'Right To Read Day' is today!

Today is “Right To Read Day”— celebrating and defending the countless positives libraries facilitate for our communities, and defending our fundamental freedom to choose what and how we read, write, draw, publish, and express ourselves.

It’s an honor to have collaborated with the American Library Association and their Unite Against Book Bans campaign on this. Fascists are actively and explicitly working to defund and dismantle our libraries, public education, social supports, and our fundamental freedoms of press and expression through legislation, criminalization, and threats of violence.

Nationwide protests today.

These are the stakes.

Things are going to get unimaginably worse, but we— and only we, meaning all of us— can counteract and stop this death march. Love and solidarity to everyone, from all walks of life, who are showing up at noon today in cities across the nation to speak out against fascism, and for the fundamental tenets of a functional society which values humanity and compassion.

(panels below from my book Fall Through)

"Drawn To Freedom" illustration for ALA's "Right To Read Day"

It’s a joyous duty to team up with the American Library Association for their upcoming “Right To Read Day” on April 7th— here’s an illustration I contributed for their “Drawn To Freedom” campaign!

I’m not the ALA, so let me be plain and unrestrained with my language: there is an actual fascist takeover occurring in real time in the US, intent on permanently breaking democracy, overturning fundamental constitutional rights, stripping down and selling this country for parts in order to achieve total social control over our lives, public and private. Libraries are fundamental to a free society, and are true community centers. Their resources and benefits extend far beyond checking out books— and anyone who uses the library knows this.

Don’t take for granted what it means to live in a free society. That existence is quickly being disappeared. Protect everyone’s access to information and resources by learning more here.

Upcoming TMNT cover!

I’m happy to reveal my upcoming variant cover for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #11, which will hit stands this July from IDW— you can reserve one through your local comics shop.

This was such a fulfilling side quest—as a third-grader in Alabama, I stumbled into TMNT in the months just before all the licensing and cartoon launched in 1987. After grabbing a one-off TMNT martial arts guide, I spotted some Eastman/Laird/Lawson/Bode issues right around the “Return to New York” storyline. This was the first comic that actually looked dirty and gritty to my young eyes— really, I was seeing the cartoonist’s hand at work for the first time. Changed my life! I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Kevin Eastman (who’s a fan of our work on March) several times over the years, and he’s always been a kind and generous fellow to me.

60 years since Bloody Sunday.

Today marks the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday— a pivotal point in the Selma movment for Black Americans’ freedom rights, directly resulting in the necessary pressure for passage of the Voting Rights Act, crippled by the Republican-led Supreme Court in 2013. There’s a straight line from that decision to our fascist takeover today.

I’d like to highlight that the March 7, 1965 protest was in direct response to the police murder of 26-year-old Army veteran Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was hunted and killed during a peaceful protest in Marion, Alabama two weeks prior. Malcolm X was assassinated three days later.

At Jackson’s funeral, the idea emerged to march from Selma to Montgomery to place Jimmie Lee Jackson’s body at the steps of the state capitol.

Another point I’d like to highlight: dozens of racist state troopers who beat peaceful protestors on Bloody Sunday were accompanied by dozens more deputized white supremacist civilians— an actual fascist body of thugs— and the American Nazi Party had been present multiple times in Selma to counter-protest voting rights actions there.

Do you see? Fascism is what we’ve been fighting against for over a hundred years in the US. Stay in the fight and SHOW UP to salvage what we have left. A future self-determined, still in pursuit of multiracial democracy.

(All artwork is from our National Book Award & Eisner Award winning work March: Book Three— written by John Lewis & Andrew Aydin, drawn and lettered by me. Learn more here, and order signed copies directly from me here if you’re interested. Thanks for standing up for our work, keeping it in classrooms and libraries, and contributing to its survival.)

"The Language of Comics" poster + Scholastic Art combo pack available

Because so many educators & librarians wanted a way to get this poster: it’s the Jan/Feb 2025 issue of Scholastic Art magazine all about comics (including an interview with me, the cover illustration, and a “Language of Comics” spread I did), a giant 30” x 20.5” color poster of “The Language of Comics”, and Scholastic’s digital resource guide to the issue. I’ll sign the magazine too! Just selling them cheaply to give people access to the materials— Order directly from me here.

I think I only have about 30 of these available, so hop on it if you’re interested. Thanks!

Happy birthday to 'FALL THROUGH.'

Fall Through was released one year ago today, and I’m immensely thankful for the deep personal and emotional responses people have had about it, and about its exploration of our fragile free spaces in a world insistent on codifying, flattening, and mythologizing what we create together.

An earnest plea: if you enjoy my work, please buy a copy of Fall Through and/or have your library order a copy— I worked my ass off on this thing. Thank you!

There’s more to the story coming in 2026.

New interview & comic for Scholastic Art magazine!

This month I’ve got the cover-feature interview in Scholastic Art magazine, in which I discuss my path through comics! This magazine is used in most grade levels by teachers nationwide. I also made a mini-”Understanding Comics” spread to help show the language and tools of cartooning, in the hopes that more young people will take a chance at expressing themselves through the art form. (There’s also a giant poster-size version of this spread available from Scholastic!)

The interview is definitely condensed, so if you’re interested in a slightly more in-depth version, Scholastic has a video excerpt from our interview session up at their site, as well as teacher resources about comics and about the interview itself.

This March, I’ll be the keynote speaker at the National Art Education Association conference in Louisville, KY, and I believe everyone there will receive a copy of the issue to boot. I look forward to seeing you there, if you’ll be attending!

More 2025 events will be posted here on my site very soon. In the meantime, stay free, speak up, and speak out against fascism and its deathblows to democracy. This is not a drill.

Twitter account permanently deactivated.

Hey gang. Just confirming that I’ve officially deactivated my Twitter account— the handle was Nate_Powell_Art— which had remained entirely unused since earlier in 2024. Death to fascism. The platform had grown entirely unusable by late 2023, and I’m not playing ball with that Nazi shithead.

I’m posting this here to confirm that I have NO presence on either Twitter or Facebook (which I left in late November 2019)— so if you see any account which appears to be me, it’s an impostor.

I will continue to exist at present on Instagram and BlueSky. (Yes, I’m aware that Facebook’s parent company owns IG. Trying my best here to minimize the awfulness and continue doing the basics of promoting my work.)

Social media is not the future. Billionaires should not exist.

Brutality, truth-telling, and the real-time end of democracy.

If you have kids in your life, tomorrow you have a duty to talk to them, at their level of understanding, about the events of January 6, 2021. Remember and rely on your own experiences watching live, in real time, on camera— and in subsequent investigations, hearings, interviews, and journalism.

This was a violent, coordinated, pre-planned attack in attempt to permanently end democracy by overthrowing the US government and its electoral process— with the knowledge, encouragement, and participation of the incoming occupant of the White House.

If you do not do this— or if you do not understand why it’s so important for young people to know now, right now— we are not “on the same side.” Tomorrow will be a new stage in a very dangerous and disorienting war on shared collective memory, national memory, and the very concept of historical truth.

(Panels are from my adaptation of James Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me, penciled in 2021 as well.)

'FALL THROUGH' in best-of-2024 roundup at The Comics Journal

I’m very pleased and honored to see Fall Through in both Alex Deuben’s and Valerio Stive’s best-of-2024 roundups at The Comics Journal! This was a stellar year for comics, so check out all of these lists and follow your curiosity.

If you’re interested, Barnes & Noble is currently selling Fall Through at 50% off along with a bunch of sci-fi/fantasy titles!