Flavio Massarutto and artist Pasquale “Squaz” Todisco’s graphic biography Mingus is an artful recreation of the life of Charles Mingus (1922-1979), the acclaimed jazz bassist and bandleader and one of the great orchestral composers in jazz history. Massarutto and Squaz have created a poetic visual tribute to Mingus’s life and career beginning with his mixed race heritage (Black American, German, Native American) and early years growing up in 1930-1940s Los Angeles and detailing the history of the celebrated bands—featuring such legendary jazz musicians as Dannie Richmond, Eric Dolphy, and Jaki Byard—he organized after moving to New York City in the 1950s. The book evokes Mingus’s keen intelligence, volatile personality, and virtuoso musicianship, as well as the vicious anti-Black racism of the period and the battles with his record company over the passionate social convictions and satirical political outrage he embedded in much of his music. This ten-page excerpt recreates the 1960 recording session of Mingus’s memorable protest composition “Fables of Faubus"—overseen by jazz critic Nat Hentoff—which featured blisteringly critical lyrics ridiculing then Arkansas governor Orval Faubus as a fascist for sending the National Guard to prevent nine Black students—“The Little Rock Nine”—from integrating Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Mingus by Massarutto and Squaz is out now from NBM.