Abrams announced a new graphic novel imprint, Megascope, which will focus on speculative work by and about people of color. The line will be curated by award-winning comics creator John Jennings.

Megascope, which will part of the Abrams ComicArts program, is named for the allegorical invention created by W.E.B. Du Bois that can peer through time and space into other realities. The imprint will focus on science fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism and creative nonfiction narratives centered on social justice issues, presented in graphic novel and comic book form. Jennings will acquire and guide the editorial vision of the imprint, and will be aided by editor Charlotte Greenbaum and Editorial Director Abrams ComicArts Charles Kochman. Megascope plans to publish four to six titles a year, beginning in Fall 2019.

Jennings will also create an advisory board to help cultivate projects. The board will include scholars and comic experts from various disciplines including Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Harvard), Sherryl Vint (UCR), Frederick Luis Aldama (OSU), Stanford Carpenter (Black Comix Arts Festival), Kinitra Brooks (MSU), Ricardo Padilla (Latino Comics Expo), Rebecca Wanzo (WashU), Darieck Scott (UC Berkeley), and Frances Gateward (CSUN).

Jennings is Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Riverside. He has worked on many award-winning comics projects including Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation (with Damian Duffy) (see “'Monstress' & 'My Favorite Thing Is Monsters' Dominate the Eisners“) and the Eisner Award-winning academic anthology The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art (see “'Monstress' & 'My Favorite Thing Is Monsters' Dominate the Eisners”).