Incognegro

"Assimilation as Revolution."

(Full disclosure: I received a free electronic ARC for review through Edelweiss. Trigger warning for racist violence, including depictions of lynchings.)

Zane Pinchback is a real-life superhero. But instead of a cape and leotard, he wears a suit and carries a hot comb and notebook. A light-skinned black man, Zane is an investigative journalist whose alter ego "Incognegro" pens a regular column at the New Holland Herald. Able to pass as white, Zane bears witness to crimes against African-Americans, including the wave of lynchings that swept the south after the Civil War.



Tired of toiling away in obscurity, Zane is ready to retire Incognegro for good. That is, until his editor assigns him a case that he cannot show more walk away from. A white woman - a prostitute with gang connections - was found dead and dismembered in Tupelo, Mississippi. A sheriff's deputy has gone missing. And an angry mob is ready to pin it all on her boyfriend/partner, Alfonso - a man Zane knows well. It's up to Incognegro to figure out who really killed Michaela Mathers ... before another innocent man's life is violently ended.

Loosely inspired by the life of Walter Francis White, who worked for the NAACP as an investigator and went on to lead the organization for 24 years,Incognegro is a must read. The artwork is brilliant; the murder mystery, compelling; and the historical fiction aspect of the book, both educational and heartrending. I found the blend of fact and fiction quite masterful; the whodunit plot line distracts a little from the horrors of racist violence, making those scenes a little easier to process. ("Distract" doesn't quite feel like the right word - since the different threads of the story are so intimately linked - but it's the best I can do.)



Though Incognegro is primarily about racism - the social construction of race; white supremacist groups then and now; racist violence at the turn of the century, and how that informs contemporary culture - Mat Johnson also explores gender and sexism. I'll admit, when Zane patronizingly admonishes his friend Mildred that "darling, this is not really a discussion for a lady," I bristled. Visibly, I'm sure. While certainly appropriate for the age, I was rather annoyed that Johnson let this sexism stand unchallenged. I was pleasantly surprised, then, to see it called out explicitly in the discussion guide. Better still is the murder mystery's big reveal, which includes one of my favorite plot twists of all time.

And the closing panels? Pure perfection.

Originally published in 2008, this 10th anniversary edition includes a forward from the author, as well as reading group/discussion guide and sketchbook. Following the book's re-release is a prequel titled Renaissance. If it's half as good as the original, I need it like yesterday. I can only hope that this is the start of a regular series.

http://www.easyvegan.info/2018/02/09/incognegro-by-mat-johnson-and-warren-pleece... show less

Zane Pinchback is a black man in the 1930s who can pass for white. He is a reporter for a NY newspaper and, under the pseudonym Incognegro, he uses this ability to go undercover in the south to investigate lynchings. Despite the vast numbers (in the thousands), these are ignored by mainstream newspapers even in the north. However, after he is almost caught at one while collecting names and addresses of the proud perpetrators, he tells his editor he doesn’t want to do this anymore. He would rather report on the burgeoning culture of the Harlem Renaissance and with his own name on the byline. Despite the offer of incentives to make him change his mind, he can’t be swayed until the editor shows him an article about a murder of a white show more woman in Biloxi. The alleged killer is a black man – in fact, Zane’s twin brother, identical in almost every way except skin colour.

Incognegro was first released a decade ago and is being rereleased by Berger Books to commemorate the tenth anniversary. And it is perhaps needed more now than ever before in those ten years. Using the vehicle of a graphic novel and wrapped in an intelligent historical mystery, author Mat Johnson gives a vivid reminder of one of the most shameful and ugly facts in American history, the murders of thousands of African Americans which continued throughout much of the 20th c., carried out, not only with impunity for the murderers in the south but with indifference by the rest of the country. The illustrations by Warren Pleece are beautifully and starkly drawn in black and white giving even more depth and impact to the book. They also help to illustrate the fluidity of ‘identity’, a theme Johnson explores throughout his writings both here and in his other novels. In the forward, Johnson explains that he was inspired not only by his own experiences as a light-skinned black man but by Walter White, an African-American civil rights activist and journalist who actually did travel to the south in the early years of the 20th c. to report on lynchings and riots at great risk to himself.

Like most graphic novels, this is a fast read (I read it in less than an hour) but it is an important one. I recommend it to anyone who likes graphic novels, history, mysteries, well, actually, everyone because it is a story that needs to be made known outside of university history classrooms, especially perhaps outside of university classrooms.

Thanks to Edelweiss and Berger Books for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review show less

A New York City reporter passes for white, going around the South and reporting on lynchings as Incognegro. When he goes to one small Southern town before the lynching, it’s not to report—it’s to save his brother, who’s in jail for the murder of a white woman. Intrigue and all kinds of passing, lies, and betrayal ensue. A good read (can you say that about a graphic novel?), without either triumphalism or despair.

The Short and Sweet of It
Zane is a reporter in Harlem. He is black, but he can pass as a white man, and this skill allows him to infiltrate the south and reveal the horrors of lynch mobs. When an assignment goes bad, he barely escapes with his life, and he returns to Harlem determined to stop his incognegro work. But when Zane's brother is arrested for murdering a white woman down in Mississippi, Zane has to go undercover once more.

A Bit of a Ramble
I went into this graphic novel expecting an education on race relations in the 1930s and what I got was an entertaining mystery which was also powerfully informative and moving. The author, Mat Johnson, "grew up a black boy who looked white" and dreamed of using his appearance to promote show more racial equality. While in college, he read about Walter White, a pale-skinned black man who went undercover to investigate lynchings in the deep south. This is the inspiration for Incognegro.

It would be very difficult to read this graphic novel and not admire and fear for the protagonist, Zane. I would hazard a guess that everyone picking it up comes in to the story with negative feelings about lynchings and a deep understanding of the hate, sorrow, despair, and fear surrounding race relations in the 1930s. For most, it requires very little prompting to call up the emotions necessary to access the book.

I do want to stress that while the book is certainly evocative, it is also entertaining. The plot is a well-crafted mystery with unique characters. My mind continually strayed from thinking about the "message" to wondering whodunit and how.

Drawn in stark black and white panels, the artwork really makes apparent the difficulty of assigning race and the fluidity of race. The characters don't have skin tones, so the distinction between the black and white characters is practically non-existent. show less

( Video review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0eup7NtYl0 )

“Since when have white people ever cared about a black man’s truth?”

The premise of Incognegro is a fascinating one. Born out of Johnson's own experience as a white-passing biracial man, Johnson envisioned a time when white passing would be a key to survival. And thus, this graphic novel was born.

I love love loved the story. It was serious, gritty, and also hilarious. It had the thrill of a Western - there was some serious d r a m a going down on this comic. Double-crossing, spying, gun-toting and super, super fast-paced.

I didn't connect with the art style so much. I understand the creative choice. The black and white images make it look more like a newspaper. show more Fitting, considering the main character is a journalist investigating lynchings in the deep South. However, the lack of any real shading made everything feel two-dimensional. I love black and white comics (Nate Powell's artwork in March is GORGEOUS and so emotive) but that just fell a lil flat for me. I did get used to it, and the panels are easy to read but it did feel like the art style was better-suited to Sunday comics in the paper. Having said that, I understand that artists have deadlines but, yeah, I just didn't gel with it.

Also, I wanted the art to be in colour. I just did.

That said, I loved the writing and the strength of the story. Lots of emotional characters and twists and turns. This was such a great read. show less

I have to admit that I wasn't sure this would be a hit for me - the murder mystery is not always my cup of tea. But reading the author's introduction, detailing his life as a "black boy who could pass for white", and learning how much that influenced the writing of this novel, I was intrigued. And then the novel itself was just really really good.

I thought the historical information was well-integrated into a page-turning thriller, and the twists were genuinely surprising. I was significantly more drawn in than I ever expected to be, and I enjoyed the reading of this graphic novel greatly.

Zane Pinchback is a 1930's black investigative journalist who can pass as a white man. He writes for a Harlem paper under the pseudonym Incognegro, and he specializes in going undercover at lynchings, exposing in the national media the names and faces of the participants, as well as the horror of what they did.

The story-telling style in this graphic novel reminds me strongly of Alan Moore's Watchmen, replete with the cross-meanings and sneaky reveals that I enjoy so much. Like Watchmen, this is essentially a superhero fantasy; Zane's "superpower" is his ability to pass as white. (Details beyond that would be spoilerific.)

My one complaint is that the graphic-novel format for this story is that the norms of the genre make it easy for a show more reader to dismiss the opening montage as just another instance of the genre's indulgence in shock-for-entertainment; I had to keep reminding myself to not gloss past the opening images. Similarly, I fear that more naive readers might consider elements of the story to be just so much hyperbole.

It isn't. It really was this ugly, this violent, this grotesque. And if you've indulged in daydreams about striking back against those lynch-mobs, you'll enjoy Incognegro. show less