Remember, these students will be the future activists and union leaders. Graphic novels are now fundamental for the future of activism and education. This is because students are increasingly unable to read longer texts, like books, so graphic novels are the go-to for connecting with students and getting them interested in history that they might otherwise be intimidated or bored by. I’ve discovered that graphic novels are really what people teaching history are using to connect with students, whether it’s in high school or in post-secondary education. JM: Tell me about the importance of this story being told as a graphic novel.ĭL: It’s one thing to write an academic book that goes in certain places, but if it’s turned into essentially a comic book form, it can reach a wider audience.

Illustrations by David Lester, excerpted from Prophet Against Slavery (2021). Again, he figured out all of this stuff 300 years ago, and today we’re still arguing about whether climate change is real, whether there is systemic racism, and whether America should have a universal healthcare system!

He also believed in equality between men and women, and advocated boycotts of products such as tobacco, tea, coffee, and sugar that were produced by enslaved people. He was an environmentalist who warned us that we should, “Beware of men who poison the earth for gain.” That struck me as very contemporary and applicable to our world. He was a vegetarian and an animal rights activist. And I found Benjamin Lay to be a compelling character. I turned the offer down several times.įinally, I read Marcus Rediker’s book The Fearless Benjamin Lay, which is what our graphic novel is based on. (I’m more of a nineteenth-century person.) And I didn’t know that much about Quakers or the history of abolition. I know very little about the eighteenth century. It’s on Benjamin Lay.” I had to confess I’d never heard of Benjamin Lay. He wrote to me and said, “We have this book project, and I think you’d be a great artist to do it.

I knew him previously from working with the Graphic History Collective, who did the 1919 book. I completed that 93-page book in 53 days, which is insane! There was a publisher’s deadline, so it had to be done quickly or it wasn’t going to be done at all. It was the story of what we believe to be the longest general strike in history. ĭavid Lester: This project began just after I had finished a graphic novel called 1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg General Strike. Tell me about Benjamin Lay and how you hooked into this book project Prophet Against Slavery. But it seems obvious that history continues to evolve in the present. John Malkin: History seems static: as if it’s happened, and all we can do is look back at it and observe the linear facts.

Drawn to Change by Paul M. Buhle