“Here I am with my immigration form, it’s big enough to keep me warm when a cold wind’s coming, so go where you will as long as you think you can, you’d better watch out. Watch out for the man, anywhere you’re going.” From Immigration Man, written by Graham Nash.

For some — all too many — this might be the most important comic book they will ever possess.

Yeah, I know. You’re heard that before. A lot. I’ve said it before, probably in promotional copy that was supposed to motivate you to spend your last dime on a comic with my name in it… as well as other names, of course. But this time that sentence most certainly carries the ambiance of truthiness.

This critically important comic is titled Know Your Rights and it’s published by the New York City Public Schools, although outside of a few local contacts (which, generally, have corollaries in most cities) the information is completely useful throughout the United States of America. This, unfortunately, remains particularly in those large areas like Minneapolis, Chicago, Portland, Los Angeles, and way too many others where armed, nameless, cowardly masked federal agents of all sorts are lawlessly rounding up foreign-born residents and tossing them into brick-and-mortal concentration camps. Of course, after an extended period of incarceration in filthy chicken-wired pits, they are shackled and deported, usually to a country to which those people had either never been or to a country where they face torture and death due to their opposition to some of their former homeland’s government ethics.

These inmates have not been convicted of anything in open court and are not granted their rights to due process.

King Trump’s America is doing this without giving these human beings the rights we constitutionally give to all while within our borders… well, certainly, to most white men and many white women, and who are not Muslims or whatever other religions also are on the Christian Nationalist Hitlist on that day.

It turns out there are lots and lots of things people can do once being stomped upon by ICE, the FBI, the border patrol, the Proud Boys (or whatever the fuck these pigs are calling themselves today), et al. And this comic book details just what those things are.

Know Your Rights is a comic book in all aspects except some text stuff in the back. It’s thirty-two pages, comic book sized, and its done by genuine comic book talent.

It was written by friend-of-the-Squad Alex Segura, who, between his full slate of comics assignments and his novel-writing, has been on quite of a roll lately. Some of his comics work that needs to be read include Star Wars: Battle of Jakku, Spider-Society, The Question: All Along the Watchtower, and Dick Tracy.

David Hahn is the artist (both pencils and inks), is a founding member of Helioscope Studio and his work has graced the pages of Batman ’66, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Marvel Adventures: The Fantastic Four, Fables, The Six Million Dollar Man, Impossible Jones (with Karl Kesel), and Aztec Empire with my ol’ pals Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett. And I’m sure the Grand Comics Database denotes lots more stuff.

The list of well-established comics talent who produced Know York Rights continues with letterer Taylor Esposito (Red Hood and The Outlaws, Harley Quinn: The Eat, Bang! Kill. Tour; Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Amory Wars, VR Troopers, Elvira, Space Ghost, Jonny Quest, etc).

Ellie Wright colored the book; she won the Tripwire Award for Best Colourist of 2024 — yeah, Tripwire is proudly British, so we’ll give her that extra “u” —and the Ringo Award for Favorite New Talent of 2023. She’s worked on Cruella, Vampirella, Red Sonja, Madam Satan, The Jaguar, Betty Page, James Bond, and We Only Kill Each Other, among many others. We will next be seeing Ellie’s work in the upcoming graphic novel adaptations of Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Universe.

So, yeah, this is a bona fide comic book — one that informs, empowers, and saves lives. Think about it: Know York Rights literally saves lives. That sure beats a shitload of variant covers, doesn’t it?

And, yes, that is NYC Mayor Mamdani right there on the cover. Gee, I guess he must be a democratic socialist — the book is available in fourteen languages… and it is free!

It’s even free to download at https://www.weteachnyc.org/resources/collection/know-your-rights-comic/.