Incognegro - Hardcover

Johnson, Mat

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 140121097X ISBN 13: 9781401210977

Publisher: Vertigo, 2008

Synopsis

Zane Pinchback is a black newspaper columnist who "passes" as white and writes about his experiences, and he becomes involved in a dangerous mystery when he investigates the arrest of his brother, who has been charged with the murder of a white woman in Mississippi.

About this title

About the Author:

Mat Johnson is an author and teacher. Following his acclaimed first novel, Drop, Johnson wrote the award-winning Hunting in Harlem and the non-fiction The Great Negro Plot. His other comics work to date is Titan's Hellblazer: Papa Midnite. Warren Pleece first found comics fame illustrating Second City Blues for 2000AD, but it was True Faith, with author Garth Ennis, that truly made his name. His other work includes Hellblazer and The Invisibles.

From Publishers Weekly:

The brows are furrowed and teeth mightily clenched in Pleece's noirish artwork for Johnson's pulpy tale of a black journalist who goes undercover in the 1930s South to investigate a possible trumped-up murder charge against his brother—a charge that could lead to a lynching. Zane Pinchback, who is so light-skinned he can pass for white with a little cosmetic help, writes the Incognegro column for a Harlem newspaper, and his beat (like that of many a brave black journalist at the time) is the bloody circus of lynchings still claiming lives in horrendous numbers. Johnson's tale is a smart and fast-paced one, particularly when dealing with Pinchback's reluctance to return to Mississippi (wisely preferring his comparatively sheltered Harlem life). Once he's back down South, the twists and turns of the story come fast and thick, goosed by the not particularly trustworthy explanations being given by Zane's moonshine-distilling brother, and the attention-drawing antics of Zane's playboy friend Carl, who invited himself along on a lark. Johnson and Pleece have done a mostly commendable job, though the plot gets too knotted for its own good long before the conclusion, but they give a cracking Chester Himes kick to what could have been a sub–Walter Mosley imitation. (Feb.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Vertigo
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 140121097X
• ISBN 13: 9781401210977
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 136