A New Oakland Comic Book Unpacks Black Mental Health

Before she became a screenwriter and author, Janell Grace worked as a case manager in juvenile hall, and she saw firsthand the effects that unprocessed trauma had on young people. “I didn’t like how they saw themselves,” she says.

Grace wanted to tell a story that could help the youth she worked with dream bigger, so she teamed up with one of her best friends from college, Malik Glass, to write a screenplay for a short film that could help destigmatize mental health. The result was 2022’s Love Conquers All, which the two writers have turned into a graphic novel in collaboration with illustrator Eli Beaird. The third installment of the book comes out May 16, with a release party in Oakland.

Love Conquers All tells the story of Kennedy, a young Black man whose family settled in Oakland from New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As Kennedy studies to become a chef, he’s grief-stricken from his sister Faith’s death and haunted by memories of their childhood in foster care. Kennedy starts to withdraw, and his girlfriend Rose pressures him to get help.

“Before the good happens, the bad has to happen, so you see that transition from him crashing out,” Grace says.

The latest edition of Love Conquers All deals with flashbacks to Kennedy’s brush with gun violence when he was a child, an experience he’s attempting to process in therapy as he navigates a major opportunity that could take his cooking career to the next level.

“[We’re] normalizing the fact that people do have issues, and that it’s OK to address it and that, it’s OK to even have doubts if therapy is gonna work,” says Glass, who previously worked as a counselor for young people in a group home.

Across the three volumes of Love Conquers All, Grace and Glass explore multiple levels of trauma that can shake one’s foundation. In addition to the personal loss of Kennedy’s sister — which parallels Grace’s own experience of losing a sister of her own — the story also alludes to the global trauma of natural disasters, and the reverberating effects of losing one’s home. After Kennedy’s family is displaced from New Orleans, his parents are in survival mode, putting food on the table by any means necessary.

On an even larger scale, the books and short film also allude to generational trauma. In part one, a character recommends a book to Kennedy: Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by social work professor Dr. Joy DeGruy, an influential text that unpacks the lasting scars of racist violence. “If you wanna know about Black mental health, read that book,” Grace says. “It gives you a perspective that is not talked about in schools. It’s not talked about amongst our families.”

In addition to independently releasing the Love Conquers All comic books, Grace and Glass have their sights set on taking Kennedy’s story to a bigger audience: Their ambition is to turn the graphic novel into a live-action TV show set in Oakland, and they’ve already written two episodes.

“We just wanna show love for the Bay and its people,” Grace says. “You see TV shows shot in LA, you see TV show shot in New York. Let’s bring a show here and let’s show the people how beautiful and unique the people are in the Bay area.”

The ‘Love Conquers All’ launch party takes place May 16, 1–5 p.m. at 3235 Grand Ave., Oakland.