Media Release -- This August will mark the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington that changed civil rights in this country forever. One of its organizers was John Lewis, the 23-year-old chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and easily the youngest person on the program. Today, he is the only speaker from that podium still living, and he carries its legacy with him. He has served in the US House of Representatives for over 25 years, his bestselling 1998 memoir has been called "the definitive account of the civil rights movement," and he recently received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the first African-American president.
Now, remembering how a 1950s comic book helped to spread the philosophy and tools of nonviolent resistance among his generation of activists, Congressman Lewis has a new project to do the same for today's youth.
August 13th, 2013 will see the release of March: Book One, the first volume of a graphic novel trilogy by Congressman Lewis, with co-writer Andrew Aydin and award-winning artist Nate Powell. March, according to publisher Top Shelf Productions, will bring Rep. Lewis' memories of the civil rights movement to new life, in order to empower new generations to use the tools and experience of the past as they work to build the future.
As Lewis recently explained to a packed crowd at BookExpo America, the March trilogy builds on the tradition of a 1958 comic book, "Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story," which helped inspire student sit-ins in Nashville, Greensboro, and across the country. In Lewis' youth, parents and teachers warned him not to get into trouble, but studying the examples of Gandhi, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King led him to an understanding of nonviolent protest: "I was inspired to get in trouble -- good trouble. Necessary trouble. I want to inspire, through this book, another generation of young men and young women to march again for what is right." In the wake of recent youth protests around the world, he said, "I want to see young people here in America feel the spirit of the 1960s, to find a way to get in the way."
March is a historic landmark, as the first graphic novel ever written by a member of Congress or Medal of Freedom recipient. It's making history in other ways too: Top Shelf recently announced a back cover blurb from President Bill Clinton (calling Lewis "a resounding moral voice in the quest for equality"), and a release-day appearance on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" - both unprecedented for a graphic novel! Congressman Lewis will also follow up his BookExpo appearance with several other promotional stops, including CNN's "State of the Union" and feature presentations at the American Library Association, Comic-Con International, the National Conference of African American Librarians, the Decatur Book Festival, and more to be announced. The critical response so far is glowing, with prestigious starred reviews from industry journals Booklist ("dazzling") and Kirkus Reviews ("a powerful tale of courage and principle"), while Comic Book Resources and Publishers Weekly have both called it "one of the most anticipated comics of the year."
March: Book One will be published on August 13th, two weeks before the March on Washington 50th anniversary.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
JOHN LEWIS is the U.S. Representative for Georgia's 5th district and an American icon known for his role in the civil rights movement.
He first joined the movement as a seminary student in Nashville, organizing sit-ins and participating in the first Freedom Rides, which challenged illegal segregation at bus stations across the South. He soon became the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and one of the "Big Six" national leaders of the movement, alongside such figures as Martin Luther King, Jr. and A. Philip Randolph.
As SNCC chairman, Lewis was an architect of, and the youngest featured speaker at, the historic 1963 March on Washington, and was a key figure in the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer. Together with Hosea Williams, he led the landmark 1965 Selmaâ€"Montgomery March (known as "Bloody Sunday"), where police brutality spurred national outrage and hastened passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Despite physical attacks, serious injuries, and more than 40 arrests, John Lewis has remained a devoted advocate of the philosophy of nonviolence. His subsequent career has included voter registration activism, service on the Atlanta City Council, and over 25 years in Congress.
Lewis was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2011, and was the first recipient of the John F. Kennedy "Profile in Courage" Lifetime Achievement Award. His 1998 book Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, called "the definitive account of the civil rights movement" (The Washington Post), won numerous honors, including the Robert F. Kennedy, Lillian Smith, and Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. His most recent book, Across that Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change, received the NAACP Image Award.
ANDREW AYDIN, an Atlanta native, currently serves in Rep. John Lewis' congressional office handling telecommunications and technology policy as well as new media. Previously, he served as communications director and press secretary during Rep. Lewis' 2008 and 2010 re-election campaigns, as District Aide to Rep. John Larson (D-CT), and as Special Assistant to Connecticut Lt. Governor Kevin Sullivan. Andrew is a graduate of the Lovett School in Atlanta, Trinity College in Hartford, and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
NATE POWELL is a New York Times best-selling comic book artist/writer born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1978. He began self-publishing at age 14, and graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2000. His work includes the critically acclaimed Any Empire, Swallow Me Whole (winner of the Eisner Award and Ignatz Award, finalist for the LA Times Book Prize), The Year of the Beasts, The Silence of Our Friends, and Sounds of Your Name.
In addition to March, Powell is also currently drawing the graphic novel adaptation of Rick Riordan's #1 international bestseller Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero, while writing and drawing his own forthcoming graphic novel Cover and assembling the short story collection You Don't Say.
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
Top Shelf Productions (www.topshelfcomix.com), based in Marietta, Georgia, is the literary graphic novel and comics publisher best known for its ability to discover and showcase the vanguard of the comics scene. Founded by co-publisher Brett Warnock in 1995, and joined by co-publisher Chris Staros in 1997, Top Shelf has produced over three hundred graphic novels and comics that have helped to revitalize interest in comics as a literary art form.
Among Top Shelf's most notable releases are Alan Moore's From Hell, Lost Girls, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; Craig Thompson's Blankets; Andy Runton's Owly; Robert Venditti & Brett Weldele's The Surrogates; Jeff Lemire's Essex County and The Underwater Welder; Jeffrey Brown's Clumsy and Unlikely; and Harvey Pekar's Cleveland.
Top Shelf titles have garnered critical accolades from the likes of Time Magazine, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, Publishers Weekly, The New Yorker, and the New York Times, nominations for the LA Times Book Prize and the Canada Reads program, and honors including the Eisner, Harvey, Ignatz, and Alex Awards.
