Bessie Coleman was the first American woman of colour to hold a pilot’s licence, which she gained in 1921. Black Angel is a series of French-language graphic novels, dramatising her flying career. In this first volume, she works as a smuggler, bringing contraband alcohol into the US from France. As she struggles to conquer the skies, she’s also battling extreme racism from the likes of the Klu Klux Klan.
Written by Yann Balac’h and illustrated by Alain Henriet, Black Angel was originally published in French by Dupuis, but is now available in English in a digital edition from Europe Comics.