 an important part of American history. With any luck, March will follow in the footsteps of Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story and inspire more individuals to make the sacrifices that push us down the road of social change.
In reviewing March, I reached out to Mr. Powell in hopes that he could share his thoughts regarding working on March, the idea of art facilitating social change, and other such musings. What follows is a portion of our conversation:
WA: Do you personally believe social change is attainable through art?
NP: Art and music have long been central components of bringing dialogue to the table, of making our world something to be talked about—and to that end, acted upon. Social change exists in a continuum, and is always occurring (quickly, usually with blood and tears, and gradually, with blood and tears).
WA: How were you selected as the illustrator for March ?
NP: I’ve been working with Top Shelf for about 10 years now, and we have a wonderful relationship. In early 2011 I was finishing work on Any Empire and The Silence Of Our Friends, and I remember reading a press release about March being signed to Top Shelf sans artist. I took note, but thought nothing of it, and had more than enough work lined up at the time. A couple of weeks later my publisher, Chris Staros, called me up and suggested that I try out for the role of artist. I made two demo pages from the March script and sent them back to Congressman Lewis and Andrew. Then I got some feedback, redrew the pages, and resubmitted them. We worked out some kinks and very quickly felt this was the right creative relationship. It was a very natural decision. I think I officially signed on in fall 2011.
WA: What attracted you to taking on this series?
NP: Only a fool would reject an offer to make something together with one of the most incredible and significant human beings of the last 60 years. John Lewis is the genuine article. Beyond that, his life story told through his words is deeply moving and transforming. It was a no-brainer.
WA: Can you speak to Congressman Lewis’s goals in having his life depicted in graphic novel form?
NP: Congressman Lewis and Andrew are both a little more focused on getting this information out to a new generation of people—I’m also invested in that, of course, but because all three of us are on the same page politically and socially, I’m afforded the opportunity to focus more on the formal and creative aspects of telling that story, using a narrative language I speak well. John definitely became much more aware of the potential within comics as our collaboration progressed—he had to trust Andrew and [me] to navigate that field.
WA: What was so appealing about working on a project aimed at a younger audience?
NP: It’s not aimed at a younger audience—this is the problem with books marked as being 13+, or labeled as YA, or otherwise at a teen audience. Andrew (as well as Leigh, publicist for Top Shelf) were more aware than I was of the potential in schools and libraries, and that a large percentage of books were going to be read specifically by teenagers, but I had absolutely no interest in the perceived demographic of readership. I now acknowledge it, and have learned a great deal from the process of getting the book out into the world, but I also think that anticipating one’s audience in any way is how shitty books are made. And it’s what the book industry, in general, loves to do. I made a focused effort not to dial back any of the violence, language, brutality, or sheer gravity of any scenes in this trilogy—I recognize that I’m sort of the gatekeeper of visual content here, and feel it’s important not to police any of that by virtue of being aware these are books filling up schools. Let the work speak for itself. Lots of indie comics readers might pass on the book simply because it’s perceived as being a YA title with a particular agenda, so I’m personally working against that grain.
WA: When you take on projects, whether they are collaborative like March or your own projects like Swallow Me Whole, do you conscio