1/6: The Graphic Novel

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What if the attack on the US Capitol succeeded?
A tale of what was, what could have been, and what still could be.

Written by Alan Jenkins and Gan Golan and illustrated by Will Rosado, 1/6 asks and answers the question: What if the January 6, 2021 Insurrection had been successful?

The graphic novel chillingly illustrates how close we came to authoritarian rule in America and the threats to our democracy that we still face. In the tradition of speculative fiction from George Orwell’s 1984 to Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale to the Twilight Zone, it explores themes of autocracy, scapegoating, strategic disinformation, and more, all told through a compelling, character-driven story.

Drawing on real-life events, 1/6 travels the road that led from back-room meetings, white supremacist rallies, and the Four Seasons Landscaping parking lot to a violent attack on the Capitol that left several Americans dead and shook our nation to its core.

It then imagines a world in which the events of that day turned out very differently.

1/6 is for lovers of graphic novels, lovers of speculative fiction, lovers of politics, and lovers of our democracy. It’s a story that demands our attention and calls on us to take action…while we still can.

Issue #1 of the 4-Issue Series has just been digitally released on Amazon and Issuu, with a print edition available shortly. Written by Alan Jenkins and Gan Golan. Artwork by Will Rosado. Colors by Lee Loughridge. With additional contributions by comics masters Shawn Martinbrough, Jamal Igle and more.

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MEET THE TEAM

  • Alan Jenkins

    Alan Jenkins (Writer) is a writer, law professor, and human rights advocate. He teaches courses on racial justice, strategic communications, and Supreme Court jurisprudence and is a frequent commentator in broadcast and print media. He is also a screenwriter, selected as a Blacklist/Google screenwriting fellow and named a “2022 Top 25 Screenwriter to Watch” by the International Screenwriters Association. Jenkins’s previous positions include President and Co-Founder of the social justice communication lab The Opportunity Agenda, Director of Human Rights at the Ford Foundation, Assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice, and Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

  • Gan Golan

    Gan Golan (Writer/Artist) is an activist, illustrator and New York Times bestselling author who has been working for decades to help movements for human rights, equity and democracy. His critically-acclaimed graphic novel The Adventures of Unemployed Man played a role in the Occupy Wall St. movement. He was a lead designer of The People’s Climate March, one of the largest climate mobilizations in history. He is a co-creator of The Climate Clock, a global art project that counts down the critical time window remaining for humanity to act on climate.

  • Will Rosado

    Will Rosado (Penciller/Inker) started his career at Marvel drawing G.I. JOE! and at DC as the regular artist on The New Teen Titans and Green Arrow. Additional projects include: Detective Comics, Nightwing, Robin, Birds of Prey, Superman, Flash and Deathstroke. He is also the artist for the Puerto Rican superhero story, La Boriqueña. Work from this book has been showcased in various exhibitions, most notably at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in New York City.

  • Lee Loughridge

    Lee Loughridge (Colorist) is a veteran in the comics industry with over 2000 credits and is best known for working on several Batman titles. Recently, he worked on The Climate Crisis Chronicles.

  • Tom Orzechowski

    Tom Orzechowski (Letterer) has worked in comics for decades and best known for lettering The Uncanny X-Men, Black Panther, Spawn and Captain Marvel.

  • Jamal Igle

    Jamal Igle (Cover Artist) is the creator of the comic book series Molly Danger. He is also known for his penciling, inking and coloring work on books such as Supergirl and Firestorm. He recently worked on Micro-Face for NPR’s Planet Money.

  • Pia Guerra

    Pia Guerra (Cover Artist) is an Eisner and Harvey award winning comic book artist and editorial cartoonist. She is the co-creator of Y: The Last Man and has worked on several books for Marvel and DC including Black Canary and Hellblazer. Guerra has done cartoons for The New Yorker, MAD Magazine, The Washington Post and The Nib.

  • Alex Albadree

    Alex Albadree (Cover Artist) is a BIPOC queer immigrant who creates art through an intersectional lens with the aim of raising critical consciousness and calling individuals to take action for social transformation. Their art has been featured in Society of Illustrators and the Getty Museum. Alex also works on climate science to inform evidence-based advocacy and policy for climate change.

  • Shawn Martinbrough

    Shawn Martinbrough (Cover Artist) is the author of How to Draw Noir Comics by Penguin Random House and an Eisner Award-nominated artist whose comic book projects include; Batman: Detective Comics, Luke Cage Noir, The Black Panther: Man Without Fear, Hellboy and Thief of Thieves. He lives and writes in the DC Metro area.

For all of us who care about democracy and justice, January 6, 2021 was a chilling demonstration that anti-democracy activists and white nationalists are increasingly organized, and that they have some very powerful friends.

The events of that day could easily have been more dire.  And in the months and years since, we’ve witnessed new waves of political violence, hate crimes, and anti-democracy efforts across the country.  It’s clear that the groups behind 1/6 have not disappeared but, rather, taken their work to the community level.

Yet, Americans who want to protect and strengthen our democracy far outnumber those who would see it crumble to advance their agenda.
We have the numbers, and we have solutions. Now it’s time for us to take action.

Every one of us has a role to play in ensuring 1/6 does not fade from the public memory, and in strengthening our collective commitment to democracy. 

This is a struggle for the values we share – democracy, equal dignity, and truth – but we can’t let those values feel abstract. This work has real stakes for all of us, it’s happening in our own backyards as well as across the country, and it must be addressed now.

Check out the 1/6 Action Guide below.

The Western States Center action guide!

BOOK CREDITS & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Story
Alan Jenkins & Gan Golan 

Pencils & Inks
Will Rosado

Colors
Lee Loughridge

Letters
Tom Orzechowski

Front cover 
Will Rosado & Gan Golan

Variant Covers
Alex Albadree 
Pia Guerra 
Jamal Igle
Shawn Martinbrough

Created by
Gan Golan & Alan Jenkins

Follow us!
IG: @OneSixComics 
www.OneSixComics.com

Contact: 
Press@onesixcomics.com

An amazing team of committed professionals worked tirelessly to bring this work to life.  In addition to the authors and artists, the list includes the staff and leadership of the Western States Center; Legal Counsel, Jason Schultz; Research Assistants, Emily Miller and Jennifer Jeong; Publicists, Jon Bleicher at Prospect Public Relations, Sam Narr of Kibbo Kift Agency, and Biola Jeje; Social Media Strategist, Josh Bolotsky; and Digital Artist, Hendrick Alonzo.  We also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, the Kettering Foundation, Ken Grossinger, and scores of Kickstarter backers who helped us reach the finish line.  Additional thanks go to the dozens of journalists, scholars, activists, and everyday folks with whom we consulted in developing this volume and those to come.  Finally, we want to thank our families and friends, who supported us during many long hours and erratic schedules.

In memory of Olga Jenkins. 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT 1/6

In developing this series, we’ve spoken with a wide range of people from different backgrounds, viewpoints, and walks of life.  We’ve learned a lot and gained important perspectives on the values that our nation stands for and how we can best live up to those values.  We’ve also heard some frequent questions about our story and the real events on which it’s based.  Here are a few of those questions, along with our answers.

Why write about the Insurrection?

The January 6, 2021 Insurrection was an assault on the values that we hold most dear as a nation–free and fair elections, equal dignity for all, and respect for the truth.  Yet, beginning days after the attack, we’ve seen a campaign by opportunistic politicians and cynical pundits to minimize it, to excuse it, and to divert blame away from those who planned and perpetrated it.  1/6: The Graphic Novel conveys one vision of what the Insurrectionists planned for America as well as the threats that still remain.  It is a historical marker, a cautionary tale, and a call to action.

Why tell this story in Graphic Novel form?

Comic books and graphic novels have a long history of fighting for democracy and freedom from bigotry.  The first issue of Captain America featured Cap socking Adolf Hitler in the jaw in the name of democracy—nine months before the U.S. entered WWII.  Superman fought the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s and the Black Panther fought them in the 1970s.  It’s on us–all of us–to counter today’s neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and to protect our democracy.  A graphic novel can be part of the solution.

Is 1/6: The Graphic Novel  purely fictional?

This is a work of speculative fiction grounded in real events.  Like Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale or Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, 1/6 shines a dramatic light on the challenges that we face today and will confront tomorrow.  Where we depict actual events in a future volume, we will indicate to readers that we are doing so, and share various sources of information about the events.

We’ll answer more questions in future volumes and in our upcoming Education and Action Guide. 

DISCLAIMER

Any mentions or appearances of real people or intellectual property in this work are for the purpose of commentary, criticism, education and/or as a reference to facts that relate to the artistic expression of the creators. Mentions or appearances do not in any way signal or indicate any affiliation, sponsorship, endorsement or relationship of any kind with said person or intellectual property.

1/6 IN THE PRESS