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| An outline sketch of the comic before any coloring is done. |
Not too long back I read a great graphic novel called 'Bayou' written and illustrated by Jeremy Love with coloring from Pat Morgan. Really just the name and cover art stood out for me, so I decided to chance it.
It started out as an online comic, which you can read here: https://comics.comixology.com/#/issue/2584/Bayou%20#1 . Issue #1 is a free preview and each issue after that is 99c a pop. As for the actual books, the issues are collected in 3 thick volumes , each being something like 500 pages. So far volume 1 and 2 appear to be available, while 3 is yet to be released (even in online form I believe).
So what's the hype? Start with artwork in vivid colors that is cartoony and sort of childish, but very well drawn, with just the right amount of detail. This 'innocent' looking art does well to contrast and mask with the adult and grim nature of the story. The story is very clever and touches on relevant issues. It balances realism and fantasy well. In 1930's Mississippi, a young black girl named Lee Wagstaff grows up in a little hick town called Charon. She's paid 3 dollars by the town sheriff to dive into the swamp and fish out the corpse of a boy who was unfortunate enough to be hung by and lynch mob and dumped in the water. Judge it by a playful cover, but not so innocent of a story now you see? Anyhow, while Lee dives under she retrieves the boy's body sure enough from under the hollow of a giant submerged tree. Strangely, she sees an apparition of the boy with butterfly wings at the other side of the hollow, and wonders if she indeed saw the boy's soul.
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| This isn't the lynched boy, it's a golliwog monster that attacks the heroine once she's through the 'portal' ! |
Not too much later in the story she ends up going back and swimming all the way through the hollow to a hole in the other side, which acts like a portal to another dimension. The world is still very Southern U.S. , but much more fantasy is rampant, and unbelievable creatures and characters abound. I won't spoil any more of it! There is much beauty in this story...and paranormal and spooky elements twisted into it. You could say it's like Alice In Wonderland with a black southern folkloric twist. It does well to recycle old legends and lore and even stereotypes but does it in a fresh and respectful way, never a tired or ignorant one. It addresses issues like slavery, racism and segregation well, and we know that even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made as far back as 1863, blacks had a hell of a time being treated as equals for years after that (even in many ways up to this point today).
It's all a good balance of light and dark, realism and surrealism, innocence and maturity, comedy and tragedy. It is one of the more powerful and engaging graphic novels/comics I have read. I can't wait to see the 3rd volume (the concluding part of the story) to come out in some form, as I have been left at a cliffhanger sort of moment!
