The conversation

In the autobiographical graphic novel The Conversation , Darrin Bell displays the humor, talent, and critical spirit that made him the first black cartoonist to win the Pulitzer Prize.

Darrin Bell was six years old when his mother told him he couldn't have a toy gun. She feared for her son's safety, as police tend to view Black children as older and less innocent than they actually are. To a police officer, the realistic-looking gun in little Darrin's hand might have suggested it wasn't a toy. But that wasn't an ordinary conversation between mother and son. That was THE conversation.

In this masterful autobiographical graphic novel, featuring exquisite illustrations and sharp humor, Darrin Bell recounts how The Conversation shaped his behavior from childhood to adulthood. Upon coming of age, the young cartoonist underwent a painful process of realization about why white teachers, neighbors, and police officers considered him dangerous.

Surveillance, threats, and living in a Los Angeles hostile to people like him, Darrin finds his voice through cartoons and comics, and expresses his discomfort in the form of art. With his cartoons denouncing police violence against Black people in the United States, Darrin takes us back to the moment when people took to the streets to protest the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, one of the most dramatic moments in American public life, which brought the Black Lives Matter movement to global prominence.

Now a successful professional—including the first Black cartoonist to win the Pulitzer Prize—Darrin relives the pivotal moment that changed his life and must decide when and how he and his six-year-old son will have The Talk.

“In The Conversation , Darrin Bell reconciles his personal life and his sociopolitical views in a tightly woven memoir that blends honesty, memoir, and powerful insights into race relations and police violence.” - The Washington Post

“A Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist revisits his childhood in Los Angeles to explore racism on a deeply personal level.” - The New York Times

“A thought-provoking memoir, beautifully presented in a work that is easy to devour but quite difficult to digest.” - Associated Press