A big loss for American politics, as Representative John Lewis has passed away. His illness (pancreatic cancer) had been announced late last December. I'm posting here given Lewis' connection to (independent) comic books.

Lewis cites a comic called Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story as a major influence, for explaining the philosophy of non-violent protest in a concise fashion. Below is a picture of its cover (please note it contains language nowadays consider racial slurs).
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Much later in life, he recalled the influence of the comic to political campaign aide Andrew Aydin, who subsequently spent years tracking down a physical copy of the original. Aydin repeatedly suggested Lewis should write an autobiographical comic of his own, to inspire the youth of today, as the Martin Luther King comic had done for Lewis.
In 2013 Lewis would become the first member of U.S. Congress to author a graphic novel. Together with Aydin, he wrote what would become a trilogy of graphic novels (March: Book One, Two, and Three) based on Lewis' life and role in the Civil Rights Movement. Nate Powell illustrated all three of these, and they were released between 2013 and 2016 by Top Shelf (now part of IDW).
The March series won a bunch of awards; the first book was nominated for 3 Eisner Awards and is taught in schools. (Here's a glowing review CBR's published 7 years ago).
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A sequel to March has been in the works for a while now, titled Run, and was intended to release last year. Lewis was co-writing again with Aydin, while Afua Richardson would do most of the illustrations. I'm not sure what'll happen with the project now, but hopefully Run Book One can still be completed.
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