Description

A New York Times Best Graphic Novel of 2020
YALSA 2021 Great Graphic Novels for Teens
2021 Cartoonists Prize for Print Comics
2021 Eisner Awards Best Publication for Teens Nominee
Fights is the visceral and deeply affecting memoir of artist/author Joel Christian Gill, chronicling his youth and coming of age as a Black child in a chaotic landscape of rough city streets and foreboding backwoods.
Propelled into a world filled with uncertainty and desperation, young Joel is pushed toward using violence to solve his problems by everything and everyone around him. But fighting doesn’t always yield the best results for a confused and sensitive kid who yearns for a better, more fulfilling life than the one he was born into, as Joel learns in a series of brutal conflicts that eventually lead him to question everything he has learned about what it truly means to fight for one’s life.
“FIGHTS is somehow brutally raw, funny as hell, deeply sensitive and insightful in each panel.” — Nate Powell (March trilogy)

About the Author
Joel Christian Gill is the chairman, CEO, president, director of development, majority and minority stockholder, manager, co-manager, regional manager, assistant to the regional manager, receptionist, senior black correspondent and janitor of his Strange Fruit Comics. He is the author of Fast Enough: Bessie Stringfield’s First Ride from Lion Forge and the award winning graphic novels Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History and Tales of The Talented Tenth from Fulcrum Publishing. In his free time he is Chair of Comic Arts at the New Hampshire Institute of Art where inspire students to unleash the transformational potential of their stories. Founder of #28daysarenotenough it is his belief that segregating the history of minority peoples lessens the impact these people have made on American society, and culture. Gill has dedicated his life to using stories to rebuild, empathy, compassion and ultimately humanity. As his friends and family say, “He won’t shut up about equality, justice and the importance of telling stories, so listen to him so we can binge watch Stranger Things in peace.” He received his MFA from Boston University and BA from Roanoke College.
Reviews
“FIGHTS is somehow brutally raw, funny as hell, deeply sensitive and insightful in each panel.”–Nate Powell (March)
“Beyond a recounting of a hardscrabble upbringing, Gill’s memoir becomes an ode to claiming peace from the experience of violence–and passing that gift on to others.”– “Publishers Weekly”