26 Graphic Novels Celebrating Black Lives

Passmore masterfully constructs comics about race, gentrification, the prison system, online dating, gross punks, bad street art, kung fu movie references, beating up God, and lots of other grown-up stuff with refreshing doses of humor and lived relatability, earning an Eisner nomination, Ignatz Award for "Outstanding Comic," and praise from NPR.

An original graphic novel celebrating the life of the glorious athlete who metamorphosed from Cassius Clay to become a three-time heavyweight boxing legend, activist, and provocateur: Muhammad Ali. Not only a titan in the world of sports but in the world itself, he dared to be different and to challenge and defy through his refusal to be drafted to fight in Vietnam, his rejection of his "slave" name, and ultimately his final fight with his body itself through a thirty-year battle with Parkinson's disease. Witness what made Ali different, what made him cool, what made him the Greatest.

At a time of few opportunities for African American women, Jackie Ormes (1911-1985) blazed a trail as a popular cartoonist with the major black newspapers of the day. Her comic strips Torchy Brown and Patty-Jo 'n' Ginger provide an invaluable glimpse into American culture and history, with topics that include racial segregation, U.S. foreign policy, educational equality, and other pressing issues of the times-and of today's world as well. This biography, recognized as a "Best Book" by the Village Voice and with "Best Book" citations in three Booklist categories, features a large sampling of Ormes's cartoons and comic strips.

Paris, 1925. Over the course of a single evening, the Mississippi-born dancer Josephine Baker becomes the darling of the Roaring Twenties. Some audience members in the Theatre des Champs-Elysees are scandalised by the African American's performance in La Revue Negre, but the city's discerning cultural figures, among them Picasso and Cocteau, are enchanted by her exotic, bold and uninhibited style. When her adopted country grants her citizenship in 1939, Josephine sees her fame as a means of helping the French resistance. She takes advantage of her globe-trotting lifestyle to pass on messages and to gather information. Years later, she is awarded the Legion d'honneur by Charles de Gaulle. In the 1950s, installed in a palatial 15th century chateau, Josephine adopts 12 children from different ethnic backgrounds. Her "Rainbow Tribe," as she often called them, was a living, breathing symbol of a happy and harmonious multicultural society. In Josephine Baker, Catel and Bocquet paint a glorious portrait of a spirited, principled and thoroughly modern woman, capturing the heady glamour of 1920s Paris in beautifully expressive detail.

The story of Nat Turner and his slave rebellion - which began on August 21, 1831, in Southampton County, Virginia - is known among school children and adults. To some he is a hero, a symbol of Black resistance and a precursor to the civil rights movement; to others he is monster - a murderer whose name is never uttered. In Nat Turner, acclaimed author and illustrator Kyle Baker depicts the evils of slavery in this moving and historically accurate story of Nat Turner's slave rebellion. Told nearly wordlessly, every image resonates with the reader as the brutal story unfolds. The book also includes an afterword by Baker.

From bestselling author Max Brooks, the riveting story of the highly decorated, barrier-breaking, historic black regiment - The Harlem Hellfighters! Despite extraordinary struggles and racism, the 369th Infantry became one of the most successful - and least celebrated - regiments of World War I. The Harlem Hellfighters, as the Germany Army named them, spent longer than any other American unit in combat and displayed extraordinary valor on the battlefield. Bestselling author Max Brooks tells the thrilling story of these courageous men in pages grittily inked by acclaimed illustrator Canaan White.

From acclaimed authors Patricia C. McKissack and Fredrick L. McKissack Jr. comes a thrilling biography of an unforgettable man told in compelling graphic novel form. Born into slavery in 1854, Nat Love, also known as "Deadwood Dick," grew up to become the most famous African-American cowboy in the Old West. A contemporary and acquaintance of Bat Masterson and Billy the Kid, Nat was a real Wild West character. Featuring lively full-color artwork by Randy DuBurke, Best Shot in the West is an exhilarating mix of high-interest historical fiction and nonstop adventure.

Araminta Ross was born a slave in Delaware in the early 19th-century. Slavery meant that her family could be ripped apart at any time, and that she could be put to work in dangerous places and for abusive people. But north of the Mason-Dixon line, slavery was illegal. If she could run away and make it north without being caught or killed, she'd be free. Facing enormous danger, Araminta made it, and once free, she changed her name to Harriet Tubman. Tubman spent the rest of her life helping slaves run away like she did, every time taking her life in her hands. Nathan Hale tells her incredible true-life story with humor and sensitivity.

(W) Roland Laird, Taneshia Nash Laird (A) Elihu "Adofo" Bey
Still I Rise is a critically acclaimed work with an impressive scope: the entire history of Black America, told in an accessible graphic-novel form. Updated from its original version - which ended with the Million Man March - it now extends from the early days of colonial slavery right through to Barack Obama's groundbreaking presidential campaign. Compared by many to Art Spiegelman's Maus, Still I Rise is a breathtaking achievement that celebrates the collective African-American memory, imagination, and spirit.

Baseball Hall of Famer Leroy "Satchel" Paige (1906-1982) changed the face of the game in a career that spanned five decades. Much has been written about this larger-than-life pitcher, but when it comes to Paige, fact does not easily separate from fiction. He made a point of writing his own history... and then re-writing it. A tall, lanky fireballer, he was arguably the Negro League's hardest thrower, most entertaining storyteller and greatest gate attraction. Now the Center for Cartoon Studies turns a graphic novelist's eye to Paige's story. Told from the point of view of a sharecropper, this compelling narrative follows Paige from game to game as he travels throughout the segregated South. In stark prose and powerful graphics, author and artist share the story of a sports hero, role model, consummate showman, and era-defining American.

The creator of the greatest comic strip in history finally gets his due-in an eye-opening biography that lays bare the truth about his art, his heritage, and his life on America's color line. A native of nineteenth-century New Orleans, George Herriman came of age as an illustrator, journalist, and cartoonist in the boomtown of Los Angeles and the wild metropolis of New York, and Herriman's Krazy Kat cartoons quickly propelled him to fame. Yet underlying his own lifewas a very private secret: known as "the Greek" for his swarthy complexion and curly hair, Herriman was actually African American. Michael Tisserand brings this little-understood figure to vivid life, paying homage to a visionary artist who helped shape modern culture.

  illustrated by R. Crumb, with Stephen Calt, David Jasen, & Richard Nevins
Anyone who knows R. Crumb's work as an illustrator knows of his passion for music. And all those who collect his work prize the Heroes of the Blues, Early Jazz Greats, and Pioneers of Country Music trading card sets he created in the early to- mid-1980s. Now they are packaged together for the first time in book form, along with an exclusive 21-track CD of music selected and compiled by Crumb himself, featuring original recordings by Charley Patton, "Dock" Boggs, "Jelly Roll" Morton, and others.

Written by Percy Carey
Art and cover by Ronald Wimberly
Underground hip-hop icon Percy "MF Grimm" Carey tells the true story of his life in the game - from dizzying heights to heartbreaking losses - in this raw, brutally honest graphic novel memoir.
In SENTENCES, Carey chronicles his life in the sometimes glamourous, often violent, world of hip-hop. From the first time he picked up a microphone at a bloc party to the day he lost the use of his legs to gang violence and back around to his reincarnation and rise to the top of his game as a Hip-Hop Grand Master, no questions are left unanswered and no apologies are made, resulting in a truly moving graphic novel National Public Radio called "powerful" and Time Magazine labeled as "a top 10 best graphic novel of 2007."

As the civil rights struggle heats up in Texas, two families - one white, one black - find common ground. This semi-autobiographical tale is set in 1967 Texas, against the backdrop of the fight for civil rights. A white family from a notoriously racist neighborhood in the suburbs and a black family from its poorest ward cross Houston's color line, overcoming humiliation, degradation, and violence to win the freedom of five black college students unjustly charged with the murder of a policeman.