The real origin story behind how Rep. John Lewis became THE hit of Comic-Con…

[bananas]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by DonViejo (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Washington Post

In costume as his 25-year-old self, “Selma marcher” Rep. John Lewis leads an impromptu parade of purpose through the halls of the San Diego Convention Center on Saturday during Comic-Con. (photo courtesy of Top Shelf Productions)

LAST YEAR, on a warm April day, Rep. John Lewis sat on stage at D.C.’s Walter E. Washington Convention Center and shared the story of what new worlds he had encountered since becoming Congress’s first-ever graphic novelist. “I went to Comic-Con and Small Press (Expo) and Dragon Con,” the congressman recounted about attending his first nerd-culture festivals. “It sort of changed my life.”

Just then, this living legend hopped for a half-second and pivoted toward me, to reveal just how much he’d observed at these events. I was moderating the congressman’s panel at Awesome Con, to celebrate “March: Book One” — the launch of Lewis’s acclaimed civil-rights trilogy as illustrated memoir — and had introduced him as the truest hero at an event packed with people “cosplaying” (or costume-playing) as fictional caped crusaders and superpowered crimefighters.

“The mistake I made, when I went out to Comic-Con, I didn’t wear my official outfit,” said the ever-dapper Georgia congressman, in coat and tie, nodding to the popularity of cosplay at Comic-Con International in San Diego, the American granddaddy of such pop-culture circuses. I decided to bite.

“–And what is that outfit?” I interjected, following the congressman’s lead as if we’d scripted it. His eyes twinkled.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2015/07/13/the-real-origin-story-behind-how-rep-john-lewis-became-the-hit-of-comic-con/

[BrotherIvan]

1. This is the best article you will read all day!!

The graphic novel looks amazing. And just when we were talking about text books taking out mentions of slavery and Jim Crow, along comes a teacher who uses Rep. Lewis' books in the classroom! How perfect is that to teach kids what really happened from someone who was there.

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

[bananas]

2. Yes - the article includes some images from the graphic novel!

Didn't want to include them because they are large!

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. We interviewed him three years ago

When it launched. The lines back then were huge. So were the lines to get it signed.

If we never do anything more that will be a highlight.

[BrotherIvan]

6. If I was still teaching high school

I would have found a way to get a whole set in the classroom. The images from the novel really make you feel like you're there. It is absolutely amazing and I'm going to order the first volume now and probably just loan it out once I'm done. I am so impressed with the whole idea I can't tell you. And who knew there was a comic book of MLK? This is going to go to go down in history like the book Maus about the Holocaust. Incredible idea and execution.

[starroute]

12. There are more images from the first volume in this 2013 article

http://www.wired.com/2013/08/john-lewis-march-comic-book/

[starroute]

13. And here's a link to images of that 1957 comic about MLK

http://www.ep.tc/mlk/index.html

While looking for information on the MLK comic, I also stumbled on this interesting item from 2011:

http://harvardpress.typepad.com/hup_publicity/2011/06/nonviolence-without-borders-nico-slate.html

A 50-year-old comic book about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s approach to nonviolent resistance has been translated into Arabic and has been circulating amongst protesters in Egypt and throughout the Middle East for months. According to a recent article by CNN, the cartoon is only one manifestation of a broad interest in the civil rights movement amongst today’s nonviolent activists. The comic book in question, Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, itself documents an older link between the civil rights movement and freedom struggles throughout the world. The comic book, which can be found here, traces King’s leadership back to the nonviolent civil disobedience campaigns led by Mahatma Gandhi in India.

As I detail in my forthcoming book, Colored Cosmopolitanism: The Shared Struggle for Freedom in the United States and India, connections between Indian and African American freedom struggles go well beyond the relationship between Gandhi and King. The comic book was published by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), a pacifist organization that by the time of the Montgomery Bus Boycott had been working for decades to translate Gandhian methods for use in the struggle for racial equality in the United States. FOR helped organize the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), an interracial organization that launched sit-ins modeled on Gandhian protest in the early 1940s and later pioneered the freedom rides.

[historylovr]

3. What an awesome story!

Comi-Con and DragonCon are big deals. And those kids. They'll remember this.

[Android3.14]

4. If you have not read these graphic novels, you owe it to yourself to make a purchase

They are amazing.
After I, Mrs. 'Droid and our two 'Droid upgrades read them a couple of times, we donated our copies to the local library.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. I am keeping mine.

Signed by all three, Powell, Aydin and Lewis 😀

[BrotherIvan]

8. Bonus points

I know someone's little brother who is going to get my copy and maybe he will share it with some friends. A fantastic gift to give a girl or boy too.

[klook]

9. A true superhero

Thanks for posting about this inspiring and moving event!

I'm proud to say Mr. Lewis is my Congressional rep. He is America's voice in Congress, really, so the rest of you can claim him, too -- I won't mind.



P.S. I've been in lurk mode for several months, but came out of hiding to kick and recommend this thread. I can think of no better use for my 5,000th post on DU.

[McCamy Taylor]

10. Beautiful!

[Android3.14]

11. Just an FYI

There are two graphic novels (so far)
March - Book One
March - Book Two

[DonViejo]

14. Locking...

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