MARCH by Congressman John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell (Top Shelf)

Press Shop worked with Top Shelf Comix to line up publicity for the third installment of MARCH, Congressman John Lewis' bestselling trilogy of graphic memoirs about the Civil Rights movement. Our job was to help coordinate the launch week publicity for MARCH: Book 3 for Rep. Lewis and his two co-creators, Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell, to handle national book review coverage, and to place longer thought pieces on the series as a whole.

Among the media hits we coordinated: an appearance on The Daily Show, joint interviews with the three creators on NPR’s The Takeaway and MTV News, an excerpt in Time magazine, lengthy features in The Guardian, The Atlantic, Mashable, The Root, The New Republic, and Vox, book reviews in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Miami Herald, and many other major papers.    

The MARCH books spent weeks taking up the top 3 spots on the New York Times bestseller list, quickly sending it into reprints. (The books also spent time as #2, #3, and #4 on the overall Amazon bestseller list, outsold only by Harry Potter!) MARCH: Book 3 won a 2016 National Book Award.

The list of media coverage is long, so we’ll post links to just a few of our favorite hits:

The New York Times Book Review: “John Lewis’s National Book Award-Winning Graphic Memoir on the Civil Rights Movement”
This rave came out a day after MARCH received the National Book Award. "A capsule lesson in courage of conscience, a story that inspires without moralizing or simplifying in hindsight."  

WNYC's The Takeaway: “Rep. John Lewis Tells the Struggle For Civil Rights in Graphic Novel”
An interview with Lewis, Aydin, and Powell on the challenges of bringing the past to the page in graphic memoir form

The Atlantic: John Lewis and the Cycle of Racism in the United States. “In the Congressman’s Graphic Novel, March, the Violence of the Civil-Rights Era Feels Familiar.”
On the similarities between what Lewis faced half a century ago and what’s going on today

Time magazine: Exclusive Excerpt from John Lewis’ Memoir: “The Birmingham Church Bombing”