Author of
Across the Tracks: Remembering Greenwood, Black Wall Street, and the Tulsa Race Massacre, written by Alverne Ball, illustrated by Stacey Robinson (Abrams Books, 2021)
Blue Religion (Sacramentum Press, 2021)
Only the Holy Remain (Vital Narrative Press, 2016)
Dime: A Choose Your Own Destiny Mystery, written by Alverne Ball, illustrated by Alfa Robbi (Arion DMG, 2016)
Virgin Wolf: Birth of a Hunter (Arion DMG, 2016)
Alverne Ball is the writer of the bestselling graphic novel Across the Tracks: Remembering Greenwood, Black Wall Street, and the Tulsa Race Massacre (Abrams Books) and author of the thriller novels, Only the Holy Remain (Vital Narrative Press) and Blue Religion (Sacramentum Press). He earned his MFA in fiction writing from Columbia College Chicago. Alverne is the 2019 Tin House graphic narrative scholar and is also the recipient of 2014 and 2015 Glyph Comics Rising Star Awards for his writing on One Nation: Old Druids. In 2009, he received the first-ever Luminarts graphic novel writing award.
Alverne Ball
Books by Alverne
In Across the Tracks: Remembering Greenwood, Black Wall Street, and the Tulsa Race Massacre, author Alverne Ball and illustrator Stacey Robinson have crafted a love letter to Greenwood, Oklahoma. Also known as Black Wall Street, Greenwood was a community whose importance is often overshadowed by the atrocious massacre that took place there in 1921.
Across the Tracks introduces the reader to the businesses and townsfolk who flourished in this unprecedented time of prosperity for Black Americans. We learn about Greenwood and why it is essential to remember the great achievements of the community as well as the tragedy which nearly erased it. However, Ball is careful to recount the eventual recovery of Greenwood. With additional supplementary materials including a detailed preface, timeline, and historical essay, Across the Tracks offers a thorough examination of the rise, fall, and rebirth of Black Wall Street.
Blue Religion (Sacramentum Press, 2021)
In the sequel to 2016’s Only The Holy Remain, Detective Frank Calhoun springs back into action after a social worker and a rookie police officer are murdered in Chicago’s East Garfield Park.
Flanked by his new partner Fred Lions, while also battling remnants of his father’s recent conviction, Frank chases down clues across the city as he begins to assemble pieces of the case. With mounting pressure from his girlfriend Gloria, as well as the Assistant State’s Attorney striving to make a career off the case’s headlines, Frank must keep his head on straight as he attempts to find the killer and navigate the pitfalls of the blue religion.
Only the Holy Remain (Vital Narrative Press, 2016)
After discovering the body of Father Pantone, Detective Frank Calhoun embarks on a journey to chase down clues that will reveal the murderer’s treacherous intentions. Along the way, he must deal with his own demons such as his father’s incarceration as well as his former partner’s mysterious death. With the walls closing in around him, Frank must discover the murderous plot before it’s too late.
Dime: A Choose Your Own Destiny Mystery written by Alverne Ball, illustrated by Alfa Robbi (Arion DMG, 2016)
Dime is a choose-your-own-destiny suspense thriller graphic novel that follows the life of private investigator Eddie Puss as he chooses to either find the murderer of wealthy philanthropist Jacosta Harrington’s husband or find streetwise pimp, Jimmy Mac’s missing prostitute. Either way he’s stuck chasing the dime.
Virgin Wolf: Birth of a Hunter (Arion DMG, 2016)
The quest to find and kill the Father of all Wolfen begins! Virgin and Hania arrive in the small town of LeSaint, in Orleans France in the year of our lord, 1605, and what they encounter may set the country ablaze, if not the entire known world.