This is the second -- after Jason Lutes and Nick Bertozzi's Harry Houdini: The Handcuff King, released about six months back -- in the ongoing series of young adult comics biographies being produced under the auspices of The Center for Cartoon Studies.  Satchel Paige is another striking exemplar of the humble yet heroic character that captures what is best about  America.  Sturm is the head of CCS for a reason:  he knows how to employ the language of comics to do what comics does best:  tell stories and show character.   Paige comes alive on the page as the reader gets to see his life unfold from a number of different perspectives, each offering a different facet of Paige's character and career.  But that's only half the story.  The heart of this work is the darkness of the Jim Crow south, and the generations long struggle of the descendents of slaves for self respect and self determination in a world dominated and controlled by the descendents of masters.  Sturm and Tommaso show us that Satchel Paige, in addition to being a phenomenal athlete, provided a beacon to those looking for a way out of their horrible bind, and that this was perhaps his greatest legacy.   Learn all about it on this CCS hosted page designed for educators who want to use this work to teach the kids today a thing or two about what's gone before.

Hardcover

(now in a new edition, with a slightly different cover than the one pictured here)