Bill Campbell on The Empire Never Ended Podcast.Smash Pages Q&A | Bill Campbell talks ‘The Day the Klan Came to Town’.Fascism and the Ku Klux Klan in Bill Campbell and Bizhan Khobabandeh’s “The Day the Klan Came to Town”.Josh Neufeld, author of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge This nearly-century-old story is echoed in today’s movements for social change. Throughout the narrative we get a sense of the town’s history and the immigrants who settled there-ironically many of them fleeing persecution in their home countries. Carnegie’s largely Catholic townspeople resist internal resentments and infighting to band together against the Klan. Through the use of comics, intensive research, and their vivid imaginations, Campbell and Khodabandeh bring to life the infamous ‘Karnegie Day’ riot of August 25, 1923. “Sound familiar?: An invading hate group, a corrupt police force, and ineffectual government force a diverse cross-section of town residents to fight back. Joel Christian Gill, illustrator of Strange Fruit The Day the Klan Came to Town is an example of an uncelebrated story that show us where we have been and helps us grow into the society we need to be.” Understanding American history will put us on a path to being better than our past selves. “Bill Campbell continues to do society a service by sharing the important stories that help us to be better. “A fearless, brutal account of American history filtered through one town’s relationship to immigration, identity, and ‘othering.’ The Day the Klan Came to Town lays history bare, making centuries-long connections to today. Damian Duffy, author of Octavia Butler’s Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation Despite being about the past, you will not find a timelier graphic novel.” With incisive dialog and inviting cartooning, the creative team brings you into a past where the construction of whiteness was contested, cross-cultural alliances kept the United States growing, and the people on the ground reminded those in power that fascism was an unwelcome plague that every real American will stand and fight. “So often, in times of unrest, we raise our heads up from the crowds of protesters and clouds of tear gas and wonder, ‘How did we get here?’ Fortunately, Bill Campbell and Bizhan Khodabandeh are here to remind you of the history that so informs our present.

Bill brings an international scope to the history and a concise understanding of politics to the story. “A piece of American history in all its ugliness told as an astonishing coming together of misfits to stand up against a common threat.

Mothership by Bill Campbell