At the end of the campaign, folks were talking about what they were going to do after. Some were going to the beach, others to their parents. I said I was going to the Dragon Con convention in Atlanta, a comic convention. Everybody laughed, except for one person. I heard this deep voice say that there was a comic book during the movement, and it was deeply influential to him. That was the first time I heard about “Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story,” this incredible comic that sold for 10 cents, 16 pages cover-to-cover. It told the story of MLK and Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott, and it was an introduction to nonviolent civil disobedience for thousands of young people in the early days of the movement. So I thought, “Why isn’t there a John Lewis comic book? One that tells the next chapter?” You know, about the Freedom Rides, the March on Washington, Selma. At work the next day, I said, “I think the congressman should write a comic book.” There was a bit of an awkward silence. He said, “Okay, maybe.” For those of us who are in politics, we know what that answer means. So we kind of moved on.
