Midtown Comics in New York City is excited to welcome Congressman John Lewis for a special book signing of his new graphic novel, March from Top Shelf Productions, Thursday, November 7th from 6:00pm to 7:00pm at Midtown Comics Downtown. Co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell will also be on hand to sign for fans.
Congressman John Lewis (GA-5) is an American icon, one of the key figures of the civil rights movement. In the graphic novel March, Lewis offers a vivid, first-hand memoir of his lifelong struggle for civil and human rights. From his experience growing up on an Alabama sharecropper’s farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from receiving beatings from state troopers to receiving the medal of freedom from the first African-American president. Congressman Lewis tells his remarkable story in collaboration with co-writer Andrew Aydin and New York Times bestselling artist Nate Powell.
Book One spans John Lewis’ youth in rural Alabama, his life-changing meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., the birth of the Nashville Student Movement, and their battle to tear down segregation through nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins, building to a stunning climax on the steps of City Hall.
Notable reviews and comments on March:
- “Congressman John Lewis has been a resounding moral voice in the quest for equality for more than 50 years, and I’m so pleased that he is sharing his memories of the Civil Rights Movement with America’s young leaders. In March, he brings a whole new generation with him across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, from a past of clenched fists into a future of outstretched hands.” — President Bill Clinton
- “A powerful tale of courage and principle… the heroism of those who sat and marched… comes through with vivid, inspiring clarity.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
- “Lewis’s remarkable life has been skillfully translated into graphics… This version of Lewis’s life story belongs in libraries to teach readers about the heroes of America.” — Library Journal (starred review)
- “Riveting and beautiful…should be stocked in every school and shelved at every library.” — The Washington Post
- “Essential reading… March is a moving and important achievement.” — USA Today
John Lewis has been an icon of the civil rights movement since his days as a Nashville college student, organizing sit-ins and participating in the first Freedom Rides. As chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), he was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington and a leader of the 1965 Selma–Montgomery March (known as “Bloody Sunday”), where police brutality spurred national outrage and hastened passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He has represented Georgia in Congress for over 25 years and recently received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Following his previous award-winning books Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement and Across that Bridge: Life Lessons and a Vision for Change, he has joined co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell for the new graphic novel March: Book One, a #1 New York Times Bestseller.
Andrew Aydin, an Atlanta native, currently serves in Rep. John Lewis’ congressional office handling telecommunications and technology policy as well as new media. Previously, he served as communications director and press secretary during Rep. Lewis’ 2008 and 2010 re-election campaigns, as District Aide to Rep. John Larson (D-CT), and as Special Assistant to Connecticut Lt. Governor Kevin Sullivan. Andrew is a graduate of the Lovett School in Atlanta, Trinity College in Hartford, and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where his graduate thesis “The Comic Book That Changed the World” examined the history of the 1957 comic book “Martin Luther King & The Montgomery Story.”
Nate Powell is a New York Times best-selling comic book artist/writer born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1978. He began self-publishing at age 14, and graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2000. His work includes the critically acclaimed Any Empire, Swallow Me Whole (winner of the Eisner Award and Ignatz Award, finalist for the LA Times Book Prize), The Year of the Beasts, The Silence of Our Friends, and Sounds of Your Name. In addition to March, Powell is also currently drawing the graphic novel adaptation of Rick Riordan’s #1 international bestseller Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero, while writing and drawing his own projects.
MIDTOWN COMICS opened its first store in 1997, and is now the industry’s leading retailer of comic books, graphic novels, and manga, with its online store as well as three landmark New York City locations in Times Square, Grand Central and Downtown, as well as comic boutiques in the iconic FAO Schwarz Fifth Avenue and Toys“R”Us Times Square. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and the Midtown blog! More information available online at midtowncomics.com.
