The best comic book and most powerful story of the year is Defiant: The Story of Robert Smalls #1! This was a project in development by Legion M started in June 2019. The Kickstarter campaign funded the graphic novel in July 2023. Stranger Comics partnered with Legion M in February 2024. Part one of the graphic novel was released in March 2024. This will all lead to the film. Check out the inspirational and true story of Robert Smalls with this video at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaxgeBgG3Fk. The first print comic book will be available to order on November 6th, everyone should our local pre-order the comic at your local comic book store. The first issue has an introduction by the Legion M team. Also a foreword by Michael B. Moore, congressional candidate for South Carolina, the great great grandson of Robert Smalls.
At Los Angeles Comic Con, there was a Shaft Trade Dress homage cover and a foil cover, pins and a print were also given to customers. The regular cover by Caanan White has Robert Smalls in uniform next to cannon with a telescope in hand before a battlefield! The writer is Rob Edwards. He is also known as the writer for the animated film, The Princess and the Frog (2009). The interior artists are Sean Damien Hill and Alex Paterson. Hill is the artist of the limited series, Bishop: War College (2023). Tales of Asunda #2 has art by Paterson. The layouts are by Darrell May. May provided art for the Morka Moa series. It is February 22, 1915, dawn, an older man in a suit takes his grandson out fishing. Beautiful colors by Blond and then some intense colors by Mauro Salgado. The boy in the blue suit gets into a small boat with his grandpa who brings a box.
The grandfather steers the sailboat and reminds his grandson that they will only keep what they will have for dinner. Closeup as the hook sinks into the water. He gives his grandson the fishing pole. A closeup of the box of fishing lures and a brass telescope. The older man takes out the telescope and tells his grandson that he is looking at the water He is looking at the wind at the water and then the current. Very wise. He hands the telescope to the boy. A closeup shows that it is the “Property of the Confederate States of America, Captain Robert Smalls.” The grandson asks if it is from the war. His grandfather says that the telescope and himself are stolen property. The boy asks if he was stolen. He is told, “I stole me.” The grandfather tells his story back when his great-grandmother was the same age as the boy. I like the story device of passing the story to the next generation. We see the fishing line in the water.
At the cotton fields is a young girl, the narration notes that they named themselves, so the girl took the name Lydia Polite. An elderly, bearded man and his wife with a fan are riding up in a carriage. We see the face of Lydia. The narration explains that Lydia was a Christmas present passed by John McKee to his wife, Margaret for their children. Lydia leaves her family and the narration says she raised seven McKee children. We see a young boy greeting Lydia as the sun sets. Then, the narrator says that Lydia raised their children. At night flyers are passed around, we see a closeup of one, torn promoting a lynching! It also notes “Toys + Games for the Kids.” The contrast is shocking. April 5, 1839, Lydia is giving birth on the floor of a cabin. This is the birth of her son, crying, as she smiles. We see the McKee family, mother in purple dress serving tea to her daughter, the same age as the son, while Henry McKee reads his newspaper. He inherited the plantation from his father.
A ball knocks against the house wall which gets the attention of Henry. He opens a window to shout. Henry sees Lydia’s son, Robbie, about to throw the ball. He offers to toss the ball when everyone else is working. The older Robert says he was a `quasi-slave’ and could be beaten or sold, but acting as a replacement son for Henry. They toss the ball to each other with the house painted white in the background. Henry also teaches him to fish which is like Robert and his grandson. They go out hunting, but Robbie hesitates to pull the trigger of his rifle as the ducks fly away. Henry asks why he didn’t shoot and Robbie says they looked happy. Closeup as Robbie says he has a question. This gentle scene shifts to Lydia’s angry face, a raging background of reds and purples at night, brilliant work by Salgado. She is mad that her son asked for his freedom. Lydia yanks his ear pulling him to the house. Robbie asks if he can learn to read and his mother says no to all of this questions. Lydia apologizes to the gruff face of Henry McKee and says, “I can fix this.”
Salgado's colors turn hellish, orange and purples as Lydia takes her son to break his spirit. We see demonic figures of eyes and mouths, she is pulled away, two panels of young Robert looking at his mother's face. Powerful. The lynching is shadowy except a young girl who smiles at Robert as her parent pulls her and he smiles back. The shadowy figures and then a man with scars on his back. Young Robert turns to look at his mother. Closeup of the snapping rope. The young girl now only looks like a smiling demon. He looks on and the narration is powerful, "But all it did was make me defiant." Later, he is left in the cotton fields and asked his name. He says his name is just Robert and is told by another man that he will call him Robert Smalls. The man says he is Smalls because he looks like he never worked before. Shadow falls on Robert’s resolute face. Great work by Hill, it looks a thousand things are going on in Robert’s face in closeup.
Five Telescopes+ out of Five!
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