ABOVE: DAMON SMYTH/PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE/AMAZON.COM

Comic book writer David F. Walker’s “The Life of Frederick Douglass: A Graphic Narrative of a Slave's Journey from Bondage to Freedom” is more than just a 192-page thick comic book. It’s a hybrid of comic storytelling and a nonfiction history book, right down to the 25 sources cited for verification.

The book is written in first person; Douglass’s voice wasn’t recorded for posterity, so Walker combed through and took note of all available written documents to glean his speech patterns…so the Portland-based writer could “speak” like the legend.

The fusion of styles, along with Walker’s speech-pattern research, might have produced the most definitive document on the life of Frederick Douglass ever, outside of his autobiography. (David Walker was profiled in the All-Illustration Issue of the Fort Wayne Ink Spot last year.)

Fort Wayne Ink Spot (FWIS): It’s been a year since the publication, what has the reaction been to the book? Have any schools/teachers included it in their curriculum?

David Walker: I’ve heard from quite a few teachers that have brought the book into their classrooms, and they have all thanked me for writing it. I’ve also heard from some librarians, which is cool. I don’t know for sure if any teachers have officially included it in their curriculum, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they have.

FWIS: On a related note…have you noticed a trend for schools to bring more graphic novels into their curriculum?

Walker: I only know what I hear from either teachers, or my friends who have kids in school. There definitely seems to be a push to have more graphic novels available in school libraries, but I don’t really know about class curriculum. I get the sense that some teachers don’t really know how to effectively use graphic novels, and there’s also still hesitation based on the misguided notion that somehow these aren’t “real” books.

FWIS: What do you think is the benefit for schools to bring in historical graphic novels?

Walker: I can’t recall ever meeting a kid that wouldn’t pick up a comic or graphic novel. Even the most reluctant or challenged readers will pick them up and start looking at the pictures. Once someone is looking at the pictures, it’s only a matter of time before they’re reading the words. At the end of the day, the visual aspect of graphic novels helps to provide an easier entry point for a lot of people.

FWIS: I know you used various texts to form the Douglass’ “voice” for the book but specifically what texts provided you the best source for his language?

Walker: My best source was always the autobiographies Douglass had written, his speeches, and articles he wrote for his newspaper. Douglass wrote three autobiographies, and I read all of them at least three or four times. It got to a point where I knew what pages to turn to when I needed to reference a certain topic.

FWIS: On page 109 of the book, Douglass admits to a change of perspective when confronted with the women’s rights movement. How important was it to include that moment in civil rights?

Walker: That seemed like an important time in his life, in particular because he was vocal about that change in perspective. I wanted to include it because it felt like a good way to remind people that all of us are capable of changing and evolving in the ways we think and act.

FWIS: What other real world narratives impacted how you told this story from 200 years ago?

Walker: I studied a lot of historical, non-fiction, and biographical graphic novels -- everything from the works of Joe Sacco to Art Spiegleman’s “Maus” to the old Golden Legacy comics that focused on black history. But more than anything, I tried to focus on what I wasn’t seeing out there, and the kind of book that would appeal to me when I was a teenager. I wanted to craft something that honored Frederick Douglass while at the same time conveying some of the incredible aspects of his life. I also wanted to make sure that the book contextualized subjects like slavery and the Civil War, so that a more complete understanding of history might be possible.

Walker’s award-winning comic Bitter Root recently returned from a short hiatus with Issue 6. “The Life of Frederick Douglass: A Graphic Narrative of a Slave's Journey from Bondage to Freedom” is available through Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, and other online platforms.

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David F. Walker’s story, illustrated and published in our All-Illustration issue last year, is available online on our website. Damon Smyth, the illustrator for the Douglass book, provided the art for the short biography. It can be found under our Dedicated Issues link, under Illustration Issue 2019, and directly at the following link: bit.ly/DavidWalkerFWIS.