Graphic novel examines US if Jan. 6 insurrection was successful. It's coming to PA schools

Almost 800 public and charter schools across Pennsylvania will be receiving copies of a graphic novel that tells a story imagining what might have happened if attempts to overturn the 2020 election had been successful.

Publisher OneSixComics is sending out copies of its speculative fiction book, “1/6: The Graphic Novel,” to high schools in 495 public school districts, 87 charter schools, 76 career centers and eight state juvenile corrections institutions as part of a “pro-democracy” education campaign.

“In the tradition of speculative fiction like 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale, it explores themes of autocracy, scapegoating and strategic disinformation, traveling the road that led from back-room meetings and white supremacist rallies to the Four Seasons Total Landscaping parking lot to the ultimate violent attack on the Capitol,” a news release from One Six Comics explains.

The four-issue graphic novel was written by Harvard Law School professor Alan Jenkins and New York Times best-selling author and artist Gan Golan .

Jenkins told the USA Today Network that he and Golan began work on their graphic novel over two years ago, as “myths and lies” persisted about the 2020 election and the violent attacks that followed.

“It was immediately evident to me that we needed to tell the story of what happened — and the story of what could have happened — and to tell it in a way that would reach everyday folks who care about our democracy, but were maybe too busy to read the 800-page House Select Committee report on the insurrection,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins added that the publisher chose Pennsylvania schools specifically because the commonwealth is widely regarded as the “birthplace of democracy” and its ranking as one of the states with the most banned and challenged books in public schools by groups like PEN America and the American Library Association.

What Pa. schools are getting “1/6: The Graphic Novel”books?

A list of 780 schools was provided to the USA Today Network by the publisher, including 58 schools in Philadelphia; 18 schools in Bucks County; 17 schools in York County; and 14 schools in Erie County.

Central Bucks School District, which has one of the largest student populations in Pennsylvania, is receiving copies for each of its five middle schools.

Each of the county's 12 other school districts will be receiving copies for their high school libraries. The Bucks County Technical High School, Middle Bucks Institute of Technology and the Upper Bucks County Technical School are also receiving copies.

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The donations are intended to provide school libraries with physical copies of the book, but Jenkins said there is a digital platform to provide individual copies to students if teachers wanted to make the graphic novel part of a lesson plan for their classrooms.

The donation includes an education guide developed by the national nonprofit Western States Center, which advocates against “anti-democratic social movements” and hate groups, according to information on the center’s website .

Below is a list of all schools where OneSixComics is donating books.

Is “1/6: The Graphic Novel” available in my school’s library?

While the publisher has started sending copies of the graphic novel out to schools, school districts typically have policies on how donations are accepted and distributed.

School districts are not required to use any donations they receive.

For example, Central Bucks policy 702 on gifts, grants and donations says the school board “reserves the right to refuse to accept any gift that does not contribute to achievement of district goals or when such ownership would adversely affect the district.”

Any donations are also subject to the same rules and policies as any other district property.

What’s in“1/6: The Graphic Novel”

The final two issues of the comic will be sent out after they are published in the coming months, but the publisher provided copies of the first two issues to the USA Today Network, which includes the Bucks County Courier Times and The Intell.

The main story is set sometime in the near future in Washington, D.C., and is centered around a handful of main characters, which includes a nurse, a journalist, a former congressional aide and a Trump supporter whose son was killed during the Capitol riot.

The first issue is primarily used to introduce the main characters and set up a re-imagined America under totalitarian rule.

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A news station is violently taken over by a paramilitary group before a live broadcast after the station violates the "Fair and Balanced Media Actof 2021" and is declared "an enemy of freedom." A speaker at a rally celebrating the insurrection blames “antifa” and “Black Lives Matter” for hanging former Vice President Mike Pence. Resistance members give coded messages through meal orders at a local diner.

The second issue is primarily a retelling of the events that led up to Jan. 6, 2021, going as far back as the 2017 Unite the Right rally organized in Charlottesville, Virginia, where hundreds of neo-Nazis and white supremacists organized to protest the removal of confederate statues.

Those accounts are cited from legal documents, sworn testimony and media reports, though Jenkins added that he and Golan also conducted their own interviews — which is where some of the inspiration for the main characters came from.

Some frames in the comic depict scenes that have been documented through witness accounts, but details on the specific language used or the settings are unconfirmed or unknown.

Jenkins also noted that there is no nudity or sex in the graphic novel, and that there is “no gratuitous violence.”

“The only violence that's in this comic book is, you know, depicting either what happened on Jan. 6, or what was planned,” Jenkins said.

Chris Ullery is the Philadelphia Hub Data Reporter for the USA Today Network. Reach him at cullery@couriertimes.com or find him on Twitter at @ulleryatinell.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Graphic novel examines US if Jan. 6 insurrection was successful. It's coming to PA schools