Octavia E. Butler's Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation (2017)

Damian Duffy and John Jennings's adaptation of Octavia E. Butler's novel is the darkest entry here and the one where the paradox matters most. Dana, a young Black woman, is suddenly and inexplicably transported from her home in 1970s California to the pre-Civil War South, and as she moves between the two she becomes entangled in the life of Rufus, a conflicted white slaveholder who is one of her own ancestors. That knot is never played as a puzzle for its own sake: her own existence is bound up with a man whose world could destroy her, and each trip back leaves its mark. Jennings's art makes the violence of the past impossible to skim. It won the Eisner Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium.