[Comicsstudiessociety] Conjuring Octavia Butler’s Prophecy In ‘Parable Of The Sower’ Graphic Novel

[Mike Rhode]

 Conjuring Octavia Butler’s Prophecy In ‘Parable Of The Sower’ Graphic
Novel
By Cianna B. Greaves <https://www.wypr.org/people/cianna-b-greaves> &
Stanford W. Carpenter *•* Aug 20, 2020

https://www.wypr.org/post/conjuring-octavia-butler-s-prophecy-parable-sower-graphic-novel



   - [image: Reimagining Parable of the Sower: excerpts from the digital
   sketchbooks of Damian Duffy and John Jennings.]
   View Slideshow 1 *of* 7

   <https://www.wypr.org/sites/wyprmain/files/styles/x_large/public/202008/teaser_image.jpeg>
   Reimagining Parable of the Sower: excerpts from the digital sketchbooks
   of Damian Duffy and John Jennings.
   Photos Courtesy / John Jennings and Damian Duffy


The late author* Octavia Butler
<https://www.huntington.org/octavia-butler> *cemented her status as an
Afrofuturist icon by using science fiction to center the complexities of
African-American culture, history, and people.

Butler's 1993 dystopian novel, *Parable of the Sower*
<https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/parable-of-the-sower-a-graphic-novel-adaptation_9781419731334/>,
offers chilling similarities to our present day world as it tells the story
of a Black woman’s journey through a post-apocalyptic America plagued by
economic collapse, environmental decay, and political demagoguery.

Butler cemented her status as an Afrofuturist icon by using science fiction
to center the complexities of African-American culture, history, and
people. Over the span of her career she wrote 12 novels, won two Hugo
Awards, and was the first Science Fiction writer to receive the coveted
MacArthur Genius Grant. She died in 2006 at the age of 58.

Her stories are finding new life as graphic novels created by *Damian Duffy
<http://damianduffy.net/about/>* and* John Jennings
<https://profiles.ucr.edu/app/home/profile/johnj>* and published by Abrams
ComicArts <https://www.abramsbooks.com/imprints/abramscomicarts/>.

The award winning duo received wide acclaim for their 2017 graphic novel
adaptation of Octavia Butler’s *Kindred*
<https://abramsbooks.com/product/kindred-a-graphic-novel-adaptation_9781419709470/>.
In February of this year they released their adaptation of Butler’s *Parable
of the Sower.*

WYPR Producer *Cianna Greaves
<https://www.wypr.org/people/cianna-b-greaves>* and Cultural
Anthropologist *Dr.
Stanford Carpenter <https://www.facebook.com/SWCarpenter>* spoke with comic
creators Damian Duffy and John Jennings about their graphic novel
adaptations of Octavia Butler’s Parable of Sower and Kindred.

In addition to Octavia Butler's works, *Damian Duffy
<https://twitter.com/DamianD2Duffy>* and *John Jennings
<https://twitter.com/JIJennings>* co-created *Hole: Consumer Culture.* They
also co-edited *Black Comix*, *Black Comix Returns*
<http://www.magnetic-press.com/black-comix-returns/>, and *Out of Sequence:
Underrepresented Voices in American Comics
<https://kam.illinois.edu/exhibition/out-sequence-underrepresented-voices-american-comics>.
*
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