In what the company is calling a first for the United States Congress and comic book publishing as a whole, Top Shelf Productions announced Monday an agreement with Representative John Lewis to publish March, an original graphic novel co-authored by the Georgia Democrat based on his life in the American Civil Rights Movement. Lewis will collaborate with Andrew Aydin of his Washington, D.C.-based staff, who for years has worked with the congressman in a variety of capacities. Artists are presently being considered.

A narrative of the Civil Rights Movement in America as seen through the eyes of Lewis, March will be the first graphic novel created by a sitting member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

"I am very pleased to be participating in this effort," said Congressman John Lewis. "This is something I really wanted to do some years ago and there is no better time to do it than now. It is not just a story of struggle; it is a story of involvement. It shows the ups, the downs, the ins and the outs of a movement.

"It is my hope," said Congressman Lewis, "that this work will be meaningful and helpful to future generations to give many people here in America and around the world the urge, the desire, to seek, to build, their own world, their own future."

With the March announcement comes the news that Top Shelf Productions is the first comic book publisher to be certified by the House Committee on Standards, which we presume has something to do with this enormous document concerning publishing and compensation ethics. It is just one of many reasons Top Shelf Publisher Chris Staros is pleased with the project.

As a proud resident of Georgia, and a long-time fan of the honorable Congressman," adds publisher Chris Staros, "this is truly a deep honor. To bring, not only his life's story, but that of the Civil Rights Movement to the comics medium is truly exciting. This will make this historical and timeless message accessible to an entirely new generation of readers."