Ranking in at number 2 was March: Book One, by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell, and published by Top Shelf Comics.
March: Book One is the first of three comics that tells the story autobiographical story of Congressman John Lewis during the Civil Rights movement. Book One deals with John Lewis' adolescent days growing up in rural Alabama, and the battle to end segregation.
The comic has already won numerous awards, and garnered much praise, even from people such as President Bill Clinton. Now we can add Oprah Magazine to that list.
It's not often that a congressman stars in his own autobiographical comic book, but that's exactly the role Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) plays in the graphic memoir March: Book One (Top Shelf Productions). Written with Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell, the project was inspired by a 1958 comic book that chronicled Martin Luther King Jr.'s role in a seminal civil rights boycott -- and helped spur young Lewis to join the movement himself.
March is both an important first-person account for any student of the era and a riveting chronicle of Lewis's extraordinary life. An Alabama sharecropper's son -- a boy preacher whose first flock was made up of his family's chickens -- he spoke alongside King at the March on Washington when he was only 23. Less than two years later, in 1965, he co-led a group of peaceful protesters from Selma, Alabama, toward the state capitol of Montgomery. En route, he and others were severely beaten in the violence that became known as Bloody Sunday. This first book of three centers on a series of events Lewis recalls on the occasion of President Obama's 2009 inauguration, and it powerfully illustrates how much perseverance is needed to achieve fundamental social change. In this memoir, Lewis -- an elder in our midst -- speaks for all of those who paved the way and ensures that their legacy will live on.
-- Daniel Squadron