Megascope will be publishing graphic novels that center Black stories and diverse narratives

Aspiring authors and fans you are in luck. Abrams ComicArts is launching its first list of titles that will be published under the curation of Prof. John Jennings. Jennings who is an award-winning and New York Times bestselling comics creator and illustrator of the graphic novel adaptations of Octavia E.Butler’s Kindred and Parable of the Sower. Jennings along with a dozen other celebrated scholars and comic professionals across media and academia will help recommend new comic creators and relevant narratives that would make great adaptations. Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is one of the notable advisory board members who will help shape future titles under the Megascope umbrella.

What is Megascope?

A few years ago, it was discovered that Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois wrote an unpublished science fiction story called, ” The Princess Steel”. The story had a working title of “The Megascope: A Tale of Tales”. It was discovered by these scholars and it considering an afrofuturistic short story about a man who is a Black sociologist who shows off his Megscope machine to a couple to show the time and space which reveals a world of dark magic across space.

The first titles to be released will be “After the Rain” which is a graphic novel adaptation of award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor’s short story “On the Road,” which is a supernatural drama. Acclaimed writer-illustrator Shawn Martinbrough tells the hard-hitting story of Charles “Dukes” Duchamps, a New York-based debt collector with a love for jazz and a loss that has haunted him for years in “The Heavy”.

In the press release, it states that on top of these two titles coming out there are an additional eight more titles that will be released over the next year or two. One of those titles is Dark Fear: Framing Emmett Till by Christopher Benson and illustrated by Eric Battle. There is no official information yet with this title or released art but it seems like the Emmett Till story will be a graphic novel in the near future.

It might be time to make room in your bookshelf for all the new graphic novels you will be buying.