{"id":29422,"date":"2024-02-22T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T09:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=29422"},"modified":"2024-02-21T17:39:09","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T17:39:09","slug":"incognegro-a-graphic-mystery-10th-anniversary-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/02\/22\/incognegro-a-graphic-mystery-10th-anniversary-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Incognegro: A Graphic Mystery (10th<\/sup> Anniversary edition)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Mat Johnson<\/strong> & Warren Pleece<\/strong>, with Clem Robbins<\/strong> (Berger Books\/Dark Horse)
\nISBN: 978-1-50670-564-4 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-50670-591-0<\/p>\n

What\u2019s prejudice? How does bigotry and unthinking fear and hatred of otherness work? What happens when haters can\u2019t tell the difference between \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d?<\/p>\n

Those are frankly disturbing and astonishing questions first asked in 2008 in an Original Graphic Novel released by DC\u2019s Vertigo imprint which made a lot of noise and changed some lives. The book won acclaim and awards and its subject matter started conversations in exactly the right places: classrooms where it became a selected text for high schools and colleges. The questions have not gone away and the issues have not been resolved but the book and its sequel remain to carry on asking them.<\/p>\n

This 10th<\/sup> Anniversary edition reprints the original tale in all its moody monochrome glory, backed up by a contextualising Author\u2019s Note (\u2018I grew up a black boy who looked white\u2019<\/em>) and Afterword plus a copious sketchbook section featuring designs by Warren Pleece and \u2018Reading Group Guide\/Questions & Topics for Discussion\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The tale itself is set in the segregationist South of the early 1930s and opens at a social gathering in Tuscaloosa with families all cheerfully gathering to see a black boy strung up. As the attendees patiently queue for a picture with the \u201cstrange fruit\u201d, a newcomer takes their names and addresses. It\u2019s only when the commemorational photographer denies hiring him that Zane Pinchback<\/em> of (New York City\u2019s African American newspaper) The New Holland Herald<\/strong> realises that he\u2019s pushed his luck and needs to run for his life now.<\/p>\n

Sadly, however, not before a visiting bigwig from the Ku Klux Klan gets a good look at him and starts wondering\u2026<\/p>\n

Safely back north of the Mason-Dixon Line, Pinchback\u2019s latest headline grabber upsets liberals and shames the perpetrators, but the journalist is still unhappy. His expos\u00e9s change nothing and he feels a fraud: a proud black man who makes a living pretending to be white. He can\u2019t even use his own name – hence his byline \u201cIncognegro\u201d – or face on his widely syndicated columns: that would instantly negate the genetic advantage of a negro who can \u201cpass\u201d for white. Things are liberal enough in Manhattan that he and his debonair wastrel pal Carl<\/em> can intermingle with most folk and go drinking in swish clubs, but Zane knows things can go bad easily enough and resolves to quit and go legit\u2026<\/p>\n

His editor staunchly refuses to accept, instead offering him a deal: one more undercover assignment. He\u2019s certain Zane will accept. The negro jailed in Tupelo, Mississippi accused of killing a white woman is someone he\u2019s known his entire life. Heading off in a hurry and readying himself to play the high stakes game of his life, Zane has no idea how complex and convoluted this job will be, or that blithely incautious Carl has invited himself along to a place where his kind of playful idiocy has lethal consequences\u2026<\/p>\n

Author Mat Johnson took inspiration from his own childhood and exploits and activities of Walter White<\/em> (ultimately Chief Exec of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) who began his career investigating lynchings because of the same genetic quirk as Zane Pinchback.<\/p>\n

Still available in hardcover, trade paperback, digital editions and even in the original DC\/Vertigo edition, Incognegro<\/strong> is smart, funny where it can be and devastatingly effective whenever it needs to be. As well as the racial injustice so savagely skewered here, this is a cunning and engrossing murder mystery with plenty of twists, which even finds room to have a stab at the still largely unaddressed problems of women\u2019s independence and transgender acceptance. If you love great storytelling underpinned by real-world issues, this is something you must see.
\nIncognegro \u2122 & \u00a9 2008, 2018 Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mat Johnson & Warren Pleece, with Clem Robbins (Berger Books\/Dark Horse) ISBN: 978-1-50670-564-4 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-50670-591-0 What\u2019s prejudice? How does bigotry and unthinking fear and hatred of otherness work? What happens when haters can\u2019t tell the difference between \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d? Those are frankly disturbing and astonishing questions first asked in 2008 in an … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Incognegro: A Graphic Mystery (10th<\/sup> Anniversary edition)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[335,75,239,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-crime-comics","category-drama","category-historical"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7Ey","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29424,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29422\/revisions\/29424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}