Incognegro

[cornerofmadness]

Incognegro by Mat Johnson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a dark and ugly graphic novel because it is depicting a truly awful period in American history that isn't as far in the past as you'd want it to be. Zane Pinchback is a reporter in Harlem who passes for White and has been taking very dangerous cases to report on, namely doing what he calls going incognegro. He infiltrates lynchings in the deep south (where he was born) and exposes the men that perpetrate these heinous crimes. You can all but hear Billie Holiday singing Strange Fruit while you read this (and the time periods would be close to the same).

Trigger warnings should be obvious from the blurb but if not, here you go: racism, murder, the torture and mutilation of Black men.

Zane's newest case - which he wanted to be his last because he wants to be able to write under his own name and he's getting weary of the risk - is all too personal. His moonshine running brother 'Pinchy' has been arrested in Mississippi for killing a White woman and it seems highly unlikely the mob will let him live to see the inside of a courtroom.

He heads south with his devil may care buddy Carl who also wants to do big things and knows a) he can pass as White too and b) is very charming. They have to dig into the mystery of why did the sheriff's deputy disappear right after the murder Pinchy is blamed for and who really did kill the woman all the while hoping they aren't going to be exposed as Black.

Some of the sadness of this can be seen coming a mile off but that doesn't distract from how good of a noir tale this is. It has some very unexpected twists as well. The clean art does the story good. It's not an easy story to read but as we see more and more political pressure to bury stories like this, it is a story well worth reading.



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