What's the best thing to do at one thirty in the morning when you're stoned? Talk about books. So let's whip this thing back up again and turn our attention towards a very skilled craftsman. Nate Powell. For those of unfamiliar with the name I'll give a very brief over-view.
Any Empire.
That is all. Look it up if you need to, I promise it is worth the effort. His artwork is beautiful and the stories that are original are as compelling as the projects he is part of. Another very worthy entry to experience is March, which is an autobiography of John Lewis. Once again if you're unfamiliar with the name give him a quick search, I promise Wikipedia is mostly correct in giving a basic idea of the man's history. He is proof that politics are not only pliable but can be used to further and fulfill the interests of social progress. Good stuff, and very easy to digest in a well done graphic format, which Powell supplies. A final work of his to look up is Swallow Me Whole. Once again I can't stress how wonderful his work is.
So let's get into the good stuff of The Silence of Our Friends. This is a very real story primarily featuring two different families from opposite sides of the spectrum. So Houston, Texas, was a tricky place to be back during the sixties. Civil Rights set in through a slow process of events and wasn't the light-switch event some wish to remember it as. In 1968 Houston was seeing an increasing amount of lash back against various forms of segregation. The SNCC (Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee) arrives at Texas State University to support non-violent protests. If you are unfamiliar with the SNCC once again do a brief search, Wikipedia is relatively accurate. Given the change in leadership problems arise, things turn tragic, dramatic, and I'd hate to reveal it all here so I won't. This is a story that builds into the TSU trials that are the outcome of that event. If you're interest I encourage you to discover more, The Silence of Our Friends is a good place visit along that research road.
Moving on. Powell is a no joke artist. He has a skill with dialogue whether it is his own or not. The visual manifestation of the auditory is presented in wonderfully revealing ways. Chattering blurs but the individual conversations remain legible for the attentive reader. Lettering shrinks and grows with distance, tension, volume, and dramatics. How do you capture the effect of saying something in a crowded cluster and silencing the mass with the gravity of the character's words? Powell figured it out.
Characters remain crisp and yet gestural. The art-style is what to expect if you've read Any Empire, March, or Swallow Me Whole. His stylized figures avoid any sense of the uncanny valley and capture a wide range of emotions required for the narrative. Black and white is the color break-down, which is appropriate for a story dealing with breaking down racial segregation.
A small gripe is the presentation of the story. Although visually everything is beautifully rendered the story itself begins with a focus on the white family and feels to give a considerable weight to that perspective. This focus would have been better spent establishing the greater concern of the event as a lived experience in a very specific social climate. Instead it becomes the story of getting the story, given that the white male protagonist is a television journalist (I restrain calling him a reporter due to the demands of the job being quite different then). The essential nature given to that character that overshadows the black male protagonist, who is a college professor and a leader of the non-violent protests, raises a red-flag.
There is a disproportionate building of the plot. Most time is spent demonstrating the effect of a white family befriending a black family in Houston, Texas during the late 1960s. While this could become problematic the effects of the social structure are more clear on the black family. There is a balance and I am not positive Powell, Long, and Demonakos pull it off entirely. To be fair this is a tricky road they're wandering down. Representing a movement for equality in a fashion that is actually equal is not always a possibility. So bravo for the attempt, I just remain on the fence for how successful this attempt was. None-the-less they make interesting decisions in how they present characters. Women be forewarned, although the female characters in the narrative are present they hold very little sway outside of their domestic relationships. There is a historical reason that could be argued but I don't want to take that time right now. Just rest assured that I also don't want to make that argument because I don't entirely agree with it. The contrast of a strong, intelligent, female, particularly black, character would have been a benefit to the narrative as a general contrast. Unfortunately the one character who really begins to shine in this respect becomes little more than a vehicle to represent the physical and verbal repression of the power structure. Which, once again, is a way to approach the problem. But not one I do not entirely agree with on ethical and not creative grounds.
So final say, do I recommend this to be read? Yes. There's holes throughout the whole, so expect them. It is not a story that will make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. It's one where you might feel more confused than when you began and question a few of your own preconceived notions about civil rights, this country, the social structure, the still persisting problems of power paradigms, and so on and so forth. There isn't so much resolution as simple conclusion. And that is attractive in its own right. It encourages continued thought and questioning of what was just read.
So if you read this, or have read it, and want to talk some about it drop me a line. I'm hardly difficult to find.
Coming up next will be Persepolis. Both part one and two, so fasten in tight for that.