Catching up with Jeremy Whitley: A New Project “Illegal”

Here at Black Nerd Problems, most of us are fond of Jeremy Whitley, the creator and writer of several comics, one being the verily awesome Princeless. He stays a very busy man and if you  missed it, we were able to catch up with him and talk to him a little back about Princeless, the importance of positive representation of women in comics and so on.  I was recently made aware of his new project tilted, Illegal. The story takes place in what looks like the not so distant future, here in America.  We  follow the foot steps of  Gianna Delrey, a young woman, originally from Mexico who happens to be an undocumented worker. She goes about being invisible because it seems being illegal is something akin to a crime.  So she lays low, does her best to do her work despite not being seen as an actual person and works for  living being paid less, considerably less because she undocumented.  

  One thing that sticks out to me is that so often in sci-fi or post apocalyptic works, people of color are easily erased. Gone. Usually shown, if ever, in roles of deviants or criminals. Or slaves or the people who populate the slums. And mostly NEVER the person who the story revolves around. Mostly never the person of interest. I mean, come on, we can only have the white, heterosexual male character as center stage for so long. From reading the preview, I’m struck with several questions–“What does it mean to be an American?”  Just how much does your skin color, where you were b…