The story about traveling north, and not being able to stop to eat or use the restroom, conveys the realities of the Jim Crow South in a manner that should be very vivid for younger readers. His Alabama roots are effectively and quickly conveyed. The depiction of the aspiring young preacher practicing sermons on this “flock” is priceless. Rebecca: I love the evocative drawing in the section on Lewis’s childhood, especially the stories about his early connection to the chickens he had to care for. All the artifice is stripped away so the story can shine through. So many comics are over-colorized nowadays, and it was refreshing to see this one done so simply and clearly. James: I was happy to see this drawn in gray tones. Lewis’s co-author Andrew Aydin would have done well to help the congressman fill in some facts to help the reader along the way there’s an assumption that the reader will connect an awful lot of dots.
There’s a date given, which the careful reader will realize is President Obama’s 2009 inauguration, but it’s not something the casual reader will pick up on right away. make a good framing device for Lewis’s recollections, but again, wish there were a few more details. The section could at least include the word Selma, or a date, for example. However, given that the goal of the book is to reach a wide audience that may not be familiar with the congressman’s past, I wish there were a few more details in those opening pages (and throughout the book). Rebecca: I also thought that starting with the “Bloody Sunday” incident in Selma-arguably the most influential event in Lewis’s long career-was effective. The framing and the pacing of the individual panels also work well, reminding me of Will Eisner’s sense of page design. James: I thought the storytelling was well done particularly starting with the incident on the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, and then using the framing device of the constituents visiting Congressman Lewis’s office in order to allow him to tell his story in flashbacks.
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