By james art 
This story was initially aired in the episode on January 26, 2025 on Inside Appalachia.
A new graphic novel tells the story of the Western Virginia Mina Wars.
The wars for the Western Virginia mine happened in the early 1900s, when coal miners began to organize themselves in southern Western Virginia as coal companies try to keep this to happen. There were strikes and violent clashes that ended in the battle of the Blair Mountain in 1921. More than a century later, there was a new interest in this story.
The story is now told in a graphic novel. It is called Black Coal and Red Bandans: Illustrated History of Western Virginia’s Mina WarsS It is written by Raymond Tyler, who grew up in Hall County, Georgia.
Inside the Appalachia The host Mason Adams talks to Tyler about the book.
This interview is edited for clarity and length.
Adams: What was your comic book portal?
Tyler: I never remember time not to read them. I fell in love with them from the moment I looked at them. We were going to take the newspaper, and I would immediately look at the fun immediately. I just loved them. I was so lucky that there were [nearby] town [that] I had a comic book shop. I think the first time I went to this comic bookstore I had to be at four [years old]S I usually came out with a comic book from the 25th century that they would have there, and I never stopped reading them, I always loved them. By the time I was 14, I said I wanted to write comics like a living. That’s how I loved these books.
Adams: I can appreciate this. I did the same with the comics and much of my original understanding of politics was shaped by Doonesbury and Bloom CountyS
Tyler: The funny thing is that the thing that brought me into political literature as a whole was comics. I found Alan Moore’s work when I was 14 years old. I read one of his books and didn’t understand it. The book was GuardS I read guards and then I went online and looked, “Who is Alan Moore?” I read that he was an anarchist. What does that mean? I don’t know anything. But whatever it was, he wrote to me one of the most staggering books so far. These “superheroes” were not good guys. I was very confused. I was very upset by the end, so much that I came back to the comic book store and I was like, “Where’s the rest of the book?” Because I didn’t understand [why] The book ended this way. I just didn’t have this frame. It was just so new. It was a portal to radical authors and alternative comics.
With the kind assistance of Raymond Tyler
Adams: When did you first find out with the concept of Apalachia and that you grew up in part of it?
Taier: It would be when I started traveling a little around. I began to see the difference in the culture I grew up in. I guess everyone has this that grew up in Apalachia. You may think, you may know it, but I don’t know if you realize how special or unique it is until you go to other places. I went to Goddard College to Vermont, to an alternative college. It was a very counterculture in the 60 and 70s and it is still a countercoundation. Everyone who goes to Godard college should study social justice. It was there that I started to realize a little more about Appalach’s identity, because a teacher at Godard College was like: “You have to write about it. You need to think a little more about your Appalachian origin and how it applies to you as a writer. “When you grow up in the mountains, you don’t really think too much about it until you leave.
Adams: How did you learn about the Western Virginia Mina’s wars?
Tyler: I’ve always been a big movie so of course I was watching the movie Matevan, by John Saines. But I think I actually started reading everything I could about Appalachia at Vermont College. This story just really got caught and turned into a special interest. My wife regularly jokes that I have not fell silent about the wars of the Western Virginia mine since I met me. If anyone showed any interest, I would continue with a nice, long story about the Western Virginia Mina’s wars because it was infinitely interesting to me. I was in Western Virginia so many times I grew up and this is one of the most beautiful states, right? I love Western Virginia. There is something that has always hit me when we drove through Western Virginia, the industry mixture with the beautiful, majestic mountains. This images has always got into my head, so I think it was a big factor for the contributing factor for the special interest of West Virginia.
With the kind assistance of Raymond Tyler
Adams: One thing I like about this book is the note in it, encouraging that once the reader is over, do not just stick it on a shelf, but to pass it on to someone else to read. Who did you write this comic about?
Tyler: This is for anyone who is interested in the story below and people who are fighting oppressive systems. But this book is indeed a love letter to Appalachia and Appalachia Resistance. My hope with the book is that after people read it, they pass it on to someone who may be interested in it. I have always thought of comics as almost folk literature in which you accept comics when you are a child and share them with other people, right? I don’t know if you ever remember trading comics with people in the neighborhood, but I think adults can still do it because anyone can read this book. We even censor some language in the book so that children can read it. But most of all, they are reading this book right now. My hope with this book is that this can be some continuing folk tradition, to convey this book to someone who may be interested in these stories of Appalachia.
Adams: Another thing I like is the treatment of Mother Jones. Many labor writers mythologize mother Jones, understandable, but in this book there is a major scene that undermines this and shows the reality of the earth and what it means to the people who have participated in this struggle. I appreciated that moment. What should this book about conflict more than 100 years ago for the moment we live now?
Tyler: The thing I think is important for this book and all the books on the history of labor are the things we like in our lives today that make our lives somewhat comfortable come from many people who have fought for us , This struggle is not over. The reason we have the weekend is because of work struggles. The reason we have all kinds of comfort we have in our lives today. The reason that private militias do not shoot us when we are on strikes is because of so many people who have fought us. Now they do other things that are bad, and hopefully we never go back to a time when private militias hurt people who are trying to fight for a better life. I mean that with a sense of urgency: to hope that we never go back to that time, we continue to organize ourselves to make sure that the rights we have taken away and that we can continue in this class Struggle for freedom.
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Raymond Tyler is the writer of the new graphic novel, Black Coal and Red Bandans: Illustrated History of Western Virginia’s Mina WarsIllustrated by Summer McClinton. It is now available by PM Press.