Tradewaiting – February 12th, 2020 Releases: Behind the Curtain

A lot of comics come out every week. It’s easy to get lost in the sea of #1s and dramatic new status quos as they crash. That’s why I’m here. Whether you said you’d revisit checking that series out when it was collected in trade or you simply never noticed the announcement of that awesome OGN, whether you’re just waiting for that hardcover to be published as a trade or have been longing for a collection of your favorite stories since childhood, Tradewaiting is here for you, with the complete Diamond list of graphic novels and collections as well as some recommendations to scoop up.
This is a big week for trades and collections, so let’s quit dawdling. It’s time to look at the releases for February 12th, 2020.

HIGHLIGHTS

Big Black: Stand at Attica

Prisons are a faraway concept for our society. They exist with a theoretical purpose of reform or perhaps containment, but for much of America they serve to put the very concept of crime out of sight and out of mind. But in 1971 the Attica Prison Riot forced America to look at the question of carceral justice and its interplay with race and politics.
As the title suggests, the book examines the issue through the life of Frank “Big Black” Smith. Written by Jared Reinmuth, based on lengthy conversations with (and sharing the writing credit with) Smith before his death in 1997, Big Black is a biography of a man dropped in the center of impossible situations, but it uses that focus to highlight how small one man is in the face of the Prison Industrial Complex. Big Black didn’t create the uprising, nor did he choose its outcome. He was a man whose choice extended only so far as doing the right thing while politicians tried to force it to resolve their way. In seeing him struggle to hold the line, both during the actual revolt and in the long years after, readers learn both about Big Black and the system that he fought to uncover and undo.
The book opens with the demands made by the inmates and there’s a scene where the prison superintendent negotiates with the movement, only to find their requests entirely reasonable. This is the book’s ethos. The requests made were not radical fifty years ago but, were that not enough, the story shows, not tells, how necessary prison reform is through the war of optics that develops. Watching the coverage on TV, the prisoners discover that the media is reporting that they have no demands, fueling the perception that they’re unruly, uppity criminals lashing out without reason. Even this book exists partially to undo the toxic misinformation campaign that still clings to public perception of the incident. Reinmuth wisely makes certain that you cannot read the book without the creeping, sickening acknowledgement that this was supposed to continue quietly, that the Attica Brothers’ truly unforgivable sin was allowing the country at large to see their side at all when their jailers were meant to control both prison and perception.
Big Black: Stand at Attica is one of those “important” comics. I’ve already seen plentiful comparisons to John Lewis’ March, but, while they’re certainly not unfounded, it also lessens this book to reduce it to something that ought to be read. Améziane fills the pages with clarity that suits its biographical nature but also leans hard into pop art, a difficult thing to do with such a limited palette. For his part, Reinmuth succeeds in communicating the severity of his lead, but also his humility and fear in a way that is not only beautiful but important right now. Unlike March, there’s no attempt made to argue that there is a happy ending here, but it documents how, if right failed, it made injustice stumble, for all the world to see.
Big Black: Stand at Attica is a beautiful telling of a controversial, horrific, and incredible moment in the American Civil Rights Movement. Whether you know the details intimately, watched the coverage on TV yourself, or had never heard of it, this telling will inform and contextualize exactly how, less than fifty years ago, a coastal, Northern state like New York was the site of one of “the bloodiest one-day encounter[s] between Americans since the Civil War.” This original graphic novel retails for $19.99.

*****
The deluge of tremendous comic collections and OGNs continues this week. From indie trades like She Said Destroy to collections from DC’s late 80s renaissance to a slew of IDW all-ages releases to the “Dawn of X” there were many more great comics than I could fit here. Here are Diamond’s complete listings to sift through if you’re looking for that personalized (excuse the pun) diamond in the rough.

DARK HORSE COMICS

• ART OF MANA HC $39.99
• DISNEY CINDERELLA STORY OF MOVIES IN COMICS HC $10.99
• DREADFUL ED & MARY SCARY HC $19.99
• WES ANDERSON`S ISLE OF DOGS HC $19.99
• WHATS MICHAEL TP VOL 01 FATCAT COLLECTION $19.99

IDW PUBLISHING

• MARVEL ACTION AVENGERS TP BOOK 03 THE FEAR EATERS $9.99
• MARVEL ACTION SPIDER-MAN TP BOOK 03 BAD LUCK $9.99
• SONIC THE HEDGEHOG TP VOL 05 CRISIS CITY $15.99
• STAR WARS ADVENTURES TP VOL 08 DEFEND THE REPUBLIC $9.99