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Cartooning isn't just a way of drawing, it's a way of seeing. (Scott McCloud)
Lila Quintero Weaver's first graphic novel, Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White, presents a personal narrative of childhood and adolescence as an Argentinean immigrant in the deeply segregated town of Marion, Alabama during the 1960s and 1970s. Darkroom begins when Lila immigrates to the United States at the age of five and ends, rather abruptly, with a condensed narrative of her life after high school and her return visit to Argentina, fortyfour years after her departure. The coming-of-age story, dramatically set during the civil rights movement, directly links the protagonist's personal experiences of immigration with the escalating national crisis, attempting to focalize this tense historical period and struggle for civil and human rights from a child's curious but not fully cognizant perspective. The adult writer/illustrator, in contrast, maintains a more mature understanding of the racial tensions in which she grew up. In this way, through both socially committed content (as a young immigrant's tale that depicts societal change in addition to personal development) and literary form (as a young adult graphic narrative), Darkroom is both a unique example of the bildungsroman and an atypical narrative of the Jim Crow era.1
Darkrooms cover illustrates this hybridity well, giving equal weight to the primary themes of immigration and racism. The background features a nearly full-page sketch that maps Lila's flight north from Argentina, demonstrating that the protagonist's immigrant status remains foundational. Nevertheless, the artwork also makes it clear that this personal and cultural journey is not the sole focus of the graphic memoir. Prominently centered and carefully set in the foreground, a tightly cropped frame of a young African American couple-holding candles and singing-subtly obstructs the geographical destination of the United States. The reader will soon discover that they are preparing to march in solidarity with Civil Rights activists unjustly imprisoned in the county jail. Within the graphic narrative this drawing, captioned with "...we are not afraid" (lyrics from the emblematic song We Shall Overcome, 157), marks a turning point both in the civil rights movement and in Lila's understanding of racial injustice. Above these images of departure and, not coincidentally, overlaying the uplifted branches of a tree that Weaver uses to...