Robert Smalls

Joe Whitt is a comic artist based in Alabama. He graduated from the University of Montevallo with a BFA in drawing. He lives with three polite cats. This is his graphic novel debut. Professor Joel Christian Gill is a cartoonist and historian who speaks nationally on the importance of sharing stories. He is the author of the Eisner Nominated graphic memoir Fights: One Boy's Triumph Over Violence, cited as one of the best graphic novels of 2020 by New York Times and for which he was awarded the 2021 Cartoonist Studio Prize. He wrote the words and drew the pictures for the award-winning graphic novel series Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History and Tales of The Talented Tenth, each volume tells the stories of Bass Reeves, Bessie Stringfield, and Robert Smalls. He adapted into a graphic novel Dr. Ibram Kendi's National Book Award-winning Stamped From the Beginning into Stamped From The Beginning: A Graphic History of Racist Ideas from Ten Speed Press. Gill has dedicated his life to creating stories and helping others create stories to build connections with readers through empathy, compassion, and, ultimately, humanity. He is the Inaugural Chair of Boston University’s CFA MFA in Visual Narrative. He received his MFA from Boston University and his BA from Roanoke College. Catch all his updates on Instagram, Tik Tok @joelchristiangill and on Twitter @jcg007.