Cartoonist Darrin Bell has deal to write 2 graphic memoirs

NEW YORK – Darrin Bell, the Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist acclaimed for his sharp takes on race, gender and President Donald Trump, has a two-book deal.

Henry Holt & Company announced Thursday that Bell will publish two graphic memoirs that explore racism and his personal background. The first book, “The Talk,” will be published next year. Holt is calling it “a graphic memoir written as a deeply personal meditation on “the talk” Black parents must have with their children about racism and the brutality that often accompanies it.”

The second book, “Come Back Around To You,” will tell of “the author’s discovery of art, his bond with his beloved grandfather, a direct descendant of slaves, and his complicated relationship with his father against the backdrop of Los Angeles.”

The 45-year-old Bell is also known for his syndicated comic strips Candorville and Rudy Park. He won the Pulitzer for editorial cartooning in 2019 and was praised by the Pulitzer board for addressing “issues affecting disenfranchised communities, calling out lies, hypocrisy and fraud in the political turmoil surrounding the Trump administration.”

Bell’s comics and cartoons have been compiled into such previous books as “We Eat the Poor” and “Does the Afterlife Have Skittles?”