Dorothy Day…Superhero? New Graphic Novel Tells the Story of Her ‘Hero’s Journey’

by Joan Bromberek and Jerry Windley-Daoust

Dorothy Day famously quipped that she didn’t want to be called a saint.

She never said anything about calling her a superhero, though.

Whatever might happen with her cause for canonization, she now has her own graphic novel, Dorothy Day: Radical Devotion, to be released by Paulist Press on Labor Day. 

The graphic biography is the product of an eight-year collaboration between Jeff Korgen, who wrote most of the script; comic book enthusiast Friar Mike Lasky, OFM Conv., who consulted on the book; and illustrator Christopher Cardinale, a veteran graphic novelist and muralist. All three men have been deeply involved in promoting social justice for most of their lives.

Telling Dorothy’s Story in Art

The idea for a graphic novel biography of Dorothy Day was sparked by the seven years Korgen spent coordinating the local phase of the cause for Day’s canonization under vice postulator George Horton. The position was like being a “canon law paralegal,” Korgen said, doing all the legwork to collect and organize the evidence for the cause.

The project was massive, resulting in 1,300 pounds of paper being sent on to Rome. Among other things, Korgen sorted through testimony submitted by the many people who had known Day; he also recruited 125 volunteers to transcribe Day’s 10,000-page diary.

“I’d been working for two years on the cause, and I just became so overwhelmed by her story and the need to share it,” Korgen said.

Korgen considered many possibilities for telling the story—a musical, maybe, or a Netflix series—but in the end, he decided that a graphic novel would be the best medium. It’s a medium he knows well.

Growing up, Korgen was a “reluctant reader.” To encourage him to read more, his parents gave him comic books.

“It actually worked,” Korgen said. “My gateway drug was Marvel Comics, and then I got a taste for reading right after that.”

That early experience not only improved his reading skills but also left a lasting appreciation for comic books; he would go on to write three of his own with artist Kevin C. Pyle: Wage Theft Comics, Worker Justice Illustrated, and Migrant. 

The graphic novel format offers a new way to tell Dorothy’s story, Korgen said.

“The art brings the drama alive in a way that a standard biography can’t,” he said. “Quoting Dostoevsky, Dorothy said the world will be saved by beauty, so I think she would appreciate the contribution of art to storytelling.”

Dorothy Gets Her Superhero Moment

Day’s life fits the archetypal “hero’s journey” story arc, Korgen said. The story he and Cardinale and Lasky told captures the essence of Day’s transformation and struggles, presenting her as a character whose journey inspires others to reflect on their paths and actions. 

But as much as her life’s journey, with all its trials and triumphs, aligns with the archetypal hero’s journey, it is her sanctity and deep faith that truly define her legacy, Korgen said. The graphic novel attempts to convey both of these dimensions of her life story.

This isn’t exactly Dorothy Day’s first turn in a comic book; previously, she inspired a supporting character in the Batman comic book series. Korgen has a copy of Detective Comics #457 (March 1976) in which writer Dennis O’Neil and artist Dick Giordano introduced the character of Leslie Maurin Thompkins in a story titled “There Is No Hope in Crime Alley.”

As Korgen explained, O’Neil often hung out at the Catholic Worker (Tom Cornell remembered him there), although he never became formally involved in the movement.  Tasked with rebooting the franchise in the 1970s, O’Neil returned Batman to its darker, grittier roots. At the same time, he felt conflicted about Batman’s use of violence in the stories. His solution was to create Thompkins, a pacifist doctor who opens a clinic to serve the poor. Thompkins becomes a mentor to Bruce Wayne, forcing him to wrestle with his conscience.

(O’Neil spoke about Leslie Thompkin’s connection to Dorothy Day several times, including in a 2015 essay mildly protesting how the character had evolved away from her pacifist roots.)

Day’s origin story features her own inner conflict, Korgen noted, as she tried to reconcile her radical  roots with her newfound Catholic faith. 

“Dorothy Day was a seeker,” Korgen said, “and I think a lot of seekers today would be inspired by her because she tried different things, but the one thing that could fill the God-shaped space in her soul was God, found through the Catholic Church.” 

Bringing New Stories to Light

Korgen and Cardinale developed a collaborative process: Korgen would write a chapter of the script, and then they would have a conference during which Cardinale and Lasky would offer critiques. Their feedback ensured that the final product was visually captivating while also being historically and religiously accurate.

One of Korgen’s favorite pages from the book is the depiction of Day praying for a resolution to this inner conflict at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Besides the emotional appeal of the moment, Korgen also appreciates the artistic details Cardinale added. The background architecture is an accurate representation of the chapel in the basement of the Shrine. But Cardinale also added images of various religious figures that Day might have imagined during her prayer.

Thanks to Korgen’s work on the canonization cause, the book includes some lesser-known anecdotes about Day’s life. Some of the anecdotes come from obscure writings; in other cases, someone came forward with an interesting story about Day. (The canonization process involves publishing a call for both official testimony and new facts about Day’s life.)

For example, the book includes the story of Day’s collaboration with the Dominican Sisters of Bethany helping women escape human trafficking in the 1930s. The religious order was founded in a woman’s prison, and many of the Bethany Sisters were themselves “reformed prostitutes,” as they would have been known in the 1930s. Day worked with the sisters to place women in Catholic Worker houses of hospitality where they would be safe from their traffickers.

Another little-known incident offers an epilogue to Day’s relationship with Forster Batterham, Day’s former common-law spouse. 

“There was a (religious) sister who was hosting Dorothy on a speaking tour, and then Dorothy got the flu,” Korgen said. “She was bedridden for four or five weeks, something like that. And so she started talking about her life with this sister.”

Day told her that she had cared for Forster’s partner at the end of her life; after the woman passed away, Forster asked Day whether they could get back together.

“It only took me a second to say no,” Day told the sister. “And it was the longest second of my life.”

One Life, Many Interpretations

The book is almost entirely based on factual accounts, Korgen said, but one scene in particular is more speculative: the encounter between Day and Bayard Rustin at a protest in the 1950s. Rustin, working with the War Resisters League, shared common ground with Day’s Catholic Worker efforts; the two knew and admired one another.

“I was looking at the date of an arrest where both Dorothy and Bayard Rustin were listed among the 20 people detained,” Korgen explained. “It was a few months before the Montgomery bus boycott, a time when Rustin was actively teaching Martin Luther King Jr. about nonviolence…. 

“I thought it was plausible that Dorothy and Bayard would have talked while waiting for the police. There were only 20 people there, and Rustin was a significant figure. They likely discussed his upcoming work in Montgomery with King.”

Korgen had anticipated that Day’s abortion could end up being the most controversial aspect of the book. To address this sensitive topic, Korgen and Cardinale had numerous conversations with women in their lives to ensure the scene was portrayed as realistically but respectfully as possible. However, to Korgen’s surprise, the most contentious part of the book turned out to be the story of the Coffee Cup Mass in the 1970s.

The comic presents two versions of this incident, where a priest uses a coffee cup in place of a chalice to say Mass due to the lack of a proper vessel. Each version has a slightly different take on what happened and Day’s reaction, which sparked debate among pre-publication readers about what actually happened.

For Korgen, accuracy was paramount. He explained that many individuals who knew Day later in her life are still alive and have their own perspectives on her story. “There are different communities with different perspectives on Dorothy Day,” he said. “It was crucial to incorporate these varying views without deviating from the truth.”

A Hero for the Twenty-first Century

Korgen emphasized that the creation of the Dorothy Day comic book would not have been possible without the generous support of donors. Some of the funds raised went to pay the artist at a discounted rate, in addition to royalties. Korgen plans to donate a portion of his royalties to the Hartford Catholic Worker.

Korgen is grateful for the opportunity to have told Day’s story in a new format that he hopes will reach new readers. With the huge popularity of graphic novels these days, Dorothy Day: Radical Devotion Is set to introduce Day’s story to a whole new generation.

“She is someone who lived her life in the twentieth century, but she is entirely relatable to people in the twenty-first century,” Korgen said. “The things she cared about, her interpretations of Catholic theology and peace—she was ahead of her time. 

“For folks today, we read about Dorothy, and she makes sense to us. It’s a life of holiness that we can relate to.”

This article was corrected on August 13, 2024, to reflect that the artist, Christopher Cardinale, worked on the project at a reduced rate. A previous version of this story implied that he received as much as$50,000, which is not accurate.