Even before illustrator Marcus Kwame Anderson gave a talk at the Albany Public Library on June 9, I was inclined to purchase his book Big Jim and the White Boy, written by David F. Walker. The 270+ page graphic novel is “an American classic reimagined.” Radically reimagined, to be sure. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is the book in question.
After the introductory page about Samuel Clemens, there are four pages that would lead one to believe they were illustrations from the Twain book. That is, until an old black man from 1932 Kansas says that that wasn’t the way it happened.
The story mostly bounces between the 1850s/1860s and the 1930s. Jim is searching for his kidnapped wife and children, accompanied by Huck. Their travels send them to the South and Midwest. The protagonists become multidimensional characters. Occasionally, the narrative detours into the 1980s and a professor/descendent of Jim fills in some of the connective tissue.
a marvel
Women Write About Comics notes: “Big Jim and the White Boy is a marvel of the graphic novel format. Not only does the creative team expertly wrangle four different timelines, but they’ve given the book several narrators who use the power of oral storytelling to share stories through the generations until it reaches us, the reader.”
Further: “In the original book, Jim was known only in relation to Huck. But in this book, through the eyes of Jim and his descendants, we see him as a strong man with a great deal of love for his mother, sister, wife, and children. We also see him as a man who opposes the subjugation to which he and his loved ones have been forced to live. This is a politically charged retelling that doesn’t hold back from the horrors of slavery—be it the physical violence, sexual abuse, lynchings, or family separations. The parts of slavery that Adventures of Huckleberry Finn glossed over drive much of the story here.
In 2024, Walker and Anderson were interviewed by NPR’s Scott Simon. They discuss the novel, including “how they turned Jim into a multidimensional character… and whether Huck and Jim were ever really friends.”
The N-word appears, though it is struck through in every case except one, but it is still readable. The author’s note describes this more: “I do not like the word, but it is important to the authenticity of the historical period in question, not to avoid it, offensive though it may be.”
I know Marcus through his work at the Underground Railroad Education Center.
