Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who began his career as a basketball player but has gone far beyond that as a writer, producer, and social justice activist, has co-written a new YA graphic novel about his life with his frequent collaborator Raymond Obstfeld.  Ed Laroche, creator of the Image series Almighty and The Warning, will be the artist for the project, which is titled Champions: A Graphic Novel and will be published by the Penguin Random House imprint Ten Speed Graphic.  The story follows an arrogant high school basketball player, Monk Travers, who gets in trouble and risks losing his place on the team. His coach gives him an out:  Write a paper on Abdul-Jabbar’s advocacy work.  In the process of researching the paper, Monk learns about the history underlying Abdul-Jabbar’s work and is stirred to action himself.  The 128-page graphic novel will be released on September 2, 2025, in two formats, a paperback with an MSRP of $19.99 and a hardcover with an MSRP of $26.99.

Abdul-Jabbar wrote the Titan series Mycroft Holmes and the Apocalypse Handbook and provided the introduction to Dave Chisholm and Peter Markowski’s graphic biography of Charlie Parker, Chasin’ the Bird (see “Z2 Adds Abdul-Jabbar Intro to Bird Bio”).