The Talk

*LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL* *A GUARDIAN GRAPHIC NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2023* Darrin Bell was six years old when his mother told him he couldn't have a realistic water gun. She said that police think little Black boys older and less innocent than they are. So began 'The Talk'... 'The Ta-Nehisi Coates of comics' GARRY TRUDEAU, creator of Doonesbury 'Darrin Bell has produced another American classic' GUARDIAN Through evocative illustrations and sharp humour, Darrin Bell examines how The Talk all Black parents must have with their children shaped his intimate and public moments from childhood to adulthood. While coming of age in Los Angeles - and finding a voice through cartooning - Bell becomes painfully aware of being regarded as dangerous by white teachers, neighbours and police officers, and thus of his mortality. Drawing attention to the brutal murders of African Americans, and showcasing revealing insights and cartoons along the way, he brings us up to the moment of reckoning when people took to the streets protesting the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. And now Bell must decide whether he and his own six-year-old son are ready to have The Talk.

Darrin Bell, a recipient of the Berryman Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for Editorial Cartooning, began his career at the age of twenty. In 2019 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, becoming the first African American to do so. Rudy Park (co-created with Matt Richtel) and Bell's Candorville, both syndicated comic strips, have run for more than twenty years. A contributing cartoonist for the New Yorker, he lives with his wife and four children in California.