The late author Octavia Butler cemented her status as an Afrofuturist icon by using science fiction to center the complexities of African-American culture, history, and people. 

Butler's 1993 dystopian novel, Parable of the Sower, offers chilling similarities to our present day world as it tells the story of a Black woman’s journey through a post-apocalyptic America plagued by economic collapse, environmental decay, and political demagoguery.

Butler cemented her status as an Afrofuturist icon by using science fiction to center the complexities of African-American culture, history, and people. Over the span of her career she wrote 12 novels, won two Hugo Awards, and was the first Science Fiction writer to receive the coveted MacArthur Genius Grant. She died in 2006 at the age of 58.

Her stories are finding new life as graphic novels created by Damian Duffy and John Jennings and published by Abrams ComicArts.  

The award winning duo received wide acclaim for their 2017 graphic novel adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Kindred.   In February of this year they released their adaptation of Butler’s Parable of the Sower.

WYPR Producer Cianna Greaves and Cultural Anthropologist Dr. Stanford Carpenter spoke with comic creators Damian Duffy and John Jennings about their graphic novel adaptations of Octavia Butler’s Parable of Sower and Kindred.    

In addition to Octavia Butler's works, Damian Duffy and John Jennings co-created Hole: Consumer Culture. They also co-edited Black Comix, Black Comix Returns, and Out of Sequence: Underrepresented Voices in American Comics.