Graphic nonfiction on political conflict and activism ranges from comics journalism, like that of Eisner winner Joe Sacco, to graphic memoirs such as John Lewis’s March series. Following their raised fists, here are six forthcoming comics that call readers to action.
Black Arms to Hold You Up: A History of Black Resistance
This fantastical history time-hops to showcase lesser-known figures and events in the Black liberation movement, from armed resistance advocate Robert Charles to the Black nationalist Republic of New Afrika. Passmore leavens the heady with humor. “My therapist would say my approach is a coping mechanism,” he says.
Elon Musk: American Oligarch
“My approach is to lay out the facts brick by brick, like in a court building the evidence,” Cunningham says of his graphic biography of the tech entrepreneur turned presidential senior adviser. Covering billionaires is essential, because “they’re in charge of our political systems and the very politicians we’ve voted for.”
Gaza in My Phone
Kerbaj writes that Israel’s bombardment of Gaza “is the first genocide to be captured in real-time on devices we hold in our hands,” in his collection of cartoons mostly from Instagram. One depicts a cluster of skulls with the word genocide embedded and slightly hidden. “If you cannot see it,” the caption reads, “you’re supporting it.”
Holler: A Graphic Memoir of Rural Resistance
Cartoonist and climate activist Nalamalapu’s portraits of Appalachian activists showcase the diversity in the movement to ban the Mountain Valley Pipeline. These profiles of “everyday resistance capture the impact of what a single person can do in the face of corporate greed,” per PW’s review.
It Rhymes With Takei
The Star Trek actor and activist chronicles how for most of his life he tried to maintain artistic and personal integrity while hiding his sexuality as a closeted gay man, before becoming an LGBTQ+ advocate. It’s “a deeply felt and good-humored graphic memoir that charts his long journey toward self-acceptance,” per PW’s review.
The Once and Future Riot
Comics journalism forefather Sacco documents the conflict between the relatively well-off Hindu Jat ethnic group and the mostly poor Muslim minority in Western Uttar Pradesh, India, demonstrating “how politicians leverage violence to fan the flames of old conflicts that then beget new violence,” per PW’s starred review.
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