Jazmine Joyner (They/Them) is a writer. They consume copious amounts of books, television, and movies; All while writing furiously during the day. Jazmine is working on their graphic novel debut DEVOUR slated for May 2024.

Graphic Novelist Jazmine Joyner, in-conversation with John Jennings!

In the Deep South, something evil waits in the darkness…

Award-winning graphic novel writer Jazmine Joyner is coming to Cellar Door to celebrate their newest graphic novel, Devour, which will be released on May 7th. They will be in-conversation with our friend, graphic novel illustrator John Jennings (Hugo and Eisner award winner for graphic novel adaptations of Parable of the Sower and Kindred).

In this horror graphic novel written by Joyner and illustrated by Anthony Pugh, American Gods meets Get Out in a dark retelling of the West African legend of Anansi the Spider. Devour tells the story of the Turner family, who move to Alabama to care for their ailing matriarch, Vassie, when she begins suffering from dementia. But Vassie isn’t just any old lady; she’s the last of a line of powerful root women who have been caring for the community since her ancestors were first captured and enslaved by white plantation owners. Patsy, the eldest daughter in the family, is immediately suspicious; the locals’ fear and superstition of her grandmother leads Patsy to take a closer look at the Turner family home, and what she finds is beyond her wildest nightmares.

Jazmine Joyner is a Black disabled nonbinary femme who has been working in various parts of the comics industry for years. From being the first Black woman on the West Coast to own a comic shop to being an award-winning comics journalist, they have committed their life to their love of comics. They are based in Southern California and have written for Women Write About Comics, The Comics MNT, and others. Devour is their debut graphic novel.

John Jennings is a Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside. Jennings is co-editor of the Eisner Award-winning collection The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of the Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art. Jennings is also a 2016 Nasir Jones Hip Hop Studies Fellow with the Hutchins Center at Harvard University. Jennings' projects include the Eisner-winning, Bram Stoker Award-winning, New York Times best-selling graphic novel adaptation of Octavia Butler's classic dark fantasy novel Kindred. Jennings is also founder and curator of the ABRAMS Megascope line of graphic novels.

Preorder your copy of Devour online below, call us at 951-787-7807, or you can preorder it in store!

We'll see all of you fans of horror, history, and folktales there!