The Talk

Darrin Bell has produced another American classic… An expressive and direct work about racism’s impact, and the problems we have discussing it * Guardian, Best Graphic Novels of the Year *
It’s nearly impossible to appreciate another person’s truth, but if a brilliant storyteller offers to light the way, take him up on it. Bell is the Ta-Nehisi Coates of comics, an indispensable explainer of how it feels to grow up in a world that repeatedly treats you as other. The talk with my white sons boiled down to ‘Be kind.’ It’s hard to overstate the distance between that admonition and ‘Stay alive’ – Garry Trudeau, creator of Doonesbury
Visually stunning, and propulsive, with an absorbing narrative voice… Reminiscent of longform comics memoirs such as Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis… This epic portrait of an artist is a masterpiece… The Talk makes a penetrative, and lasting, impression * NPR *
Propulsive reading, drawn with urgency and verve. Once you pick up The Talk, you won’t be able to put it down – Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home
A moving portrait… funny and touching, intellectually and emotionally stimulating. There’s pride and prejudice, family drama, and a love story. I loved this book. You will too – Victor LaValle, author of The Changeling
A Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist draws on his childhood in Los Angeles to explore racism on a deeply personal level. There’s a poignancy, too, in the cyclical nature of the story: Bell, now a father, is wrestling with the same questions his own parents face * New York Times *
A deeply personal, brutally honest, and achingly funny graphic novel… The Talk is a strikingly illustrated vision – Lalo Alcaraz, creator of La Cucaracha
Darrin Bell’s first foray into graphic novels is a triumph. A cinematically comic, coming-of-age blend of race, culture, and gratuitous nerdity. Wonderful – Keith Knight, creator of The K Chronicles and Woke

Darrin Bell, a recipient of the Berryman Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Editorial Cartooning, began his career at the age of twenty. In 2019 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, becoming the first African American to do so. Rudy Park (co-created with Matt Richtel) and Bell’s Candorville, both syndicated comic strips, have run for more than twenty years. A contributing cartoonist for the New Yorker, he lives with his wife and four children in California.

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