DEFIANT - The Story of Robert Smalls - Comic Book Issue #1 (DIGITAL COPY)

Read the first issue of DEFIANT right now. The night Robert Smalls took a steamship out of Charleston Harbor and carried his family and the families of several other people to freedom.

Instant digital download of issue #1, written by Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Rob Edwards. NPR Books We Love 2025. Available across the U.S. and worldwide.

What Do You Get With the Digital Issue?

This is issue #1 of DEFIANT as a digital copy, the cheapest way into the story and the fastest. There is nothing to wait for and nothing to ship. Buy it and read it.

Issue #1 covers the setup and the voyage itself, the part of the story most people have never heard. If it lands the way it lands for most readers, the complete four-issue collection and the full 128-page graphic novel are waiting in the same shop, and physical copies ship nationwide across the United States.

Who Was Robert Smalls of Beaufort, SC?

Robert Smalls was born into bondage in Beaufort, South Carolina on April 5, 1839. He died in the same Beaufort house 75 years later, a house he had bought with his own money after being held in it as a boy.

On May 13, 1862, Smalls commandeered the steamship Planter in Charleston Harbor under cover of darkness. He put on the captain's hat, gave the correct hand signals and whistle codes at five checkpoints, and carried his family and the families of several other people out of the harbor to freedom. He was 23 years old.

His voyage helped persuade Abraham Lincoln to allow Black soldiers into the Union Army. After the war he bought the Beaufort house where he had been held, started a newspaper, founded a railroad company, helped write South Carolina's Reconstruction constitution, and championed the first free and compulsory public school system in the country. He served five terms in public office. Joseph Rainey served longer, and we say so, because the real record is remarkable enough without inflating it.

How Do You Get the Digital Copy?

Add it to the cart above and check out with a card, PayPal, Shop Pay, Apple Pay, or Google Pay. Your download is delivered straight after purchase, available across the U.S. and worldwide, with no shipping and no wait. Code DEFIANT20 takes 20 percent off the Defiant collection.

Ordering more than 10 books? Email chris@legionm.com for direct pricing. Educators and librarians who want digital copies for a class, or printed sets for a classroom, should get in touch the same way.

Why Should You Trust This Version of the Story?

DEFIANT was written by Rob Edwards, the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter behind The Princess and the Frog and Captain America: Brave New World. Cover art is by Nikolas Draper-Ivey, who created the cover for Kendrick Lamar's Black Panther: The Album. Interior art comes from Ray-Anthony Height, Sean Damien Hill, and Alex Paterson, veterans of Marvel and DC.

Bill Duke is executive producer. Marvin "Krondon" Jones III is co-executive producer. Michael Boulware Moore, Robert Smalls' great-great-grandson and founding CEO of the International African American Museum in Charleston, served as family advisor, and Dr. Myisha Eatmon advised on the history.

Published by Stranger Comics and Legion M Entertainment. Legion M is the world's first fan-owned entertainment company, founded in 2016 and now powered by more than 50,000 investors. DEFIANT did not start in a boardroom. It started as a meme in the Legion M fan community, and the members asked for it.

What Has DEFIANT Won?

NPR Books We Love 2025, selected from more than 380 staff-picked titles. NAACP Image Award nominee for Outstanding Literary Work: Graphic Novel. Amazon Best Seller in three categories. The first print run of more than 5,000 copies sold out in under a month. Featured in Christian Science Monitor, Publishers Weekly, and Military.com. The Kickstarter raised $154,293 from 1,812 backers and funded in under 30 minutes against a $10,000 goal. DEFIANT was featured at San Diego Comic-Con in 2023, 2024, and 2025.