Book-It 'o13! Book #32
The Fifty Books Challenge, year four! (Years one, two, three, and four just in case you're curious.) This was a library request.
Title: March Book 1 by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell
Details: Copyright 2013, Top Shelf Productions
Synopsis (By Way of Back Flap): "March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.
Book One spans John Lewis’ youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a stunning climax on the steps of City Hall.
Many years ago, John Lewis and other student activists drew inspiration from the 1950s comic book Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story. Now, his own comics bring those days to life for a new audience, testifying to a movement whose echoes will be heard for generations."
Why I Wanted to Read It: John Lewis is a living legend yet a humble man who continues to inspire and instil awe as he continues to work for justice.
How I Liked It: What I somehow missed when first requesting this book is that it's one of apparently a trilogy. Given that "BOOK ONE" is a part of the title, this was particularly clueless on my part, but I was too excited to see John Lewis in graphic novel form to focus on such things. Why do I dislike books in installments? I point you to the You'll Never Know series, which managed to be incredibly difficult to find, making the "What happens next?!" fervor that much more annoying. And this book was just published this year, which means it's at least another year for the next book, and that's an optimistic estimate.
For roughly three fourths of the book, it relies on the framing device of a woman and her two young boys visiting DC to attend the first inauguration of Barack Obama and stopping by John Lewis's office ("We stopped by because I want the boys to see their history. I wanted them to know how far we've come.") on the way there. As he gives a tour of his office, he gives a story of his early life (we'll allow that his story is a little too long and a little too detailed for casual visitors, particularly when he's supposed to be in a hurry). Warning bells were already going off as "the present" is Lewis poised to witness the inauguration of the first Black president, supposedly the culmination of his decades of civil rights work (but an intensely problematic historic event, as Obama's election to the presidency is seen by too many as "proof" racism is over). The depiction of modern-day Lewis is a little too flattering, even if it's drawing upon an actual event (which is likely, if not in that timing): the woman reacts to finding Lewis himself in his office as though she's meeting a rock star and Lewis is shown repeatedly dismissing aids who prod him that he must hurry to get to the inauguration, as he's too busy giving time to this woman and her boys. While from everything I know about the man these actions do seem in character (and it wouldn't be unheard of for someone to react in such a way when surprised with John Lewis's presence, particularly if she thought enough of him to go out of her way to make sure her boys knew of his importance), it comes off as self-flattery, particularly when the bulk of the story is in Lewis's own voice.
That aside, the book is nothing short of brilliant. It's well-paced and the art is gorgeous, with plenty of "cinematic" angles (the long stretches of racist crowds that stretch seemingly endlessly Lewis and his contemporaries as they're hauled to jail, dialog-free stretches that rely on subtle character expressions or faint but poignant changes in setting ala a door cracked, close-ups of various characters to show only their eyes). The book manages to evoke setting and conflict through what it doesn't say or show, rather than what it does. While in the hands of other authors and another artist too many scenes would be bogged down with action that dulled their impact, the creators have a deft and delicate hand for storytelling.
As frustrating as it may be to have to wait years for the culmination of this series, I have no doubt it will be worth the wait.
Notable: I've complained about artists rendering stories that involve real people and trying to "animate" certain facial expressions. Too often, it can look flat and expressionless, like a traced Xerox of the person's face with a cartoon body attached. While various historic figures (save for Lewis himself, particularly the modern version) may not look precisely like their real life inspirations, they evoke enough to be identifiable, and even better, are able to convey true expressions.
In what's amusing to me is a background grab that's so identifiable (which is handy as he's never specifically identified) as to be almost caricature: as Lewis goes about his morning preparing for the big day ahead, he catches some news footage of the preparation for the inauguration, anchored by none other than NBC's own Brian Williams.
Title: March Book 1 by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell
Details: Copyright 2013, Top Shelf Productions
Synopsis (By Way of Back Flap): "March is a vivid first-hand account of John Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on the distance traveled since the days of Jim Crow and segregation. Rooted in Lewis’ personal story, it also reflects on the highs and lows of the broader civil rights movement.
Book One spans John Lewis’ youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a stunning climax on the steps of City Hall.
Many years ago, John Lewis and other student activists drew inspiration from the 1950s comic book Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story. Now, his own comics bring those days to life for a new audience, testifying to a movement whose echoes will be heard for generations."
Why I Wanted to Read It: John Lewis is a living legend yet a humble man who continues to inspire and instil awe as he continues to work for justice.
How I Liked It: What I somehow missed when first requesting this book is that it's one of apparently a trilogy. Given that "BOOK ONE" is a part of the title, this was particularly clueless on my part, but I was too excited to see John Lewis in graphic novel form to focus on such things. Why do I dislike books in installments? I point you to the You'll Never Know series, which managed to be incredibly difficult to find, making the "What happens next?!" fervor that much more annoying. And this book was just published this year, which means it's at least another year for the next book, and that's an optimistic estimate.
For roughly three fourths of the book, it relies on the framing device of a woman and her two young boys visiting DC to attend the first inauguration of Barack Obama and stopping by John Lewis's office ("We stopped by because I want the boys to see their history. I wanted them to know how far we've come.") on the way there. As he gives a tour of his office, he gives a story of his early life (we'll allow that his story is a little too long and a little too detailed for casual visitors, particularly when he's supposed to be in a hurry). Warning bells were already going off as "the present" is Lewis poised to witness the inauguration of the first Black president, supposedly the culmination of his decades of civil rights work (but an intensely problematic historic event, as Obama's election to the presidency is seen by too many as "proof" racism is over). The depiction of modern-day Lewis is a little too flattering, even if it's drawing upon an actual event (which is likely, if not in that timing): the woman reacts to finding Lewis himself in his office as though she's meeting a rock star and Lewis is shown repeatedly dismissing aids who prod him that he must hurry to get to the inauguration, as he's too busy giving time to this woman and her boys. While from everything I know about the man these actions do seem in character (and it wouldn't be unheard of for someone to react in such a way when surprised with John Lewis's presence, particularly if she thought enough of him to go out of her way to make sure her boys knew of his importance), it comes off as self-flattery, particularly when the bulk of the story is in Lewis's own voice.
That aside, the book is nothing short of brilliant. It's well-paced and the art is gorgeous, with plenty of "cinematic" angles (the long stretches of racist crowds that stretch seemingly endlessly Lewis and his contemporaries as they're hauled to jail, dialog-free stretches that rely on subtle character expressions or faint but poignant changes in setting ala a door cracked, close-ups of various characters to show only their eyes). The book manages to evoke setting and conflict through what it doesn't say or show, rather than what it does. While in the hands of other authors and another artist too many scenes would be bogged down with action that dulled their impact, the creators have a deft and delicate hand for storytelling.
As frustrating as it may be to have to wait years for the culmination of this series, I have no doubt it will be worth the wait.
Notable: I've complained about artists rendering stories that involve real people and trying to "animate" certain facial expressions. Too often, it can look flat and expressionless, like a traced Xerox of the person's face with a cartoon body attached. While various historic figures (save for Lewis himself, particularly the modern version) may not look precisely like their real life inspirations, they evoke enough to be identifiable, and even better, are able to convey true expressions.
In what's amusing to me is a background grab that's so identifiable (which is handy as he's never specifically identified) as to be almost caricature: as Lewis goes about his morning preparing for the big day ahead, he catches some news footage of the preparation for the inauguration, anchored by none other than NBC's own Brian Williams.