Here’s my first of two pieces for longtime friends Lucero, for their upcoming tour with Jason Boland & The Stragglers! We’ll be releasing some t-shirt artwork soon as well— thanks as always to Erin Tobey for her digital/color assistance on these pieces.
Happy 25th anniversary to Lucero, with incredibly fond memories of the new, slow, quietly crushing jams they brought to humid Belvedere shows in Little Rock back in 1998.
Today marks 3 years since we lost the big boss, John Lewis— freedom fighter and friend, collaborator and hero. I’ve been thinking about the hundreds of times we parted ways with a hug, taking for granted that the team would reconvene the next weekend or whenever.
He was such a good sport with all the adventures March took us on— so generous, and such a true believer in what we and Andrew built together with these books, and their potential to incite an intergenerational awakening.
Let’s keep building the fire.
If you’re so inclined, here’s a piece Andrew Aydin and I wrote about the urgency of carrying on John Lewis’s legacy, published by CNN after his passing.
I woke up to the great news that my 2021 book Save It For Later is the New York Public Library’s “Book of the Day!”
Please request that your local library order a copy, ensuring that it’s accessible for free to all. Just go to the front desk and ask about putting in a book request. Thanks!
All right, back to work on some new books.
I’ll be discussing my nonfiction, historical & memoir work on this “Comics Out Of Life: Conversations With Our Past” panel, alongside Thien Pham and moderator Raina Telgemeier— as a part of A2CAF in Ann Arbor, Michigan!
The panel will be on June 9th at 2pm, at the Koessler Room, Michigan League (911 N. University). Check here for more details, and here for more info on A2CAF, where I’ll be tabling all weekend.
In New Jersey news: what an honor to have March included in Kamala Khan’s hometown curriculum (alongside Nikki Giovanni, Nikole Hannah-Jones, and the Spider-Verse books!) as proof of concept that young people are not afraid to learn accurate history and how to apply its lessons today.
We’ve been saying this for years now: memory laws, “discomfort” laws, and book-ban campaigns seek to exploit the emotions and weaknesses of many white parents who don’t want to answer their kids’ questions, or nurture their curiosity. (Here’s my Washington Post op-ed comic with Andrew Aydin from 2022 about all of this in the context of March and specific cookie-cutter book-ban legislative language.)
But young people want to learn and question— so let’s continue to help them grow. This is the 10-year anniversary of the release of March: Book One— let’s continue to honor the legacies of the civil rights movement, and the late, great freedom fighter John Lewis by keeping this history alive and available.
Fellow pro-democracy, antifascist white people: don’t sit this out.
At last, announcing my next original graphic novel, Fall Through— out February 6, 2024 from Abrams ComicArts!
You may recognize the band Diamond Mine from my 2018 book, Come Again, or the cover of my 2017 Omnibox— now it’s their time, every time, all the time. Fall Through is an interdimensional 1990s punk soap opera centered around the ideals and interpersonal struggles between Jody and Diana, dual creative engines of Diamond Mine, lost indefinitely on their band’s do-it-yourself tour— seeking out connection and an elusive Free Space for themselves and their community each night.
It’s emotional, it’s critical, it’s kinda sexy and funny and queer and idealistic and creepy— and it was the most fun I’ve ever had making a book. And there’s bootleg magic involved!
I also think it’s important to note that Fall Through was drawn from 2020-2022, and served a very important role as pandemic therapy for me: people are already so insistent on memory-holing the fact that all of our social and physical bonds were severed in March 2020 (some irrevocably), and one of the great joys in my life was drawing scenes of a beloved underground community built on trust, depicting throngs of people— friends and strangers both— touching, sweating, yelling, breathing, singing together in confined spaces. Fall Through is my love letter to these spaces, to the ways in which it’s shaped my life, and to the power of that interconnectedness.
You can get more info here from Abrams, and pre-order the book through all the usual routes including Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. (I’ll be posting comics shop ordering info when the time comes!)
Please spread the word if you can— the life or death of a book largely depends on individual people like you hyping books you love, or are excited about. Thank you so much! I’ll be doing lots of book events throughout 2024 for this book (and my next, also out next year)— stay tuned.
I’m coming out of my cave next month!
Back in my hometown of North Little Rock, Arkansas: It’s a major joy to announce that part of my Soophie family will be reuniting on June 3rd to cover a few Trusty songs during Mutants of the Monster Fest— a tribute show for one of the most formative bands of my life, and as a memorial for beloved Trusty drummer Bircho, who passed away in 2020.
Our unit will be covering songs from Trusty’s self-titled 1990 LP, a four-piece with members of Deadbird, Pallbearer, Universe, Tem Eyos Ki, R.I.O.T.S., and half of Soophie Nun Squad! This is my first show in 12 years, and I’m already running through songs in my sleep each night.
And Trusty themselves are playing, with Marcus Lowe on drums!
This tribute will be immediately following a book event I’m doing with fellow author Kim Kelly (Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor)— both at Refuge Church in North Little Rock; book talk at 2:30 pm, show at 4 pm. This will be my first time to ever discuss my forthcoming graphic novel, Fall Through— which is appropriate, since it revolves around the 1990s Arkansas punk underground. See you there!
CORRECTION: I’ve updated the text of this post with the correct event times— please disregard the times stated on the flyers above. Turns out the show must end by 5pm— thanks!
Then on June 10-11, I’m a guest at A2CAF at the Ann Arbor District Library— I’ll be slangin books there at my table, as well as doing a panel/interview. Athenaeum Comic Art will also be at my table during a two-hour window TBD, selling some of my original artwork if anyone’s interested. More details to be added to the events page!
It’s been a few weeks, so here’s a quick roundup of recent stuff while I keep my head down to finish drawing Lies My Teacher Told Me by the end of the year— both that book AND Fall Through will be released in 2024!
Here’s a recently-published interview I did last year with the thoughtful Chauncey Devega about my work (specifically Save It For Later, “About Face”, and the March trilogy) and how it intersects with our world.
March was recently included on this great list of “22 of the Best Graphic Novels of All Time” over at Book Riot!
Here’s a video recording of a recent class I hosted at Sequential Artists Workshop— the theme is “Crossing Senses: Conveying Sound, Smell, Taste, Touch, and the Spidey-Sense Visually.”
Thanks for checking in!
In between my current book projects, here’s another for-fun X-Men piece: Storm over Krakoa!
I’m happy to show off my gatefold artwork for The Wrack Line 2xLP by my longtime friend & collaborator Your Heart Breaks! It’ll be out in July from Kill Rock Stars— you can preorder it in your preferred format/medium/platform here. Thanks!
10 years ago this weekend, I had just finished drawing March: Book One and joined my collaborators John Lewis & Andrew Aydin on a pilgrimage to sites of the civil rights struggle in Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma, Alabama.
It’s increasingly hard to wrap my head around that weekend’s sincerity and sense of reckoning, in the knowledge that the last decade’s rise of mainstreamed fascism and white supremacy— including concrete work to dismantle the entirety of our society’s gains from the civil rights movement onward, as well as consolidated efforts to suppress the history and context of the civil rights movement itself. That includes coordinated intimidation campaigns and legislative attempts to ban and suppress our own work on March, including schools in John Lewis’s own congressional district. (I’ve written about all of this additionally at CNN, the Washington Post, and the Nib.)
Other specific moments, like then-Montgomery chief of police symbolically removing & giving his badge to John Lewis (specifically identifying the white supremacist police forces preceding him as “doing the work of evil”), and then being fired for it shortly afterward— a decade later, this kind of gesture is unthinkable as police have far beyond passed a point of no return.
I’m remembering that powerful weekend through the lens of still being fairly early in our work on the March trilogy, but I’m mostly struck with sadness and anger at a majority of white American adults’ refusal to question, learn, grow, and fight back against the rapidly-consolidating monster of fascism today. Fascism will come for them, too, and you, too— unless we stop it.
Our institutions absolutely will not save us. Only we will save us, strangers as neighbors. All power to the people— and especially all power to the young people.
I have some original artwork from March and Save It For Later currently on display at Boston University’s Stone Gallery (855 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215) through March 24th as a part of the “Comics Is A Medium, Not A Genre” exhibit curated by Joel Christian Gill. If you’re in New England, go check it out— thanks!
I finally joined the 21st century and got a linktree to help keep things readily accessible at linktr.ee/natepowell.
James Loewen penned the above words back in 1995 for the original edition of Lies My Teacher Told Me— and it’s truer than ever today, in the face of increasingly hostile and violent opposition. This book helped lay the foundation for so much of how we think about and discuss American history at the high school and college levels, and I’m so eager to release my forthcoming comics adaptation in spring 2024 from The New Press.
More info and an official announcement later in the year!
Absolutely mind-blowing: Minneapolis county attorney Mary Moriarty was sworn in yesterday with her hand on a copy of March! I know John Lewis would be beside himself, beaming with the spirit of history in effect.
This year brings the (hopefully broadly acknowledged) understanding that social media is not a permanent outlet when we are its product. Back to making more drawings for the enjoyment of drawing itself, as I continue inking my adaptation of Lies My Teacher Told Me.
Also on the horizon in 2023: my recently-completed graphic novel Fall Through will be released around August! Official announcement in the coming months.
In the meantime, I kicked off the year with this Kate Pryde & Lockheed piece! Kate is my all-time favorite member of the X-Men.
And while I’m at it, here are a few more: Illyana/Magik, and Psylocke/Wolverine and Storm drawings from the very beginning of the pandemic.
If you’re interested in original artwork, I have a few dozen pages for sale via Atheneum Comic Art— this includes pages from most of my pre-2020 books. Listings are being updated currently, and there should be a good sampling of Sweet Tooth and Black Hammer pages added in the next few days as well! All pages are signed and dated by the year in which they were drawn.
(To prevent undue shock, please be aware that my March pages are considerably more expensive than my other work. This has always been the case whenever they’ve been available for sale, and I’m not in a hurry to part with them. Thanks for understanding.)
Hi everybody! I’m still inking Lies My Teacher Told Me (The New Press, 2024), and working on cover art for Fall Through while slogging through this awful wave of brutal anti-LGBTQ terrorism and legislation, combined and amplified by the kneecapping of Twitter. Check in with your queer, trans, and non-binary friends and loved ones, and be ready and willing to stick up for those in your community.
I still have a Twitter account for now, but if you follow me, you know that I mostly use the platform for news and current events. I’m still on Instagram (@seemybrotherdance), and have recently joined Hive (@natepowell), which has been pretty wonderful. My Hive account will be pretty comics-centric— see you there!
Here are two drawings I did for fun this week of Jody and Diana, the main characters from Fall Through (which will be released around August 2023):
Thanks to everyone who’s stood behind Save It For Later over the past year and half, reflecting what we’ve collectively weathered over the past decade— unfortunately it’ll only be increasingly relevant as both a time capsule and a letter to our days of future present.
Along the way, Save It For Later received 2 starred reviews, 4 award nominations, and was featured on 5 best-of-the-year lists. You can order a signed/sketched copy directly from me here.
Keep fighting, keep loving, look out for each other and stay human. See you in the streets.
The irresponsibility. The insecurity. The sheer stupidity.
Don’t carry firearms in public on a costumed children’s holiday— doing so makes our entire society unsafe, which (I know) is authoritarian wish fulfillment.
