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mschlat 's review for:
March: Book Two
by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin
It is difficult for me to read this book and not think of current events, of Charleston and Ferguson and the tragic connections between race and violence in the United States. While the first volume of March set the stage, the second volume focuses on the conflict, with special emphasis on the Freedom Riders.
There's a chilling two page spread that juxtaposes the aftermath of an attack on the Freedom Riders in Montgomery with the inauguration of Barack Obama. That ceremony (and John Lewis's presence at it) has been the framing sequence for the series, but it's often been separate from Lewis's telling of his story. Here, Lewis, Aydin, and Powell mix a scene of celebration (with the singing of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" at the inauguration) with inset images from Montgomery showing death, indifference, and --- in one unsettling panel --- an attacker's disgust with himself. The violence and conflict of the 1960's invade the story of the present-day, and it is easy to see how the attitudes of fifty years ago still linger and infect who we are.
The book also covers Lewis's speech at the March on Washington and clearly shows the struggle between Lewis's (and the SNCC's) impatience with more moderate voices in the civil rights movement. Lewis's amended speech (and the fight about it) are portrayed in the graphic novel, but the authors wisely put his original text in as an appendix.
As with the first volume, Nate Powell's artwork is astonishing, regardless if he is portraying the confusion of an attack or the laughs shared by Freedom Riders serving their sentences in jail. I did get lost a time or two with the large cast of characters, but that reflects the growing diversity of the civil rights movement of the time.
A tough read, but intensely compelling.
There's a chilling two page spread that juxtaposes the aftermath of an attack on the Freedom Riders in Montgomery with the inauguration of Barack Obama. That ceremony (and John Lewis's presence at it) has been the framing sequence for the series, but it's often been separate from Lewis's telling of his story. Here, Lewis, Aydin, and Powell mix a scene of celebration (with the singing of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" at the inauguration) with inset images from Montgomery showing death, indifference, and --- in one unsettling panel --- an attacker's disgust with himself. The violence and conflict of the 1960's invade the story of the present-day, and it is easy to see how the attitudes of fifty years ago still linger and infect who we are.
The book also covers Lewis's speech at the March on Washington and clearly shows the struggle between Lewis's (and the SNCC's) impatience with more moderate voices in the civil rights movement. Lewis's amended speech (and the fight about it) are portrayed in the graphic novel, but the authors wisely put his original text in as an appendix.
As with the first volume, Nate Powell's artwork is astonishing, regardless if he is portraying the confusion of an attack or the laughs shared by Freedom Riders serving their sentences in jail. I did get lost a time or two with the large cast of characters, but that reflects the growing diversity of the civil rights movement of the time.
A tough read, but intensely compelling.