Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: abrams comicsart, John Jennings, megascope

John Jennings' Megascope Announces Major Graphic Novel List From Abrams ComicArts

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2020 17:06:59 -0600

Announced at ComicsPRO, Abrams ComicArts is releasing its first publishing list from Megascope, a new line of graphic novels curated by John Jennings. Jennings is an award-winning and New York Times bestselling comics creator and illustrator of graphic novel adaptations of Octavia E. Butler's Kindred and Parable of the Sower.

Megascope was first announced in 2018, and the inaugural publishing list will have two titles: After the Rain (October 27, 2020; Hardcover) by Nnedi Okorafor, adapted by John Jennings and illustrated by David Brame, and The Heavy (January 19, 2021; Hardcover) by Shawn Martinbrough.

In keeping with the mission to publish books that visualize new diverse narratives through the comics medium, forthcoming titles from the Megascope list include:

Black Star by Eric Glover, illustrated by Arielle Jovellanos
Blak Kube by Ytasha Womack, illustrated by Tanna Tucker
The Count by Ayize Jama Everett, illustrated by Tristan Roach
Dark Fear: Dedicated to Emmett Till by Christopher Benson, illustrated by Eric Battle
Death's Day by Daniel José Older and Baba Malik Duncan, illustrated by Chuck "Dragonblack" Collins
The Eight-Fold Path by Steven Barnes and Charles Johnson, illustrated by Bryan Christopher Moss
The Keeper by Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, illustrated by Marco Finnegan
The Resurrectionists by Ho Che Anderson, illustrated by Jeremy Love

"When W.E.B. DuBois created the idea of the megascope in the short story The Princess Steel (1909), I wonder if he would ever have dreamed that he was giving us a gift of not just one future but myriad futures. The megascope functions as a lens through which so many unheard voices can be heard. I am so honored and excited to present this first slate of books that we have lovingly curated. It's a very robust, diverse, extraordinary collection of narratives that, I hope, will foster conversation, celebration, and connection," says Jennings. "The book is an empathy machine and ABRAMS has dedicated so much of its existence to making cutting-edge, well-designed, beautiful books for everyone. I am humbled by the talent and dedication that Abrams ComicArts has poured into this line of books. My hope is that our audience will see themselves and their commonalities with others in these graphic messages from the minds and hands of some of the most amazing creators working in graphic fiction today."

After the Rain is a graphic novel adaptation of award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor's short story "On the Road," a supernatural drama that takes place in a small Nigerian town during a violent storm. Okorafor ranks among the most acclaimed speculative-fiction authors currently writing—she is the recipient of the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Locus Awards. John Jennings and David Brame's graphic novel collaboration uses bold art and colors to powerfully tell this tale of African diaspora, identity, and destiny, bringing the story to life for Okorafor fans and new readers alike.

In The Heavy, acclaimed writer-illustrator Shawn Martinbrough tells the hard-hitting story of Charles "Dukes" Duchamps, a New York-based debt collector with a love for jazz and a loss that has haunted him for years. Martinbrough is a critically acclaimed creator whose projects for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, and Image Comics include Batman: Detective Comics, Luke Cage Noir, Black Panther, Hellboy, and Thief of Thieves. Martinbrough has also co-created characters featured in the films Deadpool and Justice League. The Heavy is an original contemporary noir-themed graphic novel about rivals, revenge, and redemption.

In addition to the first list of books, Megascope has also revealed its new logo and its official advisory board. The board members are some the most celebrated scholars and comics professionals in media, literature, comics studies, and other related fields. The advisory board's duties are to help recommend relevant narratives for adaptation, help design educational supplements, recommend new comics creators, and to make sure the Megascope line stays true to standards of appropriate representation of ideas and characters relative to the parameters of the graphic novels.

Megascope Advisory Board:

Frederick Luis Aldama , PhD—The Ohio State University and SOL-CON
Kinitra Brooks, PhD—Michigan State University
Stanford Carpenter, PhD—Black & Brown Comix Arts Festival and Pocket Con
Julian Chambliss, PhD—Michigan State University
JC Cloutier, PhD—University of Pennsylvania
Rachelle Cruz—University of California, Riverside
Damian Duffy, PhD—University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Henry Louis Gates Jr., PhD—Harvard University
Frances Gateward, PhD—California State University, Northridge
Jonathan Gray, PhD—John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Fox Harrell, PhD—Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Kathleen McClancy, PhD—Texas State University and Comic Arts Conference Organizer
Susana Morris, PhD—Georgia Tech
Adilifu Nama, PhD—Loyola Marymount University
Ricardo Padilla—Latino Comics Expo and SOL-CON
Darieck Scott, PhD—University of California, Berkeley
Matt Silady—California College of the Arts, Director of MFA in Comics
Sherryl Vint, PhD—University of California, Riverside
Rebecca Wanzo, PhD—Washington University in St. Louis
Deborah Whaley, PhD—University of Iowa
Qiana Whitted, PhD—University of South Carolina
Daniel Yezbick, PhD—St. Louis Community College

John Jennings is professor of media and cultural studies at the University of California, Riverside, and was previously a 2016 Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow with the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. His work centres around intersectional narratives regarding identity politics and popular media. He is the co-founder/organizer of numerous comics festivals around the country (including the Schomburg Center's Annual Black Comic Book Festival in Harlem) and has been involved in many critically acclaimed and award-winning books as illustrator, editor, and writer, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation (with Damian Duffy), the Eisner Award–winning academic anthology The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art, and, most recently, Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation. Jennings lives in Riverside, California.