In the mad mix of caps, mad science, power rings, and spandex, I often forget that this medium can be the most powerful vehicle for conveying stories and messages that exists today. Lost amidst the soap opera of teenage angst and testosterone filled battles there are books and graphic novels filled with brilliant stories that lead us to transcend our awareness of our history as a people and a nation and in the process learn about ourselves.Published just in time for Black History month in February 2008 by Vertigo Comics, Incognegro by Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece take us back to the 1930's, which were a shameful time in the history of our country. As the book tells us, between 1889 and 1918 over 2500 Negroes were murdered by lynch mobs, and those are the ones we know of. These killings had become so common place and acceptable that the newspapers no longer considered them to be newsworthy.
Incognegro is a book about Passing, a term that is often used to describe a person of mixed heritage assimilating into a group that is different than what they have been raised in. The context of the for the story deals with a light skinned Negro who is an investigative journalist. According to Mat Johnson the book is about the lead character, Zane Pinchback, a mixed race Negro journalist who looks white. He investigates Lynchings in the South and writes about them in the North under the code name Incognegro. Mat Johnson uses the story of Zane Pinchback going back Incognegro one last time to help solve a crime when his own brother is framed for murder.
Unlike many stories that deal with Passing, Incognegro is not a typical piece that looks to caution readers not to cross race lines or risk a comeuppance of some sort for their risky behavior, instead Zane is a hero who risks his life for his people to help bring to light the horrible crimes that are being committed without much care or concern for laws or decency.
One of the things this book did so well in my opinion was to take an event and era of our past that was easily so filled with hate, tragedy, and shame and instead of telling a story that wallowed in those feelings, Johnson's narrative brings us through the experience with all the disgust, fear, and loss that the characters themselves went through, but we are also given a bright window of hope for an improving society and future.
The story could have found itself mired in a straightforward accounting that just tried to recreate an actual lynching from historical documents, but Johnson weaves his story around well developed characters and gives us heroes to root for and villains to root again, and the murder that Zane Pinchback is trying to solve is filled with more twists and turns than an episode of Law & Order. It is riveting just as a stand alone story, so getting everything else along with it is a phenomenal bonus.
Pleece's art work is brilliant. The black and white panel drawings are not shaded to tell the characters apart by race. Instead readers have to rely on more subtle differences like dress styles and hair styles to determine the race of a character in the book. There are also moments, especially towards the end of the book, where Pleece is able to carry the story along perfectly with just his visuals alone. In many ways it's style of strong simplicity reminded my of the power of Spiegleman's Maus.
I can easily say that this is one of the most important and powerful books I have ever had the privilege of reading, and that's not just going up against graphic novels either, that includes all printed material. It is just a fantastic piece of American Literature and I hope to one day get a chance to meet Mat Johnson myself and have a conversation with him about anything and everything. Or at the very least, use this the next time I am teaching American history. Everyone who is a fan of comics needs to do themselves a favor and pick this up in some way as soon as they can.
