rom writers Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe, the creative team behind the Academy Award-winning short film Two Distant Strangers, joined by artist Aremo Massa, comes a brand-new graphic novel: Black Solstice. This title is set to arrive right on time for the Winter Solstice this December.
Last winter solstice, the world was transformed when every Black person in America gained superpowers—powers that gave an unthinkable amount of hope, but then disappeared the following morning. Now, with only three days before the next winter solstice, the entire nation is holding its breath, waiting to see if the powers will return.
But not everyone’s been just waiting. Kesa, Quentin, and Deja—the Wallace siblings—have been planning the biggest heist in history, something that would change everything for Black people. And they are ready. All they need are those powers to kick in for 24 more hours.
“This journey began on December 21, 2020, when practically every Black person on Twitter started declaring, almost spontaneously, what superpower they were gonna get on the winter solstice,” said Travon Free. “It was an amazing day, one of those moments that reminds you why you love the Internet, where each post was cleverer than the last and every emotional beat you can think of got hit, from hilarious to disturbing to profound.”
“It felt like magic, and it kinda was, because in putting together this book we traced the idea back to its origin and after a lot of digging it turned out…there really wasn’t just one,” Travon Free continued. “Instead it kinda formed piece by piece, bouncing from tweet to tweet, and from sincerity to irony in the weeks leading up to the solstice when it just dumped joy all over the timeline for everyone and proved, once again, that Black Twitter is the most creative place in the known universe.”
Ultimately, the goal of this book is to honor the joy and fun of that Twitter conversation and flesh it out into a complete story that everyone can enjoy.
The Black Solstice original graphic novel will be available December 19, 2023 in bookstores and December 20, 2023 in comic shops. It is available for pre-order now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and at your local comic shop and bookstore. The Black Solstice hardcover graphic novel will retail for $19.99.
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