INCOGNEGRO - Serio Comics 29

INCOGNEGRO written by Mat Johnson, drawn by Warren Pleece, published by Vertigo

INCOGNEGRO written by Mat Johnson, drawn by Warren Pleece is available from Goodreads, local indie shops at Bookshop.org, Skylight here in LA, and Amazon.

Semiautobiographical Inspiration?

The author of this 2008 graphic novel is Mat Johnson.

He’s an African-American who, due to his light skin, was able to be perceived as a white person.

As a child, he played games where he pretended to be an undercover black person investigating white hate crimes against blacks.

Johnson later learned that Walter White, who served as the chief executive of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), indeed pretended to be a white person in order to investigate lynchings.

This courageous and dangerous assignment was called going "incognegro."

In addition, Johnson received inspiration from the birth of his twins in 2005, one of whom appears white and the other appears black.

He includes a powerful author’s note at the start of this graphic novel about this semiautobiographical inspiration.

Black & White / Form & Function

One of my favorite things about INCOGNEGRO is that even though the cover is in color, the book itself is in black and white.

This aesthetic form functions hand-in-hand with the content because a prose novel format wouldn’t be able to capture the importance of the visuals of the story.

For instance, the author and artist find moments to shade the protagonist and other characters’ skin color to be more or less black or white.

Because depending on the plot and story points, a character might identify or be perceived by other characters to identify more as one than the other.

Also An Intense Genre Story

INCOGNEGRO is successful not just because of its themes about race.

But also because it’s a genre story that strongly fulfills the convention’s plot points and tonal notes.

The graphic mystery centers on Zane Pinchback, a reporter for the New York-based New Holland Herald.

After a thrilling opening of nearly not escaping from a recent assignment.

Zane debates giving up his incognegro work in order to more safely and famously write and publish under his name and face in New York.

Zane, however, can’t turn down a new assignment, when he discovers it is his brother, Alonzo, who has been wrongly arrested in the South for the murder of a white woman.

Just like the author’s real-life twin children, Zane’s brother looks more black than white, whereas Zane looks more white than black.

But with a lynch mob already swarming.

Complicating romantic passion.

And a friend along for the ride who has never gone incognegro before.

The book is often incredibly suspenseful.

Sometimes unsettling.

And quite insightful.

And there’s now a PREQUEL!

Ten years after the first book, INCOGNEGRO: RENAISSANCE a 5-part series was released in 2018 by Berger as a prequel to the story of Zane’s southern adventures, bringing us instead to Harlem, which was the mecca of The Black Renaissance.

It appears the story is about how at this earlier part in his life, Zane resented the idea of trying to pass as white at all, and wasn’t convinced of the responsibility he would later embrace.

While the original story feels like a complete film, this later series implies the potential for a TV show or miniseries as well.

Film or TV Adaptation?

As someone who always dreams about adapting the SHOULD WE BUY A GUN? graphic novel back into a film.

I tried to Google and research on IMDB to see if INCOGNEGRO’s rights were bought for film or TV.

And I found that a later semi-autobiographical novel of Mat Johnson’s LOVING DAY was bought by Showtime, but not INCOGNEGRO…

I know there are at least a few film and TV producers who read this Substack.

Maybe take a look :)

INCOGNEGRO written by Mat Johnson, drawn by Warren Pleece, published by Vertigo and then Berger is available from Goodreads, local indie shops at Bookshop.org, Skylight here in LA, and Amazon.