The Journey to the Book

The search for an illustrator turns up a gem when we come across a copy of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, illustrated by Catherine Anyango Grünewald.

When you immerse in graphic novels, you immediately enter a world where words and pictures work together to build layers of meaning.

The search for an illustrator turns up a gem when we come across a copy of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, illustrated by Catherine Anyango Grünewald.

These posts about Graphic Dead Man Walking have, to date, been a catch-up journal, reaching back to when the book was a spark in Sister Helen Prejean’s eye. It might help, as you read them, to have a timeline of the book’s journey.

How do you retell a story that’s more than 30 years old and keep it current? Enter the Owracle, a marginal character who provides a glimpse of “future history.”

The task Sister Helen Prejean embarked upon in 1983, when she vowed to bring the American public into the country’s killing chambers, was generational work. We continue that work with this book.

Closure is a term shared by comics and by the conversation about the death penalty.

You must dig into myth and legend to discover another work which has been adapted as often as Dead Man Walking.

Writing a script for Dead Man Walking required a staggering amount of research. I turned to the archives at DePaul University, which house Sr. Helen Prejean’s papers.

I awoke this morning to this image…

The power of archives is like blood on your hands. Nothing quite beats the power of originals.

From Hot Stuff comics to Spiegelman’s Maus and Snyder’s On Tyranny, the contents of my graphics bookshelf has changed considerably.

Prepping for the copy edit, which is where every last detail in the script goes under a microscope.

There’s audience, and then there’s AUDIENCE. Who you’re writing for is key knowledge.

We took a lead from MAD Magazine’s drawn-out dramas to give graphic Dead Man Walking a current spin.

Pope Francis and Governor Gavin Newsom are two of those taking the lead to empty death rows for good.

What it’s like to be a criminal justice first responder.

The special privilege of working with folks working for justice: lawyers, mitigators, mover, shakers, and the innocent.

Stories are all around us. Sometimes all we need to do is pause, listen, observe to discover a story worth telling. Here’s a story from 9/11.

Copyeditors are the bacon savers of the author’s world. The job of copyediting goes way beyond merely correcting misspellings.

Writing is music, but there are no rules for cadence in writing. The lilt is the author’s trademark, not their straitjacket.

A visit with a lifer and a man condemned to die in Angola Prison, Louisiana.

Willie Francis was the only person to be executed twice, but botched executions have never been a rarity.

In the midst of turbulent times, music can act as a balm, helping us to find peace and rest or letting us dance it all out. Sister Helen’s Justice Train playlist is a communal list for difficult times.

“You must accept them and accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope.”

Advice from a first-timer.