In order for an artist to make good art, they really need to be willing to dive into challenging themes. Think of the classic example of William Shakespeare’s depressing break from comedy while he did the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, or, to give a more modern example, Dennis Lehane’s dark description of human nature in his masterpiece novel Mystic River. Now, graphic novelist David Lester, with editors Marcus Rediker and Paul Buhle, adds another darkly themed piece of art to the table with his visually stunning take on slavery abolition in his new graphic novel Prophet Against Slavery.
Based on The Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist, Rediker’s award-wining biography on 18th-century slavery abolitionist Benjamin Lay, Prophet Against Slavery vividly integrates Lester’s illustrations with profound words that expertly represent Lay. Lester’s graphic novel is a brilliant adaptation that pays tribute to both Lay and Rediker’s biography while providing its audience with a captivating reading experience that they won’t soon forget.
Before I sat down to read this book, I hadn’t read Rediker’s biography, or even heard of Lay, so I cant speak to which book tells Lay’s story better, but I will say that what Prophet Against Slavery does an extraordinary job of is finding a creative and visual way to describe Lay as a person while at the same time telling his inspiring story to a modern audience.
One of my favourite scenes in the graphic novel is the courtroom scene at the beginning. In this masterfully drawn scene, Lay—who was one of the first Americans to really spoke out against slavery—is in court desperately trying to convince the jury that anyone who owed slaves should be considered a notorious sinner and therefore should face legal ramifications for their actions against God. What I like about this is Lester’s chosen method of introducing Lay to his audience. Instead of making the common mistake of just writing down a brief description that would have only given us the gist of Lay instead of the whole picture, Lester instead lets his descriptive drawings of Lay’s expressions tell his story, which is the key element that really made me fall in love with this graphic novel.
Prophet Against Slavery is an absolutely stunning graphic novel that shows rather than tells Lay’s heroic quest to abolish slavery, and is a reading experience that’s guaranteed to stay stuck in readers’ minds long after they have flipped the final page.
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