Your Black Friend and Other Strangers

by Ben Passmore

Overview

Your Black Friend and Other Strangers is a collection of culturally charged comics by cartoonist Ben Passmore, including the Eisner Award nominated and Ignatz Award-winning "Your Black Friend," named one of NPR's 100 favorite comics of all time in 2017.

Passmore masterfully tackles comics about race, gentrification, the prison system, online dating, gross punks, bad street art, kung fu movie references, beating up God, and lots of other grown-up stuff with refreshing doses of humor and lived relatability. The comics in this 112-page collection include works previously published by The Nib, VICE, and the As You Were anthology, along with brand new and unreleased material.

These comics are essential, humorous, and accessible, told through Passmore's surreal lens in the vibrant full-color hues of New Orleans.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781945509209
Publisher:	Silver Sprocket
Publication date:	04/15/2018
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	907,388
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

BEN PASSMORE is a Philadelphia, PA based cartoonist and illustrator best known for his award-winning comic Your Black Friend (Silver Sprocket), which deftly tackles issues of racism, identity and alienation, and was adapted into a short animated film. His political cartooning appears in The Nib, and he is the cartoonist behind the post-apocalyptic series Daygloahole and the graphic novel Sports is Hell (Silver Sprocket). He partnered with Ezra Claytan Daniels (Upgrade Soul) to bring the body horrific BTTM FDRS (Fantagraphics).

Editorial Reviews

…a beautifully printed collection tackling dysphoria and difference…The titular "Your Black Friend" is a small masterpiece of storytelling…Passmore presents an impressive range of work in the collection, which includes impressionistic one-page pieces…[and] more sprawling sci-fi stories that showcase Passmore's dense, colorful drawings; he's clearly invested in genre, and there are echoes of Gary Panter's fantastically dystopic Jimbo comic strip here…But as "Your Black Friend" reveals, when Passmore observes daily life…his work explodes with force.

The New York Times Book Review - Hillary L. Chute

★ 03/12/2018
This contentious volume collects Passmore’s short comic pieces into a powerhouse argument for antiracist action. Passmore attacks not only the overt racism that surfaced during the 2016 presidential election but also the subtler forms of prejudice experienced daily by people of color. Passmore doesn’t disguise his belief that “we all need to be anarchists,” particularly in the multi–award-winning title story. Other graphic essays detail his experience being jailed following a protest, well-meaning political misfires in New Orleans during the controversy surrounding the removal of statues of Confederate soldiers, and the destructive effect of the 2016 election on family relationships, with some dystopian sci-fi and early zine work tucked in for indie fans. He cuts down obvious targets, but also takes to task “establishment lefty groups” for favoring drama over risk, the ACLU for defending hate speech, and Black Lives Matter for choosing respectability over revolution. Passmore’s intimate and funny style buoys his radical argument, that everyone should work to destroy systemic oppression, in this bracing and eye-opening narrative manifesto. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Beneath its sardonic tone lies a truth that is urgent, sincere and deeply affecting." – NPR Books; 100 favorite comics & graphic novels, 2017

"It's entertaining and comical and heartbreaking, everything an eye-opening experience should be." – Comics Bulletin

"Required reading for white people, especially if we hope to be useful allies and decent friends." – Women Write About Comics

From the Publisher

11/01/2018
It's okay to fail, says Passmore, but "we just have to learn to fail upward." The award-winning titular story lays out hopes, miscommunications, and contradictions common in black-white relationships, not omitting static within black-black conversations. Other targets of this culturally charged satire include white supremacy, activism, Confederate monuments, free speech, pronouns, and punk reparations. Dense, loose-limbed drawings in lush color or black and white.

Library Journal