March

For the Class lecture on stereotypes in comics, I decided to read "The March" by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell. It is a three part graphic novel about the civil rights movement from the perspective of U.S Congressmen John Lewis.  It jumps back and forth in time weaving together two points in history. Both time lines are progressing forwards side by side. It is a very powerful historical drama about the forefront of the student movement into the civil rights movement.  It did a great job of chronologically showing the events that really launched the movement as well as how it progressed and the obstacles that they had to face. The beautiful black, grey and white illustrations reflect the seriousness and powerful subject. If it was super cartoony it would have separated it too much from reality,  Nate Powell found an graphic and powerful way to visually tell the story. Each panel has a great composition, as well as the page lay-out.  moving away from the visuals of the Novel, I wanna relate it back to the lecture on stereotypes. This novel does a great job of not using stereotypes, every character who is in the novel was based on or representing a real person.  The creators of the book are often times in pictures standing next to Congressmen John Lewis.  I am not sure if he had a hand in this project, but his support of the novel gives the work validity.  It is more of a visual history, forcing on the events then it does focusing on the individuals. Even so all the the characters have a grounding in history. It pushes back on the long history of stereotyped blacks in comics.  The best art is created when the artist has a personal connection to their work and knows where they are coming from.