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APB: Artists against Police Brutality
An incredibly unique comic book benefit project featuring comic shorts, pin-ups, short essays, and flash fiction, the proceeds of which will be going to the Innocence Project
We’ve all seen the pictures: a six-year-old Ruby Bridges being escorted by U.S. marshals on her first day at an all-white, New Orleans school in 1960; a police dog attacking a demonstrator in Birmingham; fire hoses turned on protesters; Martin Luther King Jr. addressing a crowd on the National Mall. These pictures were printed in papers, flashed across television screens, and helped to change the laws of this nation, but not necessarily all of the attitudes. Similarly, we’ve seen the pictures of Michael Brown lying face down in a pool of his own blood for hours; protesters with their hands up, facing down militarized policemen. There are videos of Eric Garner choked to death, John Crawford III shot down in Walmart for carrying a toy gun, and 12-year-old Tamir Rice gunned down in broad daylight for the same reason. APB: Artists Against Police Brutality is a benefit comic book anthology that focuses on hot-button issues including police brutality, the justice system, and civil rights, with one primary goal: show pictures and tell stories that get people talking. The proceeds will go to the Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people.
Bill Campbell is the founder of Rosarium Publishing and the author the novels Koontown Killing Kaper, My Booty Novel, and Sunshine Patriots as well as the essay collection, Pop Culture: Politics, Puns, and “Poohbutt” from a Liberal Stay-at-Home Dad. He is the coeditor of the anthologies Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond and Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany. He lives in Washington, DC.
Jason Rodriguez is an Eisner and Harvey Award–nominated writer and editor. He is the author of Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened and Try Looking Ahead, and his work has been published by Dark Horse Comics, Random House, and several small publishers. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.
John Jennings is an associate professor of visual studies at the State University of New York–Buffalo. He is an award-winning graphic novelist and the author of Pitch Black Rainbow: The Art of John Jennings.
We’ve all seen the pictures: a six-year-old Ruby Bridges being escorted by U.S. marshals on her first day at an all-white, New Orleans school in 1960; a police dog attacking a demonstrator in Birmingham; fire hoses turned on protesters; Martin Luther King Jr. addressing a crowd on the National Mall. These pictures were printed in papers, flashed across television screens, and helped to change the laws of this nation, but not necessarily all of the attitudes. Similarly, we’ve seen the pictures of Michael Brown lying face down in a pool of his own blood for hours; protesters with their hands up, facing down militarized policemen. There are videos of Eric Garner choked to death, John Crawford III shot down in Walmart for carrying a toy gun, and 12-year-old Tamir Rice gunned down in broad daylight for the same reason. APB: Artists Against Police Brutality is a benefit comic book anthology that focuses on hot-button issues including police brutality, the justice system, and civil rights, with one primary goal: show pictures and tell stories that get people talking. The proceeds will go to the Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people.
Bill Campbell is the founder of Rosarium Publishing and the author the novels Koontown Killing Kaper, My Booty Novel, and Sunshine Patriots as well as the essay collection, Pop Culture: Politics, Puns, and “Poohbutt” from a Liberal Stay-at-Home Dad. He is the coeditor of the anthologies Mothership: Tales from Afrofuturism and Beyond and Stories for Chip: A Tribute to Samuel R. Delany. He lives in Washington, DC.
Jason Rodriguez is an Eisner and Harvey Award–nominated writer and editor. He is the author of Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened and Try Looking Ahead, and his work has been published by Dark Horse Comics, Random House, and several small publishers. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.
John Jennings is an associate professor of visual studies at the State University of New York–Buffalo. He is an award-winning graphic novelist and the author of Pitch Black Rainbow: The Art of John Jennings.
200 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2015
2 people are currently reading
244 people want to read
About the author
Damian Duffy
17 books89 followersDamian Duffy is a cartoonist, scholar, writer, curator, lecturer, teacher, and Glyph Comics Award-winning graphic novelist. He holds a MS and PhD in Library and Information Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His many publications include academic essays (in comics form) on new media & learning and art books about underrepresentation in comics culture.
On his off hours he teaches classes on cultural politics of computers and/or wrestles his children.
A co-founder of Eye Trauma Studios, Damian has given talks and lead workshops about comics, art, and education internationally.
On his off hours he teaches classes on cultural politics of computers and/or wrestles his children.
A co-founder of Eye Trauma Studios, Damian has given talks and lead workshops about comics, art, and education internationally.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 23, 2017
This anthology of comics, personal stories, and political essays about police brutality is worth reading. It's depressing and moving, as you might guess from the subject matter. It shouldn't be the only thing you read about broken policing, but it's a very good starting point. I was surprised to learn about the extensive history of race riots in the US. For well over a century, it was common for white people to riot against particular racial minorities in their area, including Irish and Chinese immigrants. There are also several interesting fiction and nonfiction invocations of superhero tropes.
September 8, 2019
It's so hard to rate anthologies, because there was some great pieces in here. This book combines comics, stories and essays all focused around police brutality. What I liked most about this anthology was the variety of perspectives offered, from various people affected by police brutality. There's black men being victimized by the police. There's parents worried for their children. There's women who's loved ones were murdered. There's a white cop, who's brother-in-law and nephew are black. There's a sister who remembers her brother as a sweet boy who's now a murderer with a badge, but she refuses to give up on him. There's a person who was raised by an abusive cop; a great perspective considering the high levels of domestic violence in officers and the added difficulties victims of officers have in getting help.
There were a range of great topics. I think the history of riots was a great essay.
But my favorite was "No Black Child Left Behind: Schools Policing Students of Color." Probably because I'm an educator of sorts and this has been a major issue for me. I'm an informal educator. I've worked for various zoos and aquariums and I bring animals to schools and teach classes. I've traveled to different schools in 4 states and I've seen how students are treated. One of my biggest frustrations is seeing cops permanently stationed at schools where most of the students qualify for free lunch. As Bettina L. Love has managed to beautifully explain why this is such an issue, in a much better way than I ever could, here's what she had to say.
"Most Black and Brown students who attend urban public middle or high schools in the United States enter their school buildings under police surveillance. In fact, inner city schools resemble airport security checkpoints (threat level orange) or penitentiaries rather than a place of learning, rooted in the ideas of egalitarianism. As students of color walk into their schools, it is customary for them to empty their pockets, remove nonessential clothing, and walk through metal detectors with armed police officers directing their movements. Moreover, after students enter the building their whereabouts are tracked in real-time by countless surveillance cameras. Thus, students of color are treated like homegrown terrorists who are tracked, attacked, and presume guilty on-sight. From our schools' perspective, urban youth are radicalized by their urban condition and skin color. For example, in the metro D.C. area, more than 30,000 surveillance cameras monitor students' every move. If you ask local school officials why such extreme measures are needed to ensure school safety, officials will highlight crime and school shootings; however, both stats are in decline. Beyond surveillance cameras and metal detectors, in October of 2012, the New York Times reported that San Antonio's Northside Independent School District was tracking students' locations using radio frequency identification nametags. School officials declared that the nametags were to track student's daily enrollment, which is tied to school finance.
More importantly, as I have written before students of color are treated like criminals and domestic terrorists, tragic mass school shootings in the U.S. actually occur in suburban schools (e.g., Columbine High, Littleton, CO (1999); Heritage High, Conyers, GA (1999); Chardon High school, Chardon, OH (2012); Sandy Hook Elementary, Newtown, CT (2012)). However, metal detectors are overwhelmingly placed in urban schools. As such, "placement of school surveillance equipment is not based on actual facts, but school officials' perceptions of who is and who is not violent or a criminal, which are ultimately based on skin color, not criminal justice data" (Love, 2013, p. 5)
The ways in which schools police their students of color are important to understanding how officers can kill Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and 12 year-old Tamir Rice without hesitation. Bodies of color are presumed guilty and under police suspicion from the moment they are born. The real-life indictment of Black students as suspicious and shady characters starts in school. They never get the freedom of innocence-as a child learning about life, naive to the world or a young adolescent trying to learn from his or her mistakes. Thus, they never get a second chance. Kids of color are tracked as criminals from the day they enter school. For example, there are numerous cases across the country of police putting young Black and Brown kids, as young as six and seven years old, in handcuffs for "misbehaving." Their parents are forced to have "the talk" with their children earlier in life about being submissive, still, and overly polite when stopped by cops because any slight movement and/or bass in your voice could land you in jail or dead. The talk is for their safety, but it robs them of their childhood. And that is the problem. Black and Brown children never get to be children. Never experiencing the feeling of just being free, a life of stress starts when Black youth enter school and are viewed and treated like adults. Educational scholar Gloria Ladson-Billings (2011) put a fine point on the treatment of Black students, particularly Black males, when she wrote:
About a year ago I went into four schools in a city of about 700,000. The first school had mostly White students and I was amazed at how freely students were permitted to walk the halls and move about the classroom. It was only in places where safety was an issue, where the children's bodies were tightly controlled (e.g. there was a portion of the play yard where cars were permitted to drive to drop off students). However, when I made my way to schools serving large numbers of Black students (and in one case the entire student population was Black) I could not help but notice the degree to which every aspect of the students' activities were regulated-not just what they were taught, but also how their bodies were controlled. They were required to wear uniforms; they had to line up in particular ways, they were prohibited from talking in social spaces like hallways and the cafeteria. There is only one analogy to this kind of regulation-prison (p. 10)
Black kids are being killed inside and outside of schools. Internally, their spirits are being murdered by labels of dangerous, aggressive, and unteachable by the time they enter school. Outside the school, those perceptions are amplified and carried out with lethal force. As we hashtag the struggle -#ICantBreathe (referring to Garner's documented last words), #HandsUpDontShoot (in reference to Brown's alleged last action), and #BlackLivesMatter- in order to bring the pain and realities of Black people to the forefront of the public conversation, we cannot forget that our youngest are in classrooms with their hands up, losing their breath, and questioning whether their education, and ultimately, their lives, matter."
This reached me at my core. I absolutely deplore this treatment of our kids. I've seen if first hand. Many times, in many schools. Teachers treat the children in their care as if they are just fuck-ups waiting to happen. I have seen how teachers of students of color control their every movement and punish things like swinging their legs or ridiculous things like that, while in predominantly white schools, children get up and walk around the classroom at will. And I have a much larger sample size.
Even well-meaning teachers have said to me that "you have to be tough with these kids." My response- not any tougher than others. At some of the facilities I've worked for, they always scheduled me to teach the "difficult" schools or groups because I seemed to do well with them where others have struggled. But working with these students for me is the same- I earn their respect and give it in return, I model the behavior I want them to demonstrate- as in I don't bully them, I talk about their needs and my needs and we find a solution. I have never once gotten into a power struggle with an adolescent. The notion of "tough love" is used way too often. Teachers bully their students and then wonder why their students don't know how to respond, communicate or deal with issues in any other way.
Just for fun, here's a couple stories from one facility I worked at.
I was going over the curriculum for an after school program. This on-going program meets twice a week for several months, giving us an awesome opportunity to engage our students. The average grade for our students was roughly 4th grade, yet the curriculum was covering only Kindergarten science standards. We had no Kindergarteners in our program. I asked my supervisor why this was and she said "Trust me, with these kids, you'll be lucky if they even get that." However, the curriculum had been built the previous year. She had never worked with "these kids"- not these individuals anyway. I redid the curriculum to be at the appropriate standards level and actually even a little higher, adding a few concepts usually for up to 6th graders. My students excelled. Their pre and post assessments indicated that they were (of course) capable of learning more. Further, the schools where I taught, using the new curriculum, had the highest retention rate for the optional after school program than any others. To use Bettina's words, they were not "unteachable," and in fact wanted to be challenged.
Another time, I sat between two supervisors from two different facilities. Both had previously been formal educators, teaching elementary school. They were talking about the difficulties they had "controlling" their students when they taught at Title 1 schools. One teacher commented that she had more than a few Jose's and Victor's, wink, wink. (I actually have a cousin named Jose and another one named Victor...) Then the other teacher starting making fun of some of her students ethnic names, saying one student had a stripper name. Another student was name La-a. When she mispronounced her name, the girl explained that it's said La-dash-a. She said "you say the dash." The teacher then said that it wasn't a dash, but a hyphen and then proceeded to call her Lahyphena for the rest of the school year. These two teachers were laughing about this bullying and simultaneously wondering why the students didn't respect them and how they had trouble "getting them under control."
Anyway, I have way too many stories like this. I also have seen how the children react to having police officers walking down their hallway. They shrink up, avert their eyes... it's so sad. I've had students talk to me about it (unsolicited) and it breaks my heart.
It's nothing but fear that drives these decisions. Not fear of violence or the criminal element, but fear of losing power or not being in control. The fear of losing face if someone contradicts you or questions your authority. But these kids should be questioning it, as people in positions of authority don't always have their best interests at heart. Teachers should be more open and even encouraging of that, and earn the authority their title grants them with their students by being decent human beings. Because just because you have their compliance does not mean you have their respect, and if you want to impart knowledge and wisdom on another, you have to have their respect.
From what I’ve seen, this branding of students as trouble makers from the start often leaves them with a damned if you do, damned if you don’t mentality. So what difference does it make anyway? At best! At worst, they internalize it and believe that they are inferior, morally, socially, intellectually.
There were a range of great topics. I think the history of riots was a great essay.
But my favorite was "No Black Child Left Behind: Schools Policing Students of Color." Probably because I'm an educator of sorts and this has been a major issue for me. I'm an informal educator. I've worked for various zoos and aquariums and I bring animals to schools and teach classes. I've traveled to different schools in 4 states and I've seen how students are treated. One of my biggest frustrations is seeing cops permanently stationed at schools where most of the students qualify for free lunch. As Bettina L. Love has managed to beautifully explain why this is such an issue, in a much better way than I ever could, here's what she had to say.
"Most Black and Brown students who attend urban public middle or high schools in the United States enter their school buildings under police surveillance. In fact, inner city schools resemble airport security checkpoints (threat level orange) or penitentiaries rather than a place of learning, rooted in the ideas of egalitarianism. As students of color walk into their schools, it is customary for them to empty their pockets, remove nonessential clothing, and walk through metal detectors with armed police officers directing their movements. Moreover, after students enter the building their whereabouts are tracked in real-time by countless surveillance cameras. Thus, students of color are treated like homegrown terrorists who are tracked, attacked, and presume guilty on-sight. From our schools' perspective, urban youth are radicalized by their urban condition and skin color. For example, in the metro D.C. area, more than 30,000 surveillance cameras monitor students' every move. If you ask local school officials why such extreme measures are needed to ensure school safety, officials will highlight crime and school shootings; however, both stats are in decline. Beyond surveillance cameras and metal detectors, in October of 2012, the New York Times reported that San Antonio's Northside Independent School District was tracking students' locations using radio frequency identification nametags. School officials declared that the nametags were to track student's daily enrollment, which is tied to school finance.
More importantly, as I have written before students of color are treated like criminals and domestic terrorists, tragic mass school shootings in the U.S. actually occur in suburban schools (e.g., Columbine High, Littleton, CO (1999); Heritage High, Conyers, GA (1999); Chardon High school, Chardon, OH (2012); Sandy Hook Elementary, Newtown, CT (2012)). However, metal detectors are overwhelmingly placed in urban schools. As such, "placement of school surveillance equipment is not based on actual facts, but school officials' perceptions of who is and who is not violent or a criminal, which are ultimately based on skin color, not criminal justice data" (Love, 2013, p. 5)
The ways in which schools police their students of color are important to understanding how officers can kill Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and 12 year-old Tamir Rice without hesitation. Bodies of color are presumed guilty and under police suspicion from the moment they are born. The real-life indictment of Black students as suspicious and shady characters starts in school. They never get the freedom of innocence-as a child learning about life, naive to the world or a young adolescent trying to learn from his or her mistakes. Thus, they never get a second chance. Kids of color are tracked as criminals from the day they enter school. For example, there are numerous cases across the country of police putting young Black and Brown kids, as young as six and seven years old, in handcuffs for "misbehaving." Their parents are forced to have "the talk" with their children earlier in life about being submissive, still, and overly polite when stopped by cops because any slight movement and/or bass in your voice could land you in jail or dead. The talk is for their safety, but it robs them of their childhood. And that is the problem. Black and Brown children never get to be children. Never experiencing the feeling of just being free, a life of stress starts when Black youth enter school and are viewed and treated like adults. Educational scholar Gloria Ladson-Billings (2011) put a fine point on the treatment of Black students, particularly Black males, when she wrote:
About a year ago I went into four schools in a city of about 700,000. The first school had mostly White students and I was amazed at how freely students were permitted to walk the halls and move about the classroom. It was only in places where safety was an issue, where the children's bodies were tightly controlled (e.g. there was a portion of the play yard where cars were permitted to drive to drop off students). However, when I made my way to schools serving large numbers of Black students (and in one case the entire student population was Black) I could not help but notice the degree to which every aspect of the students' activities were regulated-not just what they were taught, but also how their bodies were controlled. They were required to wear uniforms; they had to line up in particular ways, they were prohibited from talking in social spaces like hallways and the cafeteria. There is only one analogy to this kind of regulation-prison (p. 10)
Black kids are being killed inside and outside of schools. Internally, their spirits are being murdered by labels of dangerous, aggressive, and unteachable by the time they enter school. Outside the school, those perceptions are amplified and carried out with lethal force. As we hashtag the struggle -#ICantBreathe (referring to Garner's documented last words), #HandsUpDontShoot (in reference to Brown's alleged last action), and #BlackLivesMatter- in order to bring the pain and realities of Black people to the forefront of the public conversation, we cannot forget that our youngest are in classrooms with their hands up, losing their breath, and questioning whether their education, and ultimately, their lives, matter."
This reached me at my core. I absolutely deplore this treatment of our kids. I've seen if first hand. Many times, in many schools. Teachers treat the children in their care as if they are just fuck-ups waiting to happen. I have seen how teachers of students of color control their every movement and punish things like swinging their legs or ridiculous things like that, while in predominantly white schools, children get up and walk around the classroom at will. And I have a much larger sample size.
Even well-meaning teachers have said to me that "you have to be tough with these kids." My response- not any tougher than others. At some of the facilities I've worked for, they always scheduled me to teach the "difficult" schools or groups because I seemed to do well with them where others have struggled. But working with these students for me is the same- I earn their respect and give it in return, I model the behavior I want them to demonstrate- as in I don't bully them, I talk about their needs and my needs and we find a solution. I have never once gotten into a power struggle with an adolescent. The notion of "tough love" is used way too often. Teachers bully their students and then wonder why their students don't know how to respond, communicate or deal with issues in any other way.
Just for fun, here's a couple stories from one facility I worked at.
I was going over the curriculum for an after school program. This on-going program meets twice a week for several months, giving us an awesome opportunity to engage our students. The average grade for our students was roughly 4th grade, yet the curriculum was covering only Kindergarten science standards. We had no Kindergarteners in our program. I asked my supervisor why this was and she said "Trust me, with these kids, you'll be lucky if they even get that." However, the curriculum had been built the previous year. She had never worked with "these kids"- not these individuals anyway. I redid the curriculum to be at the appropriate standards level and actually even a little higher, adding a few concepts usually for up to 6th graders. My students excelled. Their pre and post assessments indicated that they were (of course) capable of learning more. Further, the schools where I taught, using the new curriculum, had the highest retention rate for the optional after school program than any others. To use Bettina's words, they were not "unteachable," and in fact wanted to be challenged.
Another time, I sat between two supervisors from two different facilities. Both had previously been formal educators, teaching elementary school. They were talking about the difficulties they had "controlling" their students when they taught at Title 1 schools. One teacher commented that she had more than a few Jose's and Victor's, wink, wink. (I actually have a cousin named Jose and another one named Victor...) Then the other teacher starting making fun of some of her students ethnic names, saying one student had a stripper name. Another student was name La-a. When she mispronounced her name, the girl explained that it's said La-dash-a. She said "you say the dash." The teacher then said that it wasn't a dash, but a hyphen and then proceeded to call her Lahyphena for the rest of the school year. These two teachers were laughing about this bullying and simultaneously wondering why the students didn't respect them and how they had trouble "getting them under control."
Anyway, I have way too many stories like this. I also have seen how the children react to having police officers walking down their hallway. They shrink up, avert their eyes... it's so sad. I've had students talk to me about it (unsolicited) and it breaks my heart.
It's nothing but fear that drives these decisions. Not fear of violence or the criminal element, but fear of losing power or not being in control. The fear of losing face if someone contradicts you or questions your authority. But these kids should be questioning it, as people in positions of authority don't always have their best interests at heart. Teachers should be more open and even encouraging of that, and earn the authority their title grants them with their students by being decent human beings. Because just because you have their compliance does not mean you have their respect, and if you want to impart knowledge and wisdom on another, you have to have their respect.
From what I’ve seen, this branding of students as trouble makers from the start often leaves them with a damned if you do, damned if you don’t mentality. So what difference does it make anyway? At best! At worst, they internalize it and believe that they are inferior, morally, socially, intellectually.
April 18, 2017
APB is a varied collection of comics, artwork, essays, and short nonfiction pieces, all focusing on the subject of police brutality and fatal force used against civilians.
I wish that the comics would have been formatted a bit better for e-readers, as I couldn't read the text at all in a couple of them--even on desktop.
The most affecting segment was the last, with a grim roll call of names of civilians killed by police officers.
I wish that the comics would have been formatted a bit better for e-readers, as I couldn't read the text at all in a couple of them--even on desktop.
The most affecting segment was the last, with a grim roll call of names of civilians killed by police officers.
November 30, 2019
This is a wonderful anthology, but I think it sells itself short as a comic book anthology. It has comics and cartoons, sure, but also stories and essays that are powerful and informative in their own right.
July 17, 2015
This book is the perfect example to show that it is true that a picture is worth more than a thousand words and a few words are more useful than chitchat.
Questo libro é l'esempio perfetto per dimostrare come sia vero che un'immagine valga piú di mille parole e poche parole siano più utili di tante chiacchiere.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND ROSARIUM PUBLISHING FOR THE PREVIEW!
Questo libro é l'esempio perfetto per dimostrare come sia vero che un'immagine valga piú di mille parole e poche parole siano più utili di tante chiacchiere.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND ROSARIUM PUBLISHING FOR THE PREVIEW!
November 8, 2015
This disgusting volume has sullied my PC for too long. Some of the less offensive sections suggest in the most racist manner that it's wrong for people to police black people purely because they are white. Some is even more sectarian than that. It's shoddy, ugly, thoughtless and quite loathsome. One star is a credit it doesn't deserve.
October 17, 2015
Intense. Still emotionally reeling.
August 23, 2020
Want a license to kill? Join the police force. It blows my mind that with all that is happening, we keep being reminded that if cops weren’t allowed to beat and murder with impunity, no one would become cops. What does that say about our current system?
APB: Artists Against Police Brutality is a reminder that cries of “LAW & ORDER!” And “tough on crime” just means “brutalize, incarcerate, and murder Black people!”
And cops know that they have the permission to do that.
There are so many great stories and essays by so many great authors!
I love superhero stories and The Pikesman- “the people’s crusader” is the hero we need right now. Unfortunately, superheroes don’t exist to leave us off the hook to do the work ourselves. (Story by Gary Phillips; art by Rafael Desquitado Jr.)
I loved Waldah Imarisha’s fantastic essay, Alternatives to Policing and the Superhero Model. She makes some fantastic points, referencing Watchmen, Batman, X-Men, the fantastic comic Race to incarcerate, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer! 
Maybe now I’ll go read her anthology Octavia’s Brood which has been sitting on my shelf waiting for me.
“We see through Buffy, though, that instead of looking to external forces such as the police to ensure our safety, we have to activate the Slayer, the superhero in all of us; share the responsibility for the health, safety, and wholeness of our community; and use our collective power to reshape the world around us.”
I love the way this sentence (intentionally or not) speaks to my white privilege. If I’m not part of the solution, I’m part of the problem.
I’ll leave you with a quote from the book:
“The only crime you committed was living in America while being Black. A crime that seems to be punishable by death.”
APB: Artists Against Police Brutality is a reminder that cries of “LAW & ORDER!” And “tough on crime” just means “brutalize, incarcerate, and murder Black people!”
And cops know that they have the permission to do that.
There are so many great stories and essays by so many great authors!
I love superhero stories and The Pikesman- “the people’s crusader” is the hero we need right now. Unfortunately, superheroes don’t exist to leave us off the hook to do the work ourselves. (Story by Gary Phillips; art by Rafael Desquitado Jr.)
I loved Waldah Imarisha’s fantastic essay, Alternatives to Policing and the Superhero Model. She makes some fantastic points, referencing Watchmen, Batman, X-Men, the fantastic comic Race to incarcerate, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer! 
Maybe now I’ll go read her anthology Octavia’s Brood which has been sitting on my shelf waiting for me.
“We see through Buffy, though, that instead of looking to external forces such as the police to ensure our safety, we have to activate the Slayer, the superhero in all of us; share the responsibility for the health, safety, and wholeness of our community; and use our collective power to reshape the world around us.”
I love the way this sentence (intentionally or not) speaks to my white privilege. If I’m not part of the solution, I’m part of the problem.
I’ll leave you with a quote from the book:
“The only crime you committed was living in America while being Black. A crime that seems to be punishable by death.”
February 28, 2021
A really powerful collection of graphics, poems, essays, and personal stories. I really think everyone should read this. The messages are important, and the anger it induces needs to be planted to spur on the much needed changes we need to make happen in this country.
Thank you the creators and contributors of this anthology for being willing to share your truth, emotions, and honesty with us. I hope it will help open the eyes and the hearts of its readers.
Thank you the creators and contributors of this anthology for being willing to share your truth, emotions, and honesty with us. I hope it will help open the eyes and the hearts of its readers.
May 21, 2021
CW: Police Brutality, murder, discussions of racism
This' a powerful anthology that everyone should read, which explains the systemic racism involved in policing in the United States. Sadly, it's still too relevant to today's world.
This' a powerful anthology that everyone should read, which explains the systemic racism involved in policing in the United States. Sadly, it's still too relevant to today's world.
September 15, 2018
This book is a must-read.
August 22, 2020
I liked that this anthology had a little of everything- essays, fiction stories, comics, drawings.
April 20, 2021
I read most of the comics, skipped most of the prose
April 19, 2025
Really impactful and good. I just didn’t like the formatting at times, and wish that it was easier to determine the artists associated with each piece.
December 16, 2015
Moving. Poignant. Impressive. Passionate. Visceral. Timely. Tragic. Sorrow. Uplifting Voices. Powerful.
July 27, 2016
Quality of some of the writing not so hot, but very important to have in a library.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews