Big Jim and the White Boy: An American Classic Reimagined GN
Publisher: Ten Speed Graphic
Release Date: October 15, 2024
Price: $35.00 (HC), $25.99 (TP)
Creator(s): David F. Walker (Writer) & Marcus Kwame Alexander (Artist)
Format: 288 pgs., 7-1/4″ x 10-1/4″, Full Color, Hardcover/Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-0593-83611-8 (HC) / 978-1984-85772-9 (TP)
Age Rating: 7-9 Grade Level
ICv2 Rating: 4 Stars out of 5
There are difficulties a writer or artist creates when attempting to adapt or recreate a work of classic literature in another form. It is even more difficult when the actual effort is to rethink that classic, which is the case with this graphic novel. Still, the creators did an excellent and interesting job of creating something to stir the imagination, and to draw readers into learning more about the story and its context.
In this case, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is deconstructed, and part of its story told in a slightly different way, with more input from often the character Jim, who accompanied Huck down the Mississippi in some of the very memorable parts of the original novel. The creators of this work had already won an Eisner award for their graphic non-fiction work about the Black Panther Party.
The impetus for this work is also part of the reason why it is important. Twain’s story has been analyzed and both praised and criticized for generations, and the portrayals of both Huck and Jim have been criticized. Twain claimed that both were based on real people, but they were people that most of the readers had never met in real life, and he often tweaked his readers with ideas that were foreign to them. In this case, Jim was a blend of the traditional “darkie” of 19th century fiction with occasional bits of heroism not usually attributed to former slaves in American fiction. Add to that Huck’s back story as the son of an abusive, horrific father and a long-dead mother, and various historical and cultural theories have arisen about his “real” background. This graphic novel plays off of one of those, and makes it sort of an “alternate world” version of the story, in which both Huck and Jim live many years after the story, and pass along various parts of it to Jim’s family.
There is also a side story about a book within the book, which is that of a writer creating a piece of prose that may be the same story told by the graphic novel, or perhaps not, because we don’t really see the finished work.
Because this graphic novel tells only a part of the story given to us by Twain, and a revisionist version at that, the target audience will be readers who have already read Twain’s full story, and who can appreciate the changes.
On the other hand, the parts original to this work are very approachable for readers who have never read Twain, and the actual history in the story is fascinating. Is it necessarily the history that Twain wanted to tell? The book quotes Mark Twain’s famous saying, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” This book has a good story as well as some truths that need to be remembered. Is it perfect? No. But it’s going to be worth the effort for those who pick it up.
Source: ICv2
