Description

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A dazzlingly illustrated postmodern epic of social commentary by ordained iconographer of the Coltrane Church, Mark Doox, who explores the story of Saint Sambo and Black existential wonder through the prism of his Byzantine and early Italo-religious style.

The N-Word of God is a literary graphic novel of interconnected illustrated stories of social insight, cognitive surprise, wry mirth, and Black existential wonder. Artist Mark Doox transports readers back to the beginning of the universe when God fatefully declared Light and Darkness as opposing forces. Doox then follows this theme through a religious and societal retelling of his own gospel-like myth. With a devil figure that advocates for John Coltrane’s philosophy of ‘A Love Supreme,’ The N-Word of God challenges binary racial ideas making a case for the commonality and the dignity of all human beings.

The striking art combines Christian iconography with caricatures and terms that have been used against Black people through which Doox artfully recontextualizes them as religious symbols of resilience, protection, counter-truth, agency, and new and pertinent revelation. 

With satirical wit and stunning illuminated manuscript-like illustrations, Doox has created a metamodern masterpiece of African American storytelling and Black signifyin’ wisdom. While Doox’s focus is always on the empathic center of his illuminating truths, The N-Word of God challenges the reader with unexpected ideas and connections in a must-have work of Black art and Black literature.

About the Author

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Mark Doox is a conceptual artist, writer, and long-time iconographer. He is interested in exploring sequential art and issues of life, psyche, race, and spirituality. Born in Columbus, Ohio, his work has been internationally exhibited, collected, and featured in articles in periodicals such as The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine, Oxford’s Black Theology Journal, and Spin.

Praise For…

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Lands like a provocative punch in the chops.
— Robert Ito - The New York Times

This is the best kind of political art, ingenious, tasteless, bold and fearless. … It’s a mind-blowing work that’ll leave readers reeling.
— Splice Today

The N-Word of God is a challenging pleasure — one of those rare books that is a must-read.

— Cinema Sentries

Mark Doox’s Afro-surrealist and satirical graphic novel ... deconstructively takes caricatures that have historically harmed Black people and reimagines them as symbols of Black resilience and healing, restoring the inherent dignity that belongs to every human being.
— Sojourners