A mordant and highly original graphic novel that has readers reconsider Black resistance.
Birth of a violent nation.
In this trenchant graphic novel, the author is at home, lounging on a sofa in sweatpants, when his father walks in the door, having passed burning cars and a helicopter overhead. “You’re not on the street like everyone else?” the old man asks, wondering why his son isn’t protesting the police killing of a Black man. “Must think I have a death wish!” Passmore replies. “Get this cocoa butter condescension out of my house!” Beret-wearing Dad has his own powerful rejoinder: He slaps his son’s head with a book on Black liberation. The wallop sends Passmore back in time, taking him on an involuntary odyssey in which he witnesses injustices meted out to Black people throughout history—brutality that is met with resistance. It’s a shocking awakening for the young man, even if it takes time to sink in. “I’ve seen dudes get beat by cops already,” Passmore says when transported to a scene of police confronting Black men in New Orleans in 1900. “Why’d you bring me to caveman times for this?” Passmore soon finds out: One of the men is Robert Charles, who, after being clubbed, shot an officer—and was shot himself. Passmore dodges gunfire in the ensuing conflict. “Yo dad, beam me up!” he screams. “I’m not getting killed by Gone With the Wind bullets.” On his journey, Passmore sits in on a trial, attends Emmett Till’s funeral, and beholds violent clashes. In a meta turn, he addresses a TV audience’s concerns that he left out this or that historical episode. The tone of the book—drawn in lively black and white and pink images—is alternately haunting and hilarious, as when Passmore, author of the comic book series Daygloayhole, imagines what Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech sounded like to terrified whites, the impassioned minister envisioning the South “transformed into a paradise of interracial whoopie!”
A mordant and highly original graphic novel that has readers reconsider Black resistance.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593316122
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: yesterday
A heartwarming journey that, yes, goes boldly where few men have gone before.
The role of a lifetime: an actor as activist.
Takei famously came out of the closet at age 68, in 2005. Ever since, the actor has been working passionately as an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and social justice. In this sprightly and affecting graphic memoir, Takei guides readers on the winding path that led to his activism—and tells how he became an actor, known the world over for his portrayal of Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek franchise. Takei recounts his Japanese American family’s post–Pearl Harbor imprisonment in internment camps in Arkansas and California. “We were punished for looking different,” he says. “Then came this growing realization that I had another difference”—he was attracted to other boys. “I felt so alone,” he says in text accompanying a poignant illustration of him with his hands in his pockets, a despairing look on his face. Thankfully, Buddhism helped the youth; his temple taught him about acceptance—“maybe my feelings were a natural part of me.” His desire to fight injustice began early, when, as a teenager, he picked strawberries and challenged fellow Japanese Americans not to exploit Mexican workers. Takei studied architecture at UC Berkeley, but his “secret aspiration” to be an actor soon became a reality: He landed a voice-over gig that paved the way for a bright future. For decades, he lived a double life, afraid of others’ finding out that he was gay (which could have ended his career). His fear, though, didn’t stop him from championing causes—in addition to serving on the board of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, he volunteered for politicians, including Tom Bradley, who, as mayor of Los Angeles, named Takei to a public transportation board. The helmsman of the USS Enterprise, it turns out, helped the City of Angels get a subway system.
A heartwarming journey that, yes, goes boldly where few men have gone before.Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781603095747
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Top Shelf Productions
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
An accessible, informative journey through complex issues during turbulent times.
Immersion journalism in the form of a graphic narrative following a Syrian family on their immigration to America.
Originally published as a 22-part series in the New York Times that garnered a Pulitzer for editorial cartooning, the story of the Aldabaan family—first in exile in Jordan and then in New Haven, Connecticut—holds together well as a full-length book. Halpern and Sloan, who spent more than three years with the Aldabaans, movingly explore the family’s significant obstacles, paying special attention to teenage son Naji, whose desire for the ideal of the American dream was the strongest. While not minimizing the harshness of the repression that led them to journey to the U.S.—or the challenges they encountered after they arrived—the focus on the day-by-day adjustment of a typical teenager makes the narrative refreshingly tangible and free of political polemic. Still, the family arrived at New York’s JFK airport during extraordinarily political times: Nov. 8, 2016, the day that Donald Trump was elected. The plan had been for the entire extended family to move, but some had traveled while others awaited approval, a process that was hampered by Trump’s travel ban. The Aldabaans encountered the daunting odds that many immigrants face: find shelter and employment, become self-sustaining quickly, learn English, and adjust to a new culture and climate (Naji learned to shovel snow, which he had never seen). They also received anonymous death threats, and Naji wanted to buy a gun for protection. He asked himself, “Was this the great future you were talking about back in Jordan?” Yet with the assistance of selfless volunteers and a community of fellow immigrants, the Aldabaans persevered. The epilogue provides explanatory context and where-are-they-now accounts, and Sloan’s streamlined, uncluttered illustrations nicely complement the text, consistently emphasizing the humanity of each person.
An accessible, informative journey through complex issues during turbulent times.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-30559-6
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Metropolitan/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
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