Alan Jenkins Explores 1/6 Insurrection and Democracy in Graphic Novel Series

Harvard Law professor Alan Jenkins and New York Times best-selling author Gan Golan will be releasing issue 3 of their acclaimed graphic novel series, 1/6.

1/6 focuses around Jan. 6, 2021, when several Donald Trump supporters stormed on and entered the Capitol Hill building. The novel centers the premise: What if the insurrection had been successful?

A long time comic book fan, Jenkins was inspired to write 1/6 following the insurrection, an event that caused controversial discussion between Republicans and Democrats then and presently.

“There was a lot of disinformation from political leaders at this time, and it really shook me to my core,” Jenkins said. “I’m a law professor and I could have written a law review article that would have been read by tens of people who already agreed with me. And many readers and fans of comic books, by and large, love democracy, but might not have the time to read an 800 page report on the insurrection, or be glued to cable news, so I wanted to engage a broader audience.”

Issue #1 focuses on the events nine months after the successful insurrection and the journey of four main characters existing in the new society, while Issue #2 takes you through the events that led to the insurrection and the insurrection itself. Issue #3 and #4 will focus on the total fall of democracy and resistance movement that arises in this speculative society. The story follows the lives of a MAGA supporter and his son, a journalist reporting on Capitol Hill, a congressional staffer, and an emergency responder.

“We tried to bring empathy to all of our characters, even people who we knew in real life we would not agree with, because we think that that makes for better storytelling,” Jenkins said. “But also, we want to bring in readers across the ideological spectrum, people who love comic books and good entertainment, and we did not want to demonize people who might be interested in exploring a different view.”

1/6 was a collaborative effort, cowritten by Rosado and featuring illustrations and colorizing from accomplished artists, Will Rosado, Lee Loughridge, and Tom Orzechowski.

Jenkins is a Professor of Practice at Harvard Law School where he teaches courses on Race and the Law, Communication, and Supreme Court Jurisprudence. He’s worked with U.S. Department of Justice and several other social justice initiatives. Jenkins’ background with politics and justice initiatives helped him tell the story in a way that was informative and accurate.

“There are a lot of moving parts and actors, legal and constitutional questions,” Jenkins said. “I did a lot of research with my two research assistants, multiple interviews, and reading legal documents.”

For Jenkins, it was also a balancing act to tell the story in a way that was informative but also entertaining and did not come off as preachy.

“We didn’t want it to be too filled with real life events, but we wanted to give readers a way to go deeper if they want to,” Jenkins said. “We created a free education and action guide that is available not only to readers of the comic book, but to anybody who goes to 1/6 comics.org. It includes more background information, specific steps that people can take to defend democracy in their community, to push back against bigotry and political violence.”

Additionally, Jenkins made an active effort to make the novel affordable.

“I teach at Harvard Law School and sometimes I have to assign a textbook that costs (anywhere from) $50 or $80 and that’s just not accessible for lots of folks,” Jenkins said. “We worked hard to make sure that our series was even more affordable than many books out there, both digitally and in print. So we’re happy about that; we were we were never planning to get rich selling comic books.”

The novel is part of an exhibition at San Diego State University, “Rising Up: Depictions of Social Protest in Comics,” which is being displayed until December in the campuses Love Library. The exhibit is curated by Pamela Jackson, SDSU Comic Arts Librarian and Co-Director of the Center for Comics Studies, and focuses on comic books that depict different types of protests on a variety of relevant social justice and political topics.

Jenkins also took to San Diego Comic Con, which was hosted last weekend, July 25-28.

“This year was my second time attending Comic Con, this year as a comic book creator, with an industry pass, and I was there all four days,” Jenkins said. “What I like most about San Diego Comic Con is it’s mostly people who often feel isolated or marginalized in their day to day lives for their love of comic books and popular culture and then they get there to Comic Con, and they’re with their people, and you can just see the joy that so many people experience that they can talk about things they enjoy and be themselves.”

Jenkins hopes people who read the story walk away with feelings of hope and curiosity, and hopes it encourages people who normally don’t have access to or pay attention to politics to learn more about the importance of democracy, especially high school and college-aged audiences, many of whom are being exposed to political topics in a deeper light for the first time.

“There is a lot of darkness, because some terrible things happened at the real insurrection, and even more terrible things happen in the fictional successful insurrection that we portray,” Jenkins said. “But there’s also a lot of humor and parody. And importantly, there’s hope. And that message of hope is just as relevant, if not more so, in today’s political climate. So we’re hoping that people will, you know, come with us on that adventure that includes all of those things, the outrage, the despair, and moments to laugh.”

Issue #3 of the 1/6 series is set to publish in the coming weeks, prior to Election Day.