the present together in a meaningful way.
WA: In illustrating March, what part of the story did you find the most difficult in depicting and why was it so difficult?
NP: One of the most challenging aspects is finding the proper balance between emotional, subjective, often internal representations of experience, and responsible, accurate depictions of real historical folks with real lives and families. The first scene I ever touched was young John Lewis’ first meeting with Dr. King, and I quickly learned how difficult it is to correctly draw King. His face is so recognizable, so iconic and simple, that any unessential line destroys the delicate rendering of his likeness. Virtually every character comes with that same baggage—a lot of research and practice to give the illusion of an effortless, consistent likeness.
Also, the unconcealed brutality. In Book One, the most difficult page was definitely drawing the corpse of Emmett Till accurately but “tastefully”, responsibly but without cleaning up the sheer horror of what these monsters did to a teenage boy.
WA: Along the same lines, of your illustrations in March, are there particular images you found (or hoped) to be powerful depictions of the Civil Rights Movement?
NP: In Book One, it’s definitely the scenes of activists walking through a rare snowy day in Nashville, exiting their church, moving through downtown, entering stores. This is largely because of the romance carried in Southern snow, of these young people being caught up in it amidst their mission. Another powerful sequence is John Lewis getting sucker punched as he approaches a Woolworth’s counter, then in a Steve Ditko-esque 3-panel sequence, forcing himself back to his feet, taking the counter seat as his peers continue to be beaten and pulled from chairs as they attempt to sit.
WA: Despite the United States currently having a President whose biracial heritage is so clearly evident, where do you see the Civil Rights Movement currently standing?
NP: The “Civil Rights Movement” is a fairly specific thing, and so I assume you’re talking about contemporary struggles for human rights outside of that specific movement—we’ve arrived at a spot in which we have no choice but to push issues to the forefront of public discussion again, revealing the deep, pervasive presence of white supremacy in our lawmakers and cultural fabric, at times made worse by many white people’s privileged thinking that we’ve arrived at a place beyond traditional racism (and this is by no means limited to racism, of course). The push backwards has consistently gotten louder and more dangerous in the last five years, and there’s no more space for Baby Boomer-era fence-sitting and moderation. While working and speaking out to advocate for all folks’ dignity and sovereignty, it’s also true that we do just have to wait for a previous generation’s attitudes to weaken and fade as people die off.
WA: What do you hope older readers will gain from March?
NP: What can’t be gained? It’s a powerful, deeply personal narrative, and perhaps enough time has passed that a return to a first-person account never before depicted in this manner does in fact reveal new perspectives on these collectively shared cultural memories. The book’s narrative focus is much different than Walking With The Wind in that regard, and hopefully pushes older folks to revisit and share their own experiences of living through this massive social transition.
 http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/watch/civil-rights-history-illustrated-in-new-book-62229571856 (accessed March 15, 2014).
 Graphic novels are much longer and tend to be more complex. While a comic book often tells a story over many issues, graphic novels more often have their storylines wrapped up in only one or two books. For the sake of brevity, I chose to combine both mediums in discussing the power of art to feed social change.
 http://clatl.com/atlanta/the-comic-book-that-changed-the-world/Content?oid=8807186 (accessed March 15, 2014).
 http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/Op-Ed/2011/02/20/Comic-heroes-of-the-Egyptian