海角大神

Rob Edwards, the writer and producer, and Robert Smalls, the iconic freedom fighter and legislator, share more than a first name. They share a sense of mischief, imagination, and defiance.

Smalls displayed his guile and courage in the midst of chattel slavery and the Civil War. In 1862, he daringly stole and commandeered the Planter, a Confederate ship, which he navigated past Confederate forts and later surrendered to the Union Navy. Smalls and 15 other enslaved people sailed to freedom, and he was later assigned as the ship鈥檚 pilot.

Edwards鈥� cleverness, albeit with lower stakes, manifested itself during his childhood. 鈥淚鈥檒l get myself in trouble here, but [as a kid], you might open my textbook and see a comic book, Spider-Man or something like that,鈥� he admits with a laugh during a phone interview.

The writer鈥檚 journey to convey Smalls鈥� story in graphic novel form took him to multiple comic book conventions and led him to form his own superteam with illustrators and researchers. What resulted is 鈥淒efiant: The Story of Robert Smalls,鈥� a collaboration between Stranger Comics and Legion M. The publisher鈥檚 goal is to elevate Smalls 鈥渢o his rightful place鈥� next to other 19th-century heroes such as Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass.

The Monitor spoke with Mr. Edwards ahead of the June 10 publication of the first installment of the 鈥淒efiant鈥� trilogy. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What鈥檚 the importance of telling Robert Smalls鈥� story correctly and with depth?

When I started to do my deep dive into Robert Smalls鈥� life, there were a lot of really great biographies, but none of them were attacking it from the angle that I wanted to [pursue]. Also, I wanted to meet people where they are, and for me, the audience or people that would be most affected, in my view, would be teenagers. The way to meet those kids is through comic books, or a graphic novel.

Also, I wanted to tell the story in three parts. The man lived several lives. The first part was the taking of the Planter, wondering what kind of person would do this and create [the story] of such an exceptional human being. He was pinned down between the Confederate Navy and Union Navy and somehow survived it. The second volume is his life as an entrepreneur and speaker. The third is his life in Congress. He ran for five terms and he鈥檚 the reason we have a public school system, so his legislation lives on forever.

What separates Robert Smalls鈥� story from other stories of that time period?

Dave Baxter, a high school friend of mine who was working with Legion M, introduced me to the story of Robert Smalls, and I consider myself a pretty well-read guy. I was like, 鈥淥K, this is a remarkable story that needs to be told in a remarkable way.鈥� A lot of times, with stories like these, the slave narratives are kind of brutal, what I call the 鈥渨hip on back鈥� kind of storytelling. Everybody kind of tunes out the actual story, and you don鈥檛 really get a sense of what the person was about and how big their accomplishments were. In the case of Robert Smalls, the planning of his escape was amazing. He outsmarted the entire Confederate Navy. What he did after that was amazing. I knew we needed to tell the biggest version of this story because it would change lives.

How significant is Robert Smalls to this political moment?

It starts with the end of the Civil War, the coming of Jim Crow, the Daughters of the American Revolution and these attempts to whitewash our path. But the bruise is still there. It starts with people saying 鈥淒EI is bad,鈥� and then the legal repercussions of racism 鈥� that鈥檚 鈥渂ad.鈥� You start with a place where most people agree that teaching a second grader about slavery probably isn鈥檛 the best idea, going from that to saying that any story about any Black person in history is 鈥渨okeness.鈥�

How we convey these stories is important. How do we pass that information on? Through songs, through quiltmaking? Through comics? Ultimately, the important thing is to get the story out. It鈥檚 also the reason why making a movie is really important, and getting multiple versions. Dr. Myisha Eatmon, a Harvard professor who helped us with research, is working with us on a student guide that young people will read.

You worked previously with 鈥淭he Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,鈥� a show famous for its sense of mischief and imagination. How have you been so adept at finding that balance and making it an essential part of your work?

I would add 鈥淧rincess and the Frog鈥� and 鈥淐aptain America鈥� to that mix as well. 鈥淔resh Prince鈥� was about [the idea] there鈥檚 not just one type of Black folk. We meet in the middle, and sometimes, growing pains are hard. 鈥淧rincess and the Frog鈥� was about a Black woman and a man from an exotic land 鈥� one poor, one rich, one hardworking, one not so much. And they meet in the middle. They were human beings. 鈥淐aptain America,鈥� thematically, is about the burden that鈥檚 placed on all of us. His superpower isn鈥檛 what makes him a superhero. He does everything the hard way, and he can鈥檛 make a mistake. I always remember what my father would tell me. He鈥檚 like, you know, you have to be twice as good. That鈥檚 the [burden].

There鈥檚 this great story about how to train an elephant. You take a six-foot spike, drive it into the ground, and you chain the elephant to it. The elephant struggles and it realizes it can鈥檛 do anything. The next day, you replace it with a three-foot spike, and the elephant looks at the spike and decides that no matter what it does, it鈥檚 never going to get that spike out of the ground.

We can鈥檛 do that. We have to look at every day like it鈥檚 a one-foot spike, and that we鈥檙e only constricted by our beliefs and what we think we can achieve.

Robert Smalls was born a slave, but never had a slave mindset. He made the world around him conform to the reality that he saw.