Save It for Later: Promises, Parenthood, and the Urgency of Protest

From Nate Powell, the National Book Award–winning artist of March, a

collection of graphic nonfiction essays about living in a new era of

necessary protest

In this anthology of seven comics essays,

author and graphic novelist Nate Powell addresses living in an era of

what he calls “necessary protest.” Save It for Later: Promises, Protest, and the Urgency of Protest is

Powell’s reflection on witnessing the collapse of discourse in real

time while drawing the award-winning trilogy March, written by

Congressman John Lewis and Andrew Aydin, this generation’s preeminent

historical account of nonviolent revolution in the civil rights

movement. Powell highlights both the danger of normalized paramilitary

presence symbols in consumer pop culture, and the roles we play

individually as we interact with our communities, families, and society

at large.

Each essay tracks Powell’s journey from the night of the

election—promising his four-year-old daughter that Trump will never win,

to the reality of the Republican presidency, protesting the

administration’s policies, and navigating the complications of teaching

his children how to raise their own voices in a world that is becoming

increasingly dangerous and more and more polarized. While six of the

seven essays are new, unpublished work, Powell has also included “About

Face,” a comics essay first published by Popula Online that swiftly went viral and inspired him to expand his work on Save It for Later. The

seventh and final essay will contextualize the myriad events of 2020

with the previous four years—from the COVID-19 pandemic to global

protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder to the 2020 presidential

election itself—highlighting both the consistencies and inversions of

widely shared experiences and observations amidst a massive social

upheaval.

As Powell moves between subjective and objective

experiences raising his children—depicted in their childhood innocence

as imaginary anthropomorphic animals—he reveals the electrifying sense

of trust and connection with neighbors and strangers in protest. He also

explores how to equip young people with tools to best make their own noise as they grow up and help shape the direction and future of this country.