in Korea.

These slights of Black soldiers during Korea and Vietnam were nothing compared to the uncountable slights against Black servicemen and servicewomen during World War II.  It seems that history practically erased African-Americans from the history of WWII.  In high school, we did not cover WWII – believe it or not.  I did not know that there were African-American pilots during WWII until I first learned that Star Wars creator, George Lucas, had been trying to get a film about those pilots, the “Red Tails” made, as early as the 1990s.  Lucas eventually financed the production, marketing, and distribution of the film himself.

I saw Clint Eastwood's Iwo Jima films, Flags of My Father and Letters from Iwo Jima, but it was afterwards that I learned that Black marines had participated in that battle.  However, Flags of My Father, which focuses on the American side of the battle of Iwo Jima, did not depict African-Americans in the fight.  Director Spike Lee was critical of Eastwood for this omission, but that earned him ire for saying this, but none for Eastwood.

When I read the email in which HarperCollins' marketing department offered review copies of Forgotten, it was the first time I had ever heard of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion.  That's my fault.  As an African-American, I should be reading more books about the history of Black folks in America.  I read a lot of journalism, articles, essays, etc. about Black History, but I think I have only read three or four books about Black History or African-American historical figures during the last decade.  For an African-American who calls himself a writer, that is sad.

Well, luckily we have the pluck, skill, talent, and perseverance of Linda Hervieux.  Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day's Black Heroes, at Home and at War is an essential book about a pivotal time in the history of the United States:  militarily, politically, socially, and culturally.  It is a fantastic read, and Hervieux should probably write more non-fiction books... on any topic.

This brilliant book will often make you burning angry, but it will also make you proud of a group of men you never knew.  Black servicemen like those in the 320th made an awful, racist country that thought too much of itself look better than it should.  Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day's Black Heroes, at Home and at War is an assault on the kind of memory that is nothing more than a column of support for Jim Crow America.  This book is the restoration, not of history, but of America's story.  Now, it is up to us to make sure that neither Forgotten nor the men of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion are ever relegated to the remainder bin of history.

A+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2016 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

Book Review: WELCOME TO BRAGGSVILLE

WELCOME TO BRAGGSVILLE
HARPERCOLLINS/William Morrow – @HarperCollins @WmMorrowBks

AUTHOR: T. Geronimo Johnson
ISBN: 978-0-06-237763-0; hardcover (February 17, 2015)
384pp, B&W, $25.99 U.S.

An slightly different version of this review appeared at the website, ComicBookBin.

Welcome to Braggsville is a 2015 novel from author T. Geronimo Johnson.  A PEN/Faulkner finalist, Johnson is the acclaimed African-American author of the novel, Hold It 'Til It Hurts.  Welcome to Braggsville focuses on four college students, their plan to stage a dramatic protest during a Civil War reenactment, and the resulting fallout.

Welcome to Braggsville, Georgia – population 712.  For the better part of two centuries, Braggsville's denizens have called it “The City That Love Built in the Heart of Georgia.”  D'aron Little May Davenport is a son of Braggsville, and his name, “D'aron” is really Irish and is pronounced like “Daron,” or so say his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Davenport.

D'aron is currently attending the University of California-Berkeley, better known simply as “Berkeley.”  Although he had few close friends in Braggsville, D'aron has found three kindred spirits in college.  There is Louis Chang a/k/a “Loose Chang, who is Malaysian, but tells people that he is Chinese.  A jokester, Louis wants to be a stand-up comic –  the “Lenny Bruce Lee” of comedy.

Next, there is Charles “Charlie” Roger Cole, the former football star and Black friend from Chicago.  Like the former Senator Barack Obama, Charlie is “articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”  Finally, there is Candice Marianne Chelsea, an Iowa blonde who claims Native American roots.  D'aron is in love with her, but so are Louis and Charlie – maybe.  This quartet comes together as the “4 Little Indians.”

One day, in alternative history class, D'aron lets slip loose that Braggsville hosts an annual Civil War reenactment that has recently been re-branded as “Patriot Days.”  Candice suggests that the 4 Little Indians travel to Braggsville and crash Patriot Days in an act of “performative intervention.”  The journey to Braggsville provides plenty to laugh at, but things turn decidedly unfunny.

William Morrow sent me an advance reader's edition of Welcome to Braggsville.  In a letter posted on the very first page of the book, Jessica Williams, the editor of this novel, describes it as “Alternatively poignant and provocative, hilarious and devastating...”  Yes, yes, yes, and yes; Welcome to Braggsville is all that.  Williams says that this novel is “a brave and necessary portrait of contemporary America....”  That's sho-nuff true.

You see, Welcome to Braggsville is not really like many novels that fill bestseller lists and store bookshelves.  It's plot might seem simple – kids protest a Southern Civil War reenactment.  However, that truly only scratches the surface of this ambitious novel that plumbs the depths of both the human heart and the troubled racial and racist history of the United States.  There are probably potboiler novels that can be described similar to this:  say something like:  star police detective tracks a mysterious new spree killer whose crimes are uncannily similar to murders committed by the Ku Klux Klan a century ago!  But Welcome to Braggsville is not about plot.

At its center, Welcome to Braggsville tackles an act that may be racist or have racial overtones.  This complex, messy, and beautiful novel is both surprisingly readable and stubbornly difficult.  T. Geronimo Johnson digs into the lies and deceit about racism, discrimination, exploitation, and even about America's most recent imperialist adventures.  He deconstructs it all and tries to get at the human heart of the matter.  Perhaps, that is where the answers and solutions are – in the yearning, confused, and troubled human heart.  This is the kind of novel that is both a necessary read and a good read.  Welcome to Braggsville is the modern satirical novel, but its pedigree is Southern-fried and Southern Gothic.  We need more fiction like this.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

2014 Glyph Comics Award Winners - "Watson and Holmes #6" Wins Big

The Glyph Awards recognize “the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color from the preceding calendar year.”  The winners were announced Friday, May 16, 2014 at the 13th annual East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention in Philadelphia.

Watson and Holmes #6 was the big winner, with four awards, including the big one, “Story of the Year.”  I had never heard of the series; now, I need to read it.

The 2014 Glyph Comics Award winners (for the year 2013):

Story of the Year:
• Watson and Holmes #6, by Brandon Easton and N. Steven Harris

Best Cover:
• Route 3 #2, by Robert Jeffrey

Best Writer:
• Brandon Easton, Watson and Holmes #6

Best Artist:
• N. Steven Harris, Watson and Holmes #6

Best Male Character:
• Jack Maguire, Nowhere Man; Jerome Walford

Best Female Character:
• Ajala, Ajala: A Series of Adventures; N. Steven Harris and Robert Garrett

Rising Star Award:
• Alverne Ball (writer); Jason Reeves and Luis Guerro (artists), One Nation #1

Best Comic Strip or Webcomic:
• The Adigun Ogunsanwo, by Charles C.J. Juzang

Best Reprint Publication:
• Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, by the Fellowship of Reconciliation

Fan Award for Best Work:
• Watson and Holmes #6, by Brandon Easton and N. Steven Harris

----------------------------

2014 Eisner Award Nominees - Complete List

The 2014 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards will be given out in a gala ceremony on Friday, July 25, 2014 during Comic-Con International: San Diego.  Nominations were announced Tuesday, April 15, 2014.

Will Eisner Comic Industry Award Nominees 2014:

Best Short Story
• “Go Owls,” by Adrian Tomine, in Optic Nerve #13 (Drawn & Quarterly)
• “Mars to Stay,” by Brett Lewis and Cliff Chiang, in Witching Hour (DC)
• “Seaside Home,” by Josh Simmons, in Habit #1 (Oily)
• “Untitled,” by Gilbert Hernandez, in Love and Rockets: New Stories #6 (Fantagraphics)
• “When Your House Is Burning Down, You Should Brush Your Teeth,” by Matthew Inman, theoatmeal.com/comics/house

Best Single Issue (or One-Shot)
• Demeter, by Becky Cloonan (self-published)
• Hawkeye #11: “Pizza Is My Business,” by Matt Fraction and David Aja (Marvel)
• Love and Rockets: New Stories #6, by Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics)
• Viewotron #2, by Sam Sharpe (self-published)
• Watson and Holmes #6, by Brandon Easton, and N. Steven Harris (New Paradigm Studios)

Best Continuing Series
• East of West, by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta (Image)
• Hawkeye, by Matt Fraction and David Aja (Marvel)
• Nowhere Men, by Eric Stephenson and Nate Bellegarde (Image)
• Saga, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (Image)
• Sex Criminals, by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky (Image)

Best Limited Series
• The Black Beetle: No Way Out, by Francesco Francavilla (Dark Horse)
• Colder, by Paul Tobin and Juan Ferreyra (Dark Horse)
• 47 Ronin, by Mike Richardson and Stan Sakai (Dark Horse)
• Trillium, by Jeff Lemire (Vertigo/DC)
• The Wake, by Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy (Vertigo/DC)

Best New Series
• High Crimes, by Christopher Sebela and Ibrahim Moustafa (Monkeybrain)
• Lazarus, by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark (Image)
• Rat Queens, by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Roc Upchurch (Image/Shadowline)
• Sex Criminals, by Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky (Image)
• Watson and Holmes, by Karl Bollers, Rick Leonardi, Paul Mendoza et al. (New Paradigm Studios)

Best Publication for Early Readers (up to age 7)
• Benjamin Bear in Bright Ideas, by Philippe Coudray (TOON Books)
• The Big Wet Balloon, by Liniers (TOON Books)
• Itsy Bitsy Hellboy, by Art Baltazar and Franco (Dark Horse)
• Odd Duck, by Cecil Castellucci and Sara Varon  (First Second)
• Otto’s Backwards Day, by Frank Cammuso (with Jay Lynch) (TOON Books)

Best Publication for Kids (ages 8-12)
• The Adventures of Superhero Girl, by Faith Erin Hicks (Dark Horse)
• Hilda and the Bird Parade, by Luke Pearson (Nobrow)
• Jane, the Fox, and Me, by Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault (Groundwood)
• The Lost Boy, by Greg Ruth (Graphix/Scholastic)
• Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard, vol. 2, edited by David Petersen, Paul Morrissey, and Rebecca Taylor (Archaia/BOOM!)
• Star Wars: Jedi Academy, by Jeffrey Brown (Scholastic)

Best Publication for Teens (ages 13-17)
• Battling Boy, by Paul Pope (First Second)
• Bluffton: My Summers with Buster, by Matt Phelan (Candlewick)
• Boxers and Saints, by Gene Luen Yang (First Second)
• Dogs of War, by Sheila Keenan and Nathan Fox (Graphix/Scholastic)
• March (Book One), by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (Top Shelf)
• Templar, by Jordan Mechner, LeUyen Pham, and Alex Puviland (First Second)

Best Humor Publication
• The Adventures of Superhero Girl, by Faith Erin Hicks (Dark Horse)
• The Complete Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes and Rob Davis (SelfMadeHero)
• The (True!) History of Art, by Sylvain Coissard and Alexis Lemoine (SelfMadeHero)
• Vader’s Little Princess, by Jeffrey Brown (Chronicle)
• You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, by Tom Gauld (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Anthology
• Dark Horse Presents, edited by Mike Richardson (Dark Horse)
• Nobrow #8: Hysteria, edited by Sam Arthur and Alex Spiro (Nobrow)
• Outlaw Territory, edited by Michael Woods (Image)
• Smoke Signal, edited by Gabe Fowler (Desert Island)
• Thrilling Adventure Hour, by Ben Acker, Ben Blacker et al. (Archaia/BOOM!)

Best Digital/Webcomic
• As the Crow Flies, by Melanie Gillman, www.melaniegillman.com
• Failing Sky, by Dax Tran-Caffee, failingsky.com
• High Crimes, by Christopher Sebela and Ibrahim Moustafa (Monkeybrain), www.monkeybraincomics.com/titles/high-crimes/
• The Last Mechanical Monster, by Brian Fies, lastmechanicalmonster.blogspot.com
• The Oatmeal by Matthew Inman, theoatmeal.com

Best Reality-Based Work
• A Bag of Marbles, by Joseph Joffo, Kris, and Vincent Bailly (Graphic Universe/Lerner)
• The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story, by Vivek J. Tiwary, Andrew C. Robinson, and Kyle Baker (M Press/Dark Horse)
• Hip Hop Family Tree, vol. 1, by Ed Piskor (Fantagraphics)
• March (Book One), by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (Top Shelf)
• Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life, by Ulli Lust (Fantagraphics)
• Woman Rebel: The Margaret Sanger Story, by Peter Bagge (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Graphic Album—New
• Bluffton: My Summers with Buster, by Matt Phelan (Candlewick)
• The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, by Isabel Greenberg (Little, Brown)
• Good Dog, by Graham Chaffee (Fantagraphics)
• Homesick by Jason Walz (Tinto Press)
• The Property, by Rutu Modan (Drawn & Quarterly)
• War Brothers, by Sharon McKay and Daniel LaFrance (Annick Press)

Best Adaptation from Another Medium
• The Castle, by Franz Kafka, adapted by David Zane Mairowitz and Jaromír 99 (SelfMadeHero)
• The Complete Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes, adapted by by Rob Davis (SelfMadeHero)
• Django Unchained, adapted by Quentin Tarantino, Reginald Hudlin, R. M. Guéra et al. (DC/Vertigo)
• Richard Stark’s Parker: Slayground, by Donald Westlake, adapted by Darwyn Cooke (IDW)
• The Strange Tale of Panorama Island, by Edogawa Rampo, adapted by Suehiro Maruo  (Last Gasp)

Best Graphic Album—Reprint
• The Creep, by John Arcudi and Jonathan Case (Dark Horse)
• Hand-Drying in America and Other Stories, by Ben Katchor (Pantheon)
• Heck, by Zander Cannon (Top Shelf)
• Julio’s Day, by Gilbert Hernandez  (Fantagraphics)
• RASL, by Jeff Smith (Cartoon Books)
• Solo: The Deluxe Edition, edited by Mark Chiarello (DC)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Strips
• Barnaby, vol. 1, by Crockett Johnson, edited by Philip Nel and Eric Reynolds (Fantagraphics)
• Percy Crosby’s Skippy Daily Comics, vol. 2: 1928–1930, edited by Jared Gardner and Dean Mullaney (LOAC/IDW)
• Prince Valiant vols. 6-7, by Hal Foster, edited by Kim Thompson (Fantagraphics)
• Society Is Nix: Gleeful Anarchy at the Dawn of the American Comic Strip, edited by Peter Maresca (Sunday Press)
• Tarzan: The Complete Russ Manning Newspaper Strips, vol. 1, edited by Dean Mullaney (LOAC/IDW)
• VIP: The Mad World of Virgil Partch, edited by Jonathan Barli (Fantagraphics)

Best Archival Collection/Project—Comic Books
• Best of EC Artist’s Edition, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)
• Canteen Kate, by Matt Baker (Canton Street Press)
• In the Days of the Mob, by Jack Kirby (DC)
• MAD Artist’s Edition, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)
• Will Eisner’s The Spirit Artist’s Edition, edited by Scott Dunbier (IDW)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material
• Adventures of a Japanese Businessman, by Jose Domingo (Nobrow)
• Goddam This War! by Jacques Tardi and Jean-Pierre Verney (Fantagraphics)
• Incidents in the Night, Book One, by David B. (Uncivilized Books)
• Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life, by Ulli Lust (Fantagraphics)
• When David Lost His Voice, by Judith Vanistendael (SelfMadeHero)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia
• The Heart of Thomas, by Moto Hagio (Fantagraphics)
• The Mysterious Underground Men, by Osamu Tezuka (PictureBox)
• Showa: A History of Japan, 1926–1939, by Shigeru Mizuki (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Summit of the Gods, vol. 4, by Yemmakura Baku and Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
• Utsubora: The Story of a Novelist, by Asumiko Nakamura (Vertical)

Best Writer
• Kelly Sue DeConnick, Pretty Deadly (Image); Captain Marvel (Marvel)
• Matt Fraction, Sex Criminals (Image); Hawkeye, Fantastic Four, FF (Marvel)
• Jonathan Hickman, East of West, The Manhattan Projects (Image); Avengers, Infinity (Marvel)
• Scott Snyder, Batman (DC); American Vampire, The Wake (DC/Vertigo)
• Eric Stephenson, Nowhere Men (Image)
• Brian K. Vaughan, Saga (Image)

Best Writer/Artist
• Isabel Greenberg, The Encyclopedia of Early Earth (Little, Brown)
• Jaime Hernandez, Love and Rockets New Stories #6 (Fantagraphics)
• Terry Moore, Rachel Rising (Abstract Studio)
• Luke Pearson, Hilda and the Bird Parade (Nobrow)
• Matt Phelan, Bluffton: My Summers with Buster (Candlewick)
• Judith Vanistendael, When David Lost His Voice (SelfMadeHero)

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team
• Nate Bellegarde, Nowhere Men (Image)
• Nick Dragotta, East of West (Image)
• Sean Murphy, The Wake (DC/Vertigo)
• Nate Powell, March (Book One) (Top Shelf)
• Emma Ríos, Pretty Deadly (Image)
• Thomas Yeates, Law of the Desert Born: A Graphic Novel (Bantam)

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)
• Andrew C. Robinson, The Fifth Beatle (Dark Horse)
• Sonia Sanchéz, Here I Am (Capstone)
• Fiona Staples, Saga (Image)
• Ive Svorcina, Thor (Marvel)
• Marguerite Van Cook, 7 Miles a Second (Fantagraphics)
• Judith Vanistendael, When David Lost His Voice (SelfMadeHero)

Best Cover Artist
• David Aja, Hawkeye (Marvel)
• Mike Del Mundo, X-Men Legacy (Marvel)
• Sean Murphy/Jordie Belaire, The Wake (DC/Vertigo)
• Emma Ríos, Pretty Deadly (Image)
• Chris Samnee, Daredevil (Marvel)
• Fiona Staples, Saga (Image)

Best Coloring
• Jordie Bellaire, The Manhattan Projects, Nowhere Men, Pretty Deadly, Zero (Image); The Massive (Dark Horse); Tom Strong (DC); X-Files Season 10  (IDW); Captain Marvel, Journey into Mystery (Marvel); Numbercruncher (Titan); Quantum and Woody (Valiant)
• Steve Hamaker, Mylo Xyloto (Bongo), Strangers in Paradise 20th Anniversary Issue 1 (Abstract Studio), RASL (Cartoon Books)
• Matt Hollingsworth, Hawkeye, Daredevil: End of Days (Marvel); The Wake (DC/Vertigo)
• Frank Martin, East of West (Image)
• Dave Stewart, Abe Sapien, Baltimore: The Infernal Train, BPRD: Hell on Earth, Conan the Barbarian, Hellboy: Hell on Earth, The Massive, The Shaolin Cowboy, Sledgehammer 44 (Dark Horse)

Best Lettering
• Darwyn Cooke, Richard Stark’s Parker: Slayground (IDW)
• Carla Speed McNeil, Bad Houses; “Finder” in Dark Horse Presents (Dark Horse)
• Terry Moore, Rachel Rising (Abstract Studio)
• Ed Piskor, Hip Hop Family Tree (Fantagraphics)
• Britt Wilson, Adventure Time with Fiona and Cake (kaBOOM!)

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism
• Comic Book Resources, produced by Jonah Weiland, www.comicbookresources.com
• The Comics Journal #302, edited by Gary Groth and Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)
• Comics and Cola, by Zainab Akhtar, www.comicsandcola.com
• Multiversity Comics, edited by Matthew Meylikhov, www.multiversitycomics.com
• tcj.com, edited by Dan Nadel and Timothy Hodler (Fantagrapahics), www.tcj.com

Best Comics-Related Book
• Al Capp: A Life to the Contrary, by Michael Schumacher and Denis Kitchen (Bloomsbury)
• The Art of Rube Goldberg, selected by Jennifer George (Abrams ComicArts)
• Co-Mix: A Retrospective of Comics, Graphics, and Scraps, by Art Spiegelman (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Genius, Illustrated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth,  by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell (LOAC/IDW)
• The Love and Rockets Companion, edited by Marc Sobel and Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)

Best Scholarly/Academic Work
• Anti-Foreign Imagery in American Pulps and Comic Books, 1920–1960, by Nathan Vernon Madison (McFarland)
• Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation, edited by Sheena C. Howard and Ronald L. Jackson II (Bloomsbury)
• Drawing from Life: Memory and Subjectivity in Comic Art, edited by Jane Tolmie (University Press of Mississippi)
• International Journal of Comic Art, edited by John A. Lent
• The Superhero Reader, edited by Charles Hatfield, Jeet Heer, and Ken Worcester (University Press of Mississippi)

Best Publication Design
• The Art of Rube Goldberg, designed by Chad W. Beckerman (Abrams ComicArts)
• Beta Testing the Apocalypse, designed by Tom Kaczynski (Fantagraphics)
• Genius, Illustrated: The Life and Art of Alex Toth, designed by Dean Mullaney (LOAC/IDW)
• The Great War: July 1, 1916: The First Day of the Battle of the Somme: A Panorama, by Joe Sacco, designed by Chin-Yee Lai (Norton)
• Little Tommy Lost, Book 1, designed by Cole Closser (Koyama)

Evans, Hasen, Moldoff Enter Will Eisner Comics Awards Hall of Fame

Irwin Hasen, Sheldon Moldoff, Orrin C. Evans Chosen for Eisner Hall of Fame

Three Golden Age Artists are Eisner Hall of Fame 2014 I Judges' Choices

14 Nominees Will Face Voters for 4 Other Spots

Comic-Con International, the largest comic book and popular arts event of its kind in the world, has announced that the Eisner Awards judges have selected three individuals to automatically be inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame for 2014. These inductees are Golden Age artists Irwin Hasen (The Flash, Wildcat, Green Lantern for DC; Dondi syndicated strip), Sheldon Moldoff (Batman artist), and African American comics pioneer Orrin C. Evans (All-Negro Comics). In the past, the judges have chosen two automatic inductees, both deceased. This year’s judges decided to add one more inductee, a deserving still-living comics creator.

The judges have also chosen 14 nominees from which voters will select 4 to be inducted in the Hall of Fame this summer. These nominees are Gus Arriola, Howard Cruse, Philippe Druillet, Rube Goldberg, Fred Kida, Hayao Miyazaki, Tarpé Mills, Alan Moore, Francoise Mouly, Dennis O’Neil, Antonio Prohias, Rumiko Takahashi, George Tuska, and Bernie Wrightson.

I Reads You Review: TRUTH Red, White and Black #1

TRUTH RED,WHITE & BLACK #1
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

WRITER: Robert Morales
ARTIST: Kyle Baker
LETTERS:  JG & Comicraft’s Wes
EDITOR: Axel Alonso
EiC: Joe Quesada
40pp, Color, $3.50 U.S. (January 2003)

Part One: The Future

Published in late 2002 and running into 2003, Truth: Red, White & Black was a seven-issue comic book miniseries from Marvel Comics.  The purpose of Truth was to do some retroactive construction (also known as “retcon) or reconstruction on the fictional history of one of the company’s signature characters, Captain America.  The Truth’s conceit was that the United States government first tested the “super-soldier” serum that created Captain America on black men.

Back to the beginning:  way back in Captain America Comics #1, we meet Steve Rogers, a young man who volunteered for “army service” but was refused because of his “unfit condition.”  Basically, Rogers was too frail to serve in combat in World War II.  Desperate to serve his country, Rogers agreed to be a lab rat for Professor Reinstein.  The professor administered the “super soldier” formula to Rogers.  The “strange seething liquid” worked, transforming Rogers into a strapping young buck and a supernaturally fit specimen of red-blooded American White male.  Rogers eventually donned a flag-based costume and became Captain America.

Truth writer Robert Morales flipped the script on Captain America’s origin, and referenced a real-world situation in which men were used as lab rats, the “Tuskegee experiment.”  The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male was a real-life clinical study in which poor Black men were denied treatment for syphilis so that the doctors involved could study how the disease spreads through the body and eventually kills the infected person.

Morales posed the following question on Marvel Comics mythology:  What if realizing that the “Super Soldier” serum was potentially so dangerous and perhaps fatal that before testing it on a White man (Rogers), the government tested it on Black soldiers.  Obviously, it is hard to imagine that even a fictional version of the U.S. government and military, especially in the 1930s and 40s, would risk creating a platoon of super Negroes.

In Truth: Red, White & Black #1 (“The Future”), Morales introduces his characters and the era in which they live.  The story opens in July, 1940 in Queens, New York at The World’s Fair.  We meet a young Negro couple, Isaiah and Faith, who are honeymooning and enjoying “Negro Week,” the week that the Fair is open to Black people.  [Remember that this is a time of segregation of people by skin color or “race.”]  Portrayed as a loving couple given to bouts of witty banter, Isaiah and Faith only run into a bad time at the Fair when they are denied admittance to an exhibit.  This exhibit displays scantily-clad white women and…  well, Isaiah is a Black man and shouldn’t be allowed to openly lust and gaze upon the pristine, snowy flesh of a White woman, even if she is whore.

Morales next introduces Maurice Canfield, the son of well-to-do Negroes in Philadelphia.  Maurice is a labor organizer, and his activities have gotten him and a friend beaten by the stevedores they were trying to organize.  Next, Morales moves the scene to a pool hall in Cleveland in June, 1941.  There, we meet Luke Evans, a former Army captain demoted back down to sergeant after shoving a white superior who belittled the life of a black soldier killed by cracker cops.

On one page, for the briefest moment, Morales offers a glimpse of the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor (via a lovely page drawn by Kyle Baker), which is all that is needed to depict this pivotal and explosive moment in 20th century American history.  Although many Americans lose their lives during the attack, for other Americans, this tragic event offers a second opportunity.  That includes Luke Evans (who was moments from killing himself) and Maurice, who chooses enlisting to serve his racist country over spending 20 years at hard labor in prison.  Back in New York City, Isaiah likely sees military service as the beginning of an adventure.  Little do these three men know they are taking steps to lose themselves in the secret and hidden history of the United States of Marvel Comics.

I like this first issue Truth, which I first read about eight years ago.  Morales is quite good at creating three strikingly different black men, whose only connection is skin color, but who are still identifiably black men of their time.  Artist Kyle Baker’s loose, “cartoony” drawing style captures emotion through simple, yet classical cartoon facial expressions.  Baker gives each character his or her own unique physicality, but I would expect nothing less from one of the great comic book artists and storytellers of the last 30 years.  I eagerly look forward to reading more Truth.

[This comic book includes a three-page preview of X-Men #416 by Chuck Austen and Kia Asamiya.]

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

Christmas Gift Book Idea: Born on the Kitchen Floor in Bois Mallet

One thing these Thanksgiving and holiday gatherings can certainly do is let people know what other folks are up to.

I learned that my brother-in-law's sister, Lovey Marie Guillory, has recently published through Amazon a book about her family's history, which also covers Louisiana history and the story of Black Creoles in the state.  The book is "Born on the Kitchen Floor in Bois Mallet," and here is your Amazon link:





By Editor
THE END

Review: MARCH: Book One

MARCH: BOOK ONE
TOP SHELF PRODUCTIONS – @topshelfcomix

WRITERS: John Lewis and Andrew Aydin
ARTIST: Nate Powell
EDITORS: Chris Staros with Leigh Walton
ISBN: 978-1-60309-300-2; paperback (August 2013)
128pp, Black and White, $14.95 U.S.

Congressman John Lewis is Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District Representative (GA-5, Democrat).  Lewis was also one of the “Big Six” leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement (with the others being Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., James Farmer, A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young).  Before such fame and accomplishments, he was born John Robert Lewis in February 1940 to sharecropper parents, Willie Mae (Carter) and Eddie Lewis.  His early life, from farm boy to activist college student, is the focus of March: Book One.

March: Book One is a comic book written by John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, drawn by artist Nate Powell, and published by Top Shelf Productions.  This is the first of three graphic novels recounting the life of Congressman John Lewis.  March: Book One is both a riveting history of the United States during the second half of the 20th century and an evocative personal story of a famous man’s life.

Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights includes the key roles he played in the historic 1963 March on Washington and the 1965 Selma-Montgomery March.  March will apparently focus on Lewis’ personal story and on the highs and lows of the broader movement for civil rights in the U.S.

March: Book One opens on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama (part of the 1965 Selma-Montgomery March) on March 7, 1965, the date that would become known as “Bloody Sunday.”  The story moves forward to January 20, 2009, and sees Lewis share the story of his past with a mother and her two young sons.  The narrative moves back in time again, to the 1940s, where in first person, Lewis recounts the early events and incidents that shaped his life.

March: Book One’s co-writers John Lewis and Andrew Aydin recount Lewis’ life on a 110-acre cotton, corn, and peanut farm in Pike County, Alabama.  This section of the narrative covers Lewis’ time as a junior chicken farmer and chicken rights activist (of sorts) up to 1954.  Both reminiscence and personal history, it is as if Lewis and Aydin are spinning tales from the world of young John Lewis, yarns of childhood that go beyond the personal and intimate about Lewis and into the small world that his home and community.  So we learn about his family, their wishes, small incidents (like trading chickens for much-needed flour and sugar), their way of life (having to miss school to work the fields), and transformative moments (Lewis’ trip “up north” to Buffalo with his maternal uncle, Otis Carter).

In 1954, momentous events in the larger world outside of Lewis’ life as farm kid and ambitious country boy begin to transpire.  The Supreme Court rules “separate but equal” unconstitutional in Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka.  A young preacher named Martin Luther King, Jr. emerges.  Two adult white men kill a black child named Emmett Till, are acquitted of their crime, and publicly brag about (making them the original George Zimmermans).  On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a city bus.  The Civil Rights Movement is gaining momentum.

Lewis becomes a part of that movement when he becomes a student at American Baptist Theological Seminary.  He attends a workshop on non-violence taught by Jim Lawson.  Lewis later helps to organize sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee.  That begins with test sit-ins in 1959 and launches with the history changing real deal in February 1960, which culminates into an eventual public confrontation with Mayor Ben West of Nashville.

Obviously, John Lewis is a man who has made history.  However, in the humble and gentle way in which Lewis and Aydin tell this story, Lewis is as much a witness to history as he is a participant.  Lewis, the character in March: Book One, is not the hero who changed things.  He is also a participant, one among many; leader and organizer, yes, but also part of a fellowship.  This striking modesty brings the reader into the story, and in the retelling, allows the reader to be a quasi-witness to history.

I don’t think that I have ever seen any work by cartoonist and graphic novelist Nate Powell that was not published in black and white.  Powell’s black and white comics are not about the contrast of black and white – negative and positive space.  His storytelling is a graphical space in which black and white blends and unites to create nuance, subtlety, texture, complexity, ambiguity, and mystery.  For March: Book One, Powell creates a visual storytelling tapestry that is at once grand, earth-shattering history, but also singularly, personally intimate and deeply human.

In March: Book One, Lewis, Aydin, and Powell have created a story that wrestles grand history down to size so that it is not too big for anyone to grasp.  In this small-sized manner of storytelling, we can see the humanity in and importance of all the participants in our story we call history.

A+

For more information about March: Book One and to read a 14-page preview, visit here or http://www.topshelfcomix.com/march

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

------------------------------------------

"Listen, Whitey!" and Pat Thomas in the U.K. in April

Pat Thomas Travels Over Land and Sea With

Listen Whitey!: The Sights and Sounds of Black Power

Fantagraphics Books and Light in the Attic Records are excited to announce that author, lecturer, and music-man Pat Thomas is hitting the road with Listen Whitey!: The Sights and Sounds of Black Power. Meet the mofo behind the book that pays tribute to the Black Power Movement of the ’60s-’70s. Heading up the West Coast and then across the pond to England, Thomas will be giving talks, signing books, and playing tracks at both bookstores and record shops.

While researching this book project in Oakland, Thomas discovered rare recordings of speeches, interviews, and music by noted activists Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Elaine Brown, and others that form the framework of this definitive retrospective. Listen, Whitey! chronicles the forgotten history of Motown Records’ Black Power subsidiary label, Black Forum, which released politically charged albums by Stokely Carmichael, Langston Hughes, Bill Cosby, and Ossie Davis, among others. Obscure records produced by African-American sociopolitical organizations of the period are examined, along with the Isley Brothers, Nina Simone, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Watts Prophets, Roland Kirk, Horace Silver, Angela Davis, H. Rap Brown, Stanley Crouch, and many more. Thomas will give a slide and music presentation, and then sign copies of Listen, Whitey! and the companion CD of the same title from Seattle-based Light in the Attic Records. The album features rare tracks from African-American activists like Dick Gregory, Eldridge Cleaver, and the Last Poets, with protest music by Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Gil Scott-Heron, Roy Harper, and more.

Listen, Whitey! features nearly 200 pages of text accompanied by over 250 large sized, full-color reproductions of album covers and 45 rpm singles — most of which readers will have never seen before. The book creates a cultural context for the iconic images and the accompanying album.

For a preview and more information, visit www.fantagraphics.com/listenwhitey.

LISTEN, WHITEY!: THE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF BLACK POWER
By Pat Thomas
$39.99 USA
ISBN 978-1-60699-507-5
Published by Fantagraphics Books

Event listing information:

Monday, April 2, 12-1PM
University of Southern California
Ronald Tutor Campus Center
Geoffrey Cowan Forum, Room 207
Annenberg School across from Heritage Hall.
3607 Trousdale Pkwy
LOS ANGELES, CA 90089
213.821.3015
http://www.annenberg.usc.edu/

Wednesday, April 4, 7pm
Book Soup
8818 Sunset Blvd.
W. HOLLYWOOD, CA 90069
310.659.3110
http://www.booksoup.com/

Thursday, April 5, 7-8PM
AMOEBA Records, LA
6400 Sunset Blvd.
LOS ANGELES, CA 90028
323.245.6400
http://www.amoeba.com/

Saturday, April 7, TBA
Warbler Records & Goods
131 E De La Guerra St
SANTA BARBARA, CA 93101
805.845.5862
http://www.warblerrecords.squarespace.com/

Tuesday, April 10, 7:30PM
The Booksmith
1644 Haight St.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94117
415.863.8688
http://www.booksmith.com/

Wednesday, April 11, 7:30 pm
Pegasus Books 2349 Shattuck Ave.
BERKELEY, CA 94704
510.649.1320
http://www.pegasusbookstore.com/

Sunday, April 22, 7:30 PM
Powell’s City of Books
1005 W Burnside
PORTLAND, OR 97209
503.228.4651
http://www.powells.com/

Wednesday, May 9, TBA
University of Southampton
University Road, SOUTHAMPTON SO17 1BJ
+44 (0)23.8059.5000
http://www.southampton.ac.uk/

Thursday, May 10, TBA
SPONSORED AND PRESENTED BY
THE WIRE MAGAZINE
Cafe OTO
18 - 22 Ashwin St.
Dalston, LONDON E8 3DL
http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/

Friday, May 11, TBA
Rough Trade East “Dray Walk”
Old Truman Brewery
91 Brick Lane, LONDON
E1 6QL
+44 (0)207.392.7788
http://www.roughtrade.com/

Tuesday, May 15, TBA
Durham University
Lecture Room of the Music Department
The University Office
Old Elvet, DURHAM
DH1 3HP
+44 (0)191.334.6305
http://www.dunelm.org.uk/

Listen, Whitey! Fantagraphics Bookstore Kicks Off Black History Month

Listen, Whitey!

Celebrate Black History Month on February 4 at Fantagraphics Bookstore with two new books on the Civil Rights movement.

Fantagraphics Bookstore kicks off Black History Month on Saturday, February 4 with the debut of two diverse books. Seattle-based music scholar Pat Thomas, author of Listen, Whitey!: The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965 – 1975, will be joined by Seattle authors Mark Long and Jim Demonakos, who together with cartoonist Nate Powell created the graphic novel The Silence of Our Friends.

While researching this book project in Oakland, archivist Pat Thomas discovered rare recordings of speeches, interviews, and music by noted activists Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Elaine Brown, and others that form the framework of this definitive retrospective. Listen, Whitey! also chronicles the forgotten history of Motown Records’ Black Power subsidiary label, Black Forum, which released politically charged albums by Stokely Carmichael, Langston Hughes, Bill Cosby and Ossie Davis, among others. Obscure records produced by African-American sociopolitical organizations of the period are examined, along with the Isley Brothers, Nina Simone, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Watts Prophets, Roland Kirk, Horace Silver, Angela Davis, H. Rap Brown, Stanley Crouch, and others that spoke out against oppression.

Thomas will give a slide and music presentation, and limited number of advance copies of the book will be available to the public. Also making its debut is a companion CD of the same title from Seattle- based Light in the Attic records. The album features rare tracks from African-American activists like Dick Gregory, Eldridge Cleaver, Last Poets, and others, with protest music by Bob Dylan, John and Yoko Ono, Gil Scott-Heron, Roy Harper, and more.

The Silence of Our Friends is the semi-autobiographical tale of Mark Long. Set in 1967 Texas against the backdrop of the civil rights struggle, a white family from a notoriously racist suburb and a black family from its poorest ward cross Houston’s color line, overcoming fear and violence to win the freedom of five black college students unjustly charged with the murder of a policeman. Co-authored by Jim Demonakos (founder of Seattle’s Emerald City Comicon), and drawn by award-winning cartoonist Nate Powell, The Silence of Our Friends is a new and important entry in the body of civil rights literature.

Saturday, February 4 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery
1201 S. Vale St. (at Airport Way S.)
In Seattle’s colorful Georgetown neighborhood.
Phone 206.658.0110.

Leroy Douresseaux on INCOGNEGRO - A Graphic Novel Review

INCOGNEGRO - OGN
DC COMICS/VERTIGO

WRITER: Mat Johnson
ARTIST: Warren Pleece
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1097-7; hardcover
136pp, B&W, $23.99 U.S.

[I wrote this review over three years ago. Since then, I’ve come to believe that Incognegro is one of the best comic books of 2001-2010, the first decade of this new century, along with comics like The Original Johnson, Nat Turner, Louis Riel, and Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit.]

Award-winning author Mat Johnson has drawn acclaim for his books, including the novel, Hunting in Harlem and the non-fiction work, The Great Negro Plot. His entry into comic books was the six-issue miniseries, Hellblazer: Papa Midnite (now a trade paperback), published to coincide with the 2005 Hellblazer comic-to-film, Constantine.

Vertigo, the DC Comics imprint, released Johnson’s second comics project this past February as their offering for “Black History Month.” This Black History graphic novel, entitled Incognegro, is an absolutely terrific graphic work of detective fiction. Just to get this out of the way: the art by Warren Pleece doesn’t reach Johnson’s heights. The black and white composition is inconsistent from one page to the next, and the juxtaposition of dark and light and warm and cool space is erratic. This is peculiar considering that Pleece is a seasoned and respected professional.

Set in the 1930’s, Incognegro has as its heart, Zane Pinchback, a Harlem, NYC-based reporter for the New Holland Herald. Although Zane is a Negro, his skin complexion is so light that he can pass for a White man. In fact, he does. Zane occasionally leaves the relative safety of Harlem and heads to the Deep South where he infiltrates the local White populace – going “incognegro.” This colored version of going incognito allows him to take pictures of the lynching of black men (portrayed here as a civic event like a county fair or church picnic, which was often true in real life), as well as learn the names of the respectable folks attending these ghastly, all-too-human events.

The novel opens with a lynching, during which Zane’s cover is blown. After barely escaping with his life, Zane returns to Harlem and demands a new and safer job from his boss at the Herald. The boss wants one more column written by the mysterious “Incognegro,” and he’s sure Zane will be interested in covering this next case. It’s in Tupelo, Mississippi, where Zane’s estranged brother, Alonzo “Pinchy” Pinchback, is scheduled to hang for the murder of a white woman.

Zane races to Tupelo, once again passing as a White man, but this time, his aimless friend, Carl, a light-skinned Negro who can also pass, is coming along in hopes of learning how Zane does it, so he can take over when Zane quits being “Incognegro.” In Tupelo, however, Zane and Carl discover that this murder is set in a place where a Black person’s life is always in mortal danger. A labyrinthine mystery, with a huge cast of shady, inbred crackers, confronts Zane, and to make matters worse, someone quite deadly has arrived in Tupelo right behind Zane. This new arrival is no stranger to the famous/infamous newspaper columnist, “Incognegro,” and he plans on putting an end to the faux-White man.

As a murder mystery, Incognegro is just as good as any crime/detective comic book series or graphic novel published by an American comic book company. Stylistically, in terms of setting, plot, mood, atmosphere, and to a certain extent in the way the characters behave, Incognegro has the flavor of the work of brilliant African-American writer and mystery novelist, Walter Mosley (in fact, a quote from Mosley is on the front of Incognegro’s dust jacket). This is a riveting tale of a man in mortal danger, doggedly determined to find out who the real culprit is before his brother is lynched. What adds to the drama and conflict is that all of Zane’s efforts, regardless of if he solves the case or not, may earn him a rope around his neck.

If Incognegro makes a great statement about that misnomer “Race,” it’s that a person, who can be identified as “Black” or “Negro,” even if he has a light complexion or skin color, will face the same horrors of prejudice and racism as a man who obviously looks “Black.” It’s a matter of status as much as it is birth. People like to believe that there is always someone beneath them. Perhaps, it is a group of people that they believe they are better than and always will be better than. In the time in which Incognegro is set, dirt poor ignorant white trash has something in common with respectable white people – as white people they were better than niggers.

Someone born a nigger being able to pass for White must have terrified White people (and probably still does for some). If it’s so easy to stop being a Black man and become a White man, then, being White may not really have as much value as Whites believed. Still, in the context of this book, being Black meant a mob of White devils could, on a whim, decide to murder you – as the villain learns in the end.

Congratulations to Mat Johnson for presenting a graphic novel that is as riveting as it is ingenious. Incognegro is a thoughtful mystery tale and a nasty reminder of the kind of violence and hate that has left a lasting wound on our beautiful nation.

A+

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