Showing posts with label Neo-Harlem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Neo-Harlem. Show all posts

Thursday, June 16, 2022

#IReadsYou Review: DARK BLOOD #1

DARK BLOOD #1 (OF 6)
BOOM! STUDIOS

STORY: LaToya Morgan
ART:  Walt Barna
COLORS: A.H.G.
LETTERS:  Andworld Design
EDITOR: Dafna Pleban
COVER: Valentine De Landro
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Juni Ba; Dan Mora; Valentine De Landro; Marcus Williams; Javan Jordan; Mico Suayan; Felix Icarus Morales with Robert Nugent; David Sanchez with Omi Remalante; Karen S. Darboe; Ingrid Gala; Marco Rudy
24pp, Colors, 3.99 U.S.(July 2021)

Dark Blood created by LaToya Morgan

Dark Blood is a new six-issue comic book miniseries created and written by screenwriter LaToya Morgan (AMC’s "The Walking Dead," "Into The Badlands").  Published by BOOM! Studios, the series is drawn by Walt Barna; colored by A.H.G.; and lettered by Andworld Design.  The series focuses on an Black World War II veteran who discovers that he has strange new abilities.

Dark Blood #1 opens in Alabama, 1955.  It's night.  Avery Aldridge, also known as “Double A,” is leaving his job at the diner, “Hardy's Eats.”  In the alley, he has a fateful encounter with a racist.  Double A is a highly decorated World War II soldier, a former fighter pilot, a member of the soon-to-be-legendary “Red Tails.”  He is expected to act like a boy … when he is actually a very powerful, grown-ass man.  But this is “The Night of the Variance,” and everything is going to start to change – even the things some don't want changed.

THE LOWDOWN:  As I much as I love the original Star Wars movies and a number of classic Walt Disney animated features (Peter Pan), my all-time favorite movie moment occurs in 1967's In the Heat of the Night.  Involuntarily assigned to a homicide case in Sparta Mississippi, Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs (played by Sidney Poitier) is interviewing a suspect, a local and powerful rich white man named Endicott (Larry Gates), when Endicott slaps him in the face.  Tibbs slaps him right back.  The first time I saw Tibbs slap Endicott, it took my breath away … and it still does.

Television writer-producer LaToya Morgan (AMC's "TURN: Washington's Spies") offers a sci-fi/horror spin on Tibbs' slap as the spine of the first issue of her new comic book, Dark Blood.  This time, the confrontation is longer, and Avery Aldridge's response is made a bit more complicated, partly because he seems unstuck in time.  Morgan does everything to tell her readers a lot by whetting their appetites for more, because they don't know the half of it, and she makes that “it” intriguing.

For all that I am intrigued by Dark Blood #1's story and concept, this first issue is also a showcase for the art team of illustrator Walt Barna and colorist A.H.G.  Barna's compositions are some of the most convincing period art that I have seen in a modern comic book in years.  Barna's Alabama, 1955 looks so “old-timey” that I could believe that it is something Barna drew at least half-a-century ago.  Barna's aerial sequences depicting Aldridge's time as a Red Tail reminds me of the comic book art one might find in EC Comics' legendary war comic book, Aces High (1955).

A.H.G.'s colors are gorgeous and also from a time machine.  If I didn't know better, I would say he hand-colored this comic book and manually separated those colors in a back office at a NYC-based comic book publisher – in days gone by.  Seriously, his colors shimmer, but are also earthy, and they make the storytelling's time periods look and feel authentic.

And I always enjoy Andworld Design's lettering, which is always stylish in a way that brings immediacy and power to the drama.  So LaToya Morgan, Walt Barna, A.H.G., and Andworld Design are off to a most excellent start, and Dark Blood #1 sparkles with promise.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of modern science fiction and dark fantasy comic books will want to drink Dark Blood.

A
★★★★+ out of 4 stars

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


Dark Blood trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzzXIYr_FrA&feature=youtu.be
Dark Blood first loook: https://www.boom-studios.com/wordpress/archives/dark-blood-1-first-look/
https://twitter.com/MorganicInk
https://twitter.com/WaltBarna
https://twitter.com/AHGColor
https://twitter.com/andworlddesign

https://twitter.com/boomstudios
https://www.boom-studios.com/wordpress/
https://www.facebook.com/BOOMStudiosComics
https://www.instagram.com/boom_studios/


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Tuesday, March 30, 2021

#IReadsYou Review: QUINCREDIBLE Vol. 1

QUINCREDIBLE, VOL. 1
ONI PRESS/THE LION FORGE

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Rodney Barnes
ART: Selina Espiritu
COLORS: Kelly Fitzpatrick
LETTERS: AW's Tom Napolitano
EDITOR: Jasmine Amiri and Steenz
ISBN: 978-15493-0282-4; paperback (June 4, 2019)
144pp., Color, $14.99 U.S.

Reading age: 13 to 16 years; Grades 7 to 9

Quincredible is a five-issue comic book series from The Lion Forge.  The series focuses on a teen boy who tries to live his best life by being a superhero.  Quincredible is written by Rodney Barnes; drawn by Selina Espiritu, colored by Kelly Fitzpatrick, and lettered by Tom NapolitanoQuincredible #1 to #5 (November 2018 to March 2019) was collected in the 2019 trade paperback, Quincredible Vol. 1: Quest to Be The Best.  [My review is based on the comiXology digital edition of the 2019 print edition of Quincredible Vol. 1.]

Quincredible Vol. 1 is set in New Orleans, Louisiana in the aftermath of two monumental events.  The first is Hurricane Katrina (2005), which has left the city's most vulnerable communities in an even more precarious position.  The second event is a meteor shower, which apparently bestowed super-powers on some humans directly exposed to the meteorites.  The people who gain powers from the meteors are called the “Enhanced.”

The story focuses on 15-year-old Quinton, also known as “Quin,” an African-American high school sophomore.  Quin is a familiar black American teenager.  He has a room full of electronics and gizmos, and he is especially adept at adapting them and inventing new versions.  Quin is also trying to navigate the social dynamics of both his neighborhood and his high school, and the former is characterized by power structures of systematic racism and of the white patriarchy.

However, Quin is also different.  He was exposed to the meteor show, and the powers he gained as a byproduct of that exposure are not flashy.  He has the power of invulnerability, but to Quin, he is “just invulnerable.” Still, Quin wants to make the world, especially his city, a better place.  So he is going to have to get creative if his 120-pound body and his invulnerability are going to save the day.

THE LOWDOWN:  What Quincredible writer Rodney Barnes presents in Quin is a familiar portrait of a black American teenager.  In terms of superhero comic books, Barnes offers in Quin the portrait of an American teenager as a superhero, a kind that is both familiar and classic.

In previous reviews, I have said that the former DC Comics/Milestone Media comic book series, Static, especially Static #1 to 4 (June to September 1993), reminded me of classic Spider-Man comic books.  I am thinking specifically of The Amazing Spider-Man #1 to 38 (March 1963 to July 1966) and The Amazing Spider-Man Annuals #1 and (1964-65), all produced by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee.  I felt that classic Spider-Man vibe again when Marvel Comics introduced the new Black-Latino Spider-Man, Miles Morales.  Ultimate Spider-Man (2011) #1 to #10 (November 2011 to July 2012) recalls both classic Ditko-Lee Spider-Man and Static.  Like Marvel's Miles Morales, Milestone's Static the superhero is also an African-American teenager, Virgil Ovid Hawkins.

Now, the holy trinity of vibes is complete.  Quincredible reminds me of the original Spider-Man comic books, although Quincredible is closer to Static and Miles Morales Spider-Man, for obvious reasons.  Barnes tells a story of an ambitious and brave African-American teenage male who takes on the role of being a superhero because it is the right thing to do and not because a family tragedy spurred him to do so.  I like that what Barnes offers is a journey of discovery and of possibility, and it is also done with a positive and inquisitive vibe that I think young and teen readers need, especially young readers of color.

Artist Selina Espiritu creates graphical storytelling that is riveting and thrilling without being dark and scary.  Her storytelling also draws the reader into the world of Quincredible, and her clean drawing style, which emphasizes cartooning over realism, is perfect for a young adult graphic novel, which is what Quincredible Vol. 1 is.  Colorist Kelly Fitzpatrick's colors jump off the page, and veteran letterer, Tom Napolitano, creates a sense of non-stop action and high drama.

Barnes and Espiritu ground Quincredible in reality, giving the story an earthy tone that captures life in a unique locale like New Orleans.  Still, they maintain those elements of the fantastic that are crucial to comic books and graphic novels.

Quincredible Vol. 1: Quest to Be the Best is scheduled to come back into print February 23, 2021.  This is a second chance to experience what I think is a great new teenage superhero in the classic tradition.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Readers looking for middle-grade and young adult graphic novels in the tradition of Spider-Man, Static Shock, and Miles Morales-Spider-Man will want to try Quincredible Vol. 1.

9 out of 10

[This comic book includes a “Cover Gallery” and “Making of Quincredible,” and “Concept Sketches.”]

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"



https://www.lionforge.com/quincredible/
https://www.lionforge.com/
https://twitter.com/lionforge
https://www.instagram.com/lionforge/
https://www.facebook.com/LionForge/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEOFWzdeaPp2cANuuZzghqg

https://twitter.com/TheRodneyBarnes
https://twitter.com/siriusdraws
https://twitter.com/wastedwings
https://twitter.com/TENapolitano


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Saturday, March 27, 2021

#IReadsYou Review: KILLADELPHIA #7

KILLADELPHIA No. 7
IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Rodney Barnes
ART: Jason Shawn Alexander
COLORS: Luis Nct
LETTERS: Marshall Dillon
LOGO/GRAPHIC DESIGN: Brent Ashe
EDITOR: Greg Tumbarello
COVER: Jason Shawn Alexander with Luis Nct
VARIANT COVER ARTIST: Skottie Young
28pp, Colors, 3.99 U.S.(August 2020)

Rated “M/ Mature”

“Burn Baby Burn” Part I: “Jupiter Rising”

Launched by Image Comics last year, Killadelphia is a comic book series from writer Rodney Barnes and artist Jason Shawn Alexander.  The series focuses on a police officer caught in a lurid conspiracy, one masterminded by the second president of the United States, John Adams.  A vampire, Adams made the corrupt, but historical city of Philadelphia vampire-ridden.  Colorist Luis Nct and letterer Marshall Dillon complete Killadelphia's creative team.

James “Jim” Sangster, Jr., a Baltimore Police Department, came home to Philly to deal with the final affairs of his recently murdered father, revered Philadelphia homicide detective, James Sangster, Sr.  But Senior was not dead; he was of the undead.  It took the son, the vampire father, the chief medical examiner (Jose Padilla), and a rebellious vampire (Tevin “See Saw” Thompkins) to lead the battle to save “the City of Brotherly Love” from a vampire apocalypse.

Killadelphia #7 (“Jupiter Rising”) opens six months after John Adams brought Philly to its knees, before his ultimate destruction.  Jimmy and Ms. Padilla are part of the front line forces that keep the bloodsuckers in check.  But what of the remnants of John Adams' family, the ones who waited patiently for centuries along with him?  What is Abigail, Adams' “widow,” up to up there on Chestnut Hill?

Plus, it is April 28, 1962 on the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles, California.  Watts is on fire.  And the patrolman in Los Angeles Police Department Car 2713 is about to have a fatal encounter with a “suspicious Negro woman.”

THE LOWDOWN:  Killadelphia's first story line, “Sins of the Father,” was quite fantastic.  In six issues, the Killadelphia creative team established this comic book as maybe the best vampire comic book of the twenty-first century.

What writer Rodney Barnes offers in Killadelphia is what some of us readers wish we could find in Marvel's Blade comic books, but better creator-owned than being owned.  Barnes quickly switches gears and delivers a first chapter of the second story arc that may be as powerful as the opening act of the first story arc.  New readers don't need to have read the first six issues in order to understand Killadelphia #7, but they will want to because it is so... bloody good.

Artist Jason Shawn Alexander offers a little night music that promises to keep this dark fantasy fresh and full of possibilities.  His art goes for the throat, and with colorist Luis Nct throwing red hues after him, Alexander will make you love and be afraid of Killadelphia, as it should be.  After all, this is a horror comic book, but, as read under Marshall Dillon's lettering, the character and the drama will move this comic book and narrative beyond mere genre considerations.

Comic book news sites have been reporting a surge in sales for Killadelphia #7.  These new readers are about to get a treat, and maybe some of them will sock away a few copies in their coffins as an investment.  All the smart immortals are making their way to Killadelphia.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of vampire comic books and of exceptional dark fantasy will find that Killadelphia is an essential read.

10 out of 10

[This comic book includes the extra story, “Elysium Gardens” by Rodney Barnes, Jason Shawn Alexander, and Marshall Dillon

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

https://twitter.com/TheRodneyBarnes
https://twitter.com/jasonshawnalex
https://twitter.com/luisnct
https://twitter.com/MarshallDillon
https://twitter.com/ImageComics
https://imagecomics.com/
http://rodneybarnes.com/


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Sunday, February 28, 2021

#28DaysofBlack Review: Ho Che Anderson's KING

KING
FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS

WRITER-ARTIST: Ho Che Anderson
EDITOR: Gary Groth
ISBN: 978-1-56097-622-5; paperback with French flaps (February 16, 2005)
240pp, Color, $22.95 U.S.

Introduction by Stanley Crouch

King was a three-volume graphic novel series written and illustrated by Ho Che Anderson and published by Fantagraphics Books.  Anderson is a British-born, Toronto, Canada-based comic book creator and illustrator.  Over his three-decade career, Anderson is known for such works as I Want to Be You Dog (1997), Scream Queen (2005), and Godhead (2018).

King was a comic book biography of slain Civil Rights leader and icon, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968).  The first volume was published in 1993, the second in 2002, and the third in 2003.  In 2005, Fantagraphics collected the series in a single over-sized paperback volume, entitled King, and subtitled “A Comics Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr.”  Stanley Crouch provided a weighty three-page introduction to the book.  The 2005 edition eventually went out-of-print, and Fantagraphics released a new hardcover edition in 2010 (which is currently still in stock via Amazon).  This review references the 2005 edition.

Any reader who is a fan of comic book biographies or historical comics will find that the King collection, even sixteen years after its collection, remains an essential edition to any comic book library.  This paperback collection, with its French cover flaps, has the book design and printing quality of pricey art books and illustrated historical retrospectives.

THE LOWDOWN:  King, Vol. 1 debuted in the second half of 1993, and, of the three volumes, it is the closest to actually being a biography that focuses on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a human.  Certainly, the narrative here reveals him as a man grasping at greatness, but the Dr. King in Vol. 1 is like clay still being molded into a great man.

In this volume, Anderson uses collage and traditional drawing in various styles to illustrate the narrative.  Some of the art may remind readers of Kyle Baker and Dave McKean and, from the fine art world, Pablo Picasso.  It is simply a virtuoso performance in the illustration of a comic book, but it is also an example of someone taking advantage of the comic book medium's storytelling potential.

The script and dialogue are also important in Vol. 1.  The easy thing to do is to describe this as a biography of King.  It is that, but much more.  King, Vol. 1 covers the early movements of the entire Civil Rights movement.  It does so with such force and flavor that this sometimes comes across like a documentary film, except we're getting the most powerful and informative still moments from that film.  The reader really gets a sense of struggle and conflict through the characters.  Anderson manages to give each character a unique voice, which in turns broadens the scope of the narrative about the movement.

Early in Vol. 1, Anderson creates a series of talking head panels.  Each character, a sort of background player, has a say, which allows him or her to have an immeasurable impact on the narrative's ability to communicate multiple points of view.  It also allows for multiple points of view of the main character.  This is similar to a Greek chorus, or even closer, this is like Frank Miller's use of the television talking heads in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.

If, back in the early 1990's, Joe Sacco showed us how comics can be journalism (Palestine), Anderson, then, showed us how comic books can tell history.  Thus far, comic's biggest achievement in the field of history is Maus; other than that, it's mostly been war stories.  King might come across as that dreaded important book one must read, but it is a great work of comics in the tradition of Maus.

While Volume 1 of King covered the early years of the life of Dr. King and the early years of the American Civil Rights Movement, post World War 2, King, Vol. 2 leaps fully into detailing the life of the movement:  inner workings and conflicts, public tactics and the face the movement presented to the public.  Anderson reveals the players both major and minor, the movement's adversaries and sympathizers and people who straddle the fence.

Anderson uses the same illustrative techniques as in the first book: collage, drawing, painting, and some mixed media.  His script remains the darling of this project.  Here, Dr. King isn't so much a main character as he is a player (albeit the primary one) in a major social event.  We do get snippets of Dr. King's character, but here he is most interesting as the most prominent figure in a movement that swells and ebbs with tidal consistency.  I have a number of favorite moments in this volume.  There are the private meetings between Dr. King and President John Kennedy (Anderson's account is speculative, as the subject of the conversations were known only to King and Kennedy).  Two other exceptional moments are when Dr. King's daughter asked to be taken to a theme park and she couldn't understand why black children would be unwanted there; and the " I Have a Dream" speech.

This work could have had the same problem that movies have when they attempt to cover a large historical movement or a public figure with a rich past.  Sometimes, movies hop from one big moment to another and end up looking like an over produced highlight reel, as in the case of Michael Mann's film, Ali.  Anderson makes full use of the space on every page, using concise unadorned dialogue and brief bits of conversation that advance his story.  Imagine the excitement that Neal Adams brought to comics four decades ago in page layout.  Combine that with traditional layout, Film-Noir, fine art, collage, and you have Anderson's King.

When King, Vol. 2 was first published it was another example of the continuing evolution of comic books as a serious medium of storytelling, and revealed that comics could engage in the kind of myth making and communication that prose and film, both fiction and non-fiction, have been doing for a long time.

King, Vol. 3 is the last book in Ho Che Anderson's three-piece suite, an interpretative biography of Dr. King.  In his afterword to the third volume, Anderson wrote he understood that some readers might find this last book's appearance “visually eclectic.”  Anderson wrote that he felt he had earned the right to indulge himself.

The book's narrative eclecticism is, however, equally worthy of notice.  It's as if the author devoured the history of the Civil Rights movement and regurgitated a book that couldn't possibly contain the movement's far-reaching story, but the author would certainly give it his best shot.  Of course, Dr. King was the epicenter of the Civil Rights movement and is focus of Anderson's graphic novel, but even as a fictional character, King seemed lost in a movement larger than his life, but not his legend.  For all that King the comic has, it seems to be missing not just something, but a whole lot of things.  Vol. 3 perhaps revealed the shortcomings of this entire concept without crippling the larger novel.

If we accept Anderson's conceit of his book's personal bent, many notions of historical accuracy get tossed.  This isn't to say that the book is inaccurate, but as with any broad movement in history, each pair of eyes might see the same thing as any other pair, but look at it differently.  The Civil Rights movement is exactly that, a movement; it's not a single incident in time.  The Civil Rights movement is a whole bunch of events and moments artificially lumped together in hopes that it'll be easier to make sense of what happened.

It is best to examine King the comic as a graphic narrative and to investigate how well it works as a comic book, rather than to argue its historical merit alone.  Pretensions aside, this is still a comic book, and (dammit) there's nothing wrong with that.  We should always remember that comic book creators produce work like The Spirit or Love & Rockets just as they easily create digestible products for reading, which we can also enjoy

What Anderson does in King is take the graphic narrative another step forward the way comic books like The Spirit and Love and Rockets did.  Both were revolutionary in their form at the time of their initial release and even further ahead of the high concept/low brow narratives that make up the bulk comic book storytelling today (DC Comics' “Black Label” line).  It's as if Anderson took all the raw materials that he could use to make comix and used them to produce his final volume of King, making it far more adventurous than even the previous two volumes.

Anderson uses talking heads, collage, splash pages, photographs, line drawings, paintings, color effects, special effects, surrealism, expressionism, and guess what?  It all works; it actually looks like a comic book.  So often comic books try to look like something else, for instance, comic book art that looks like anime or painted comics that look like Norman Rockwell paintings.  King is a comic book, an expensive comic book printed on enamel paper with card stock covers, but by gosh, still a frickin' comic book.

Visually, King 3 has such a sense of organic unity, in which all the disparate parts come together to give this book its own life.  Each reading seems to tell a story different from the previous reading.  The book seems almost self-aware, as if the words and pictures deliberately communicate something beyond the static images on the surface of the page.

There is one thing about the story of movement Anderson gets right.  Civil Rights are an ever growing ideas that absorb people, places, and times, and the best an observer can do is understand just that.  Who can ever nail this thing down, and, in way, it seems that Anderson's fictional Dr. King can't ever really put his finger on it the entire pulse of the movement.  King has an idea of his place inside the movement, but he has trouble getting a fix on where the movement itself is going.

Anderson also seems to have a little difficult putting his finger on the pulse of the story because he moves from one plot to another or in and out of subplots like a journalist running madly from one news hot spot to another.  Best example is when Dr. King discusses with Ralph Abernathy the possibility of Abernathy taking King's place as spokesman for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference if something were to happen to MLK.  The wonderful exchange between the two is a fascinating peek at Dr. King's place in the SCLC, but it only tantalizes with the mention of other "leaders."  Ho Che leaves the idea of SCLC rivalries dangling because Dr. King's rivals for power over the larger movement are perhaps more important to this story.  Throughout the series, Ho Che gives the reader a small taste, here and there, of King the man, even if the narrative demands a deeper look than what the author gives.

Still it's good that Anderson didn't make the King he was “supposed to make.”  He didn't make the one for which other people (like me) would have wished.  In spite of what faults it may have, King is example of what a cartoonist can create within the medium of the so-called "graphic narrative" when he uses all the artistic elements available to him.  Anderson took an adventurous leap forward with this comic book – a brave, personal, artistic statement and an adventurous leap forward with the comic book – warts and all.  King shows that comics can deal with subject matter weightier than, say, Wolverine's origins or just how screwed up Batman/Bruce Wayne is.  Maybe Ho Che Anderson is one of the few cartoonists capable of treating comics as a medium of art and communication the way the great novelists, short story writers, musicians, and filmmakers treat their respective mediums.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of great comic books will want to read Ho Che Anderson's King.

A+
10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"



https://www.fantagraphics.com/
https://twitter.com/fantagraphics
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The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint or syndication rights and fees.

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Saturday, February 27, 2021

#28DaysofBlack Review: HARDWARE: The Man in the Machine - no text

HARDWARE: THE MAN IN THE MACHINE
MILESTONE MEDIA/DC COMICS

WRITER: Dwayne McDuffie
PENCILS: Denys Cowan; J.J. Birch (issue #8)
INKS: Jimmy Palmiotti; Mike Manley; Joe Brozowski; Joe James; Jason Minor
COLORS: Noelle Giddings
LETTERS: Janice Chiang; Steve Haynie; Steve Dutro
COVER: Denys Cowan and Jimmy Palmiotti
EDITOR: Bob Joy
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2598-8; paperback (March 30, 2021)
192pp, Color, $19.99 U.S., $24.99 CAN

Hardware created by Dwayne McDuffie; Derek Dingle; Denys Cowan, and Michael Davis

Milestone Comics was the publishing division of Milestone Media and was published and distributed by DC Comics.  Milestone was founded in 1993 by a coalition of African-American artists and writers, consisting of Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis, and Derek T. Dingle.  Milestone Media's founders believed that minorities were severely underrepresented in American comic books and wished to address this.  In 1993, Milestone Media launched its first four titles Icon, Blood Syndicate, Static, and Hardware, the subject of this review.  DC Comics ceased publication of Milestone titles in 1997.

Hardware was created by the late Dwayne McDuffie; Derek Dingle; Denys Cowan, and Michael Davis.  The first seven issues of Hardware were written by McDuffie and drawn by Cowan (pencil art) and a rotating group of inkers:  Jimmy Palmiotti; Mike Manley; Joe Brozowski; and Joe James; colored by Noelle Giddings; and lettered by Janice Chiang, Steve Haynie, and Steve Dutro.  The eighth issue featured the art team of J.J. Birch (pencils) and Jason Minor (inks).

In 2010, DC Comics published the trade paperback Hardware: The Man in the Machine, which collected Hardware #1 to #8 (April 1993 to October 1993).  Like all Milestone titles, Hardware was set in the Milestone Universe, called the “Dakotaverse.”

Hardware #1 (“Angry Black Man”) introduces Curtis “Curt” Metcalf, a genius inventor.  He uses a special suit of armor (the “Hardware shell”) and a variety of high-tech gadgets to fight his employer, respected businessman, Edwin Alva.

Metcalf was a working class child prodigy and inventor who was discovered at age 12 by Alva.  With the blessing of Metcalf's parents, Alva enrolled Metcalf in “A Better Chance,” which was “a program intended to get minority students into elite prep schools.”  Metcalf proved to be much smarter than all the other prep school students and graduated at age 14.  With Alva paying his college tuition, Metcalf earned the first of his seven college degrees at age 15.  In exchange, after graduation, Metcalf began working in Alva Industries' “Inspiration Factory,” where the employees created high-tech gadgets by the hundreds.  However, it was Metcalf's inventions that made Alva many millions of dollars.  After a few years, Metcalf approached Alva about getting a share of the profits from his inventions.  Alva not only declines, but he also tells Metcalf that he is a mere employee, a “cog in the machine,” Alva's machine.

Metcalf begins secretly using Alva resources to create the hardware, software, and technology that becomes Hardware.  Metcalf also discovers that Alva is secretly a powerful crime boss.  Metcalf as Hardware begins his war against Alva, destroying Alva's criminal machine one piece at a time.  However, Hardware also rings up a high body county, so will he lose his soul in his personal war against his boss?

THE LOWDOWN:  When the discussion of black superheroes pops up, it often turns to the question of whether actual African-Americans as writers would tell better stories about Black superheroes than writers who are white.  Of course, some always say skin color doesn’t really matter, but they’re always white, speaking from the perspective of advantage and of white privilege.

A white man can certainly write really good comic books featuring African-American characters.  In the 1970’s, Marv Wolfman and Chris Claremont wrote excellent darkly comic and bloody horrific stories featuring Marvel Comics’ vampire hunter, Blade.  But there’s just something about a writer who has lived as a black man in America writing stories about a fictional character that is not just a black superhero, but also a black person living in America.

But sometimes, being a black writer spinning a narrative about a black character does matter.  Witness the short-lived, mid-1990’s comic book series, Hardware.  Hardware was the first comic book published by Milestone Media.  Milestone was an imprint of DC Comics that sought to publish superhero comic books featuring a more diverse cast in terms of skin color and ethnicity, in particularly African-Americans.  In the case of Dwayne McDuffie, who died in 2011, Hardware’s scribe and co-creator, the title had a storyteller who certainly understood what it was to be a talented African-American who repeatedly bangs his head against the glass ceiling of white privilege, of white supremacy, and of white racism.

What McDuffie gave Hardware was the sense of being more than just a fictional character with a skin color default setting (as many, if not most, white comic book characters are).  McDuffie made the character, in a sense, an idealized version of a black man struggling to prove that he can be and is exceptional in spite of what others may expect of him based on his skin color.

It is not impossible for a white man to write a title like Hardware.  Still, there is something that rings true and feels genuine about the African-American experience in McDuffie’s work on Hardware.  From the opening scene in which a young Curt Metcalf studies the parakeet that will not stop banging its head against the glass window for freedom to the scene of an adult Metcalf learning to check his rage and see the bigger picture of his revenge, McDuffie was likely writing what he knew, but regardless, it reads like the truth.  That is what made McDuffie not just a really good black writer of comic books, but an exceptional comic book writer when compared to just about any other comic book scribe.

Hardware is not perfect.  The character blends Marvel's Iron Man with DC Comics' Batman, but the storytelling and graphic design seem to owe a lot to the big guns and high-tech gadget superheroes that defined most of the early Image Comics superhero titles of the 1990s.  The issues that make up Hardware: The Man in the Machine focus on Curt Metcalf's violent, ruthless, and gory war of revenge.  Hardware is indeed an “angry black man,” and that makes the series mostly stuck in violent mode early on.  Hardware is not Dwayne McDuffie's best work, but it is unique.  Also, there is the chance to enjoy the inventive designs and imaginative compositions of another under-appreciated black comic book creator, the great artist, Denys Cowan.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Milestone Comics will want to read Hardware: The Man in the Machine.

B+
7 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.


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Saturday, February 6, 2021

#28DaysofBlack Review: Eric Jerome Dickey's STORM

[The 2006 miniseries, "Storm," was basically a reboot of the story of Storm's relationship with the young man who would become the Black Panther when both were young. The series remains strong, and I wish the late Eric Jerome Dickey would have written more comic books featuring Marvel Comics' African and African-American characters.]

Get #28DaysofBlack review links here.

ERIC JEROME DICKEY'S STORM
MARVEL COMICS

WRITER: Eric Jerome Dickey
PENCILS: David Yardin; Lan Medina
INKS: Jay Leisten; Sean Parsons
COLORS: Matt Milla
LETTERS: VC’s Randy Gentile
EDITOR: Axel Alonso
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Joe Quesada
COVER: Mike Mayhew

Storm created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum

Eric Jerome Dickey (1961-2021) was a New York Times bestselling African-American author.  He was best known for his novels about contemporary African-American life, such as Sister, Sister and Milk in My Coffee.  Dickey, who died January 3rd, also wrote crime novels that were international in their casts and settings, like A Wanted Woman.

Storm a/k/a Ororo Munroe is a Marvel Comics super-heroine and longtime member of the X-Men.  She was created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum and first appeared in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (cover dated: May 1975).

Storm is also the former queen consort of Wakanda, a title she held when she was married to King T’Challa, better known as the superhero, Black Panther.  Before the two were married (in Black Panther #18 cover dated: September 2006), Marvel published several stories and comic books under the tagline, “Prelude to the Wedding of the Century.”

One of those series was Storm, a 2006, full-color, six-issue comic book miniseries.  It was written by Eric Jerome Dickey; drawn by David Yardin and Lan Medina (pencils) and Jay Leisten and Sean Parsons (inks); colored by Matt Milla; and lettered by Randy Gentile.  In the Storm miniseries, Dickey re-imagines the first meeting between the younger versions of both Ororo Munroe and T'Challa.

Storm #1 “Chapter One” (April 2006):

The story opens in an outdoor market in an unnamed African country.  Ororo Munroe, our future “Storm,” is among a number of street urchins that prowl the market looking for things they can steal from the shoppers and shopkeepers and even from those simply passing through the market.  Goaded by her compatriots, Ororo steals a camera from a white man.  What she does not realize is that this white man is de Ruyter, a South African and a ruthless hunter and poacher who is also a racist.  He is determined to track Ororo using any brutal means necessary.  Zenja, a jealous rival of Ororo’s, watches the situation, making plans of her own.

Flashbacks also show Ororo with her parents, her African-American father, David Munroe, and her African (Kenya) mother, N'Dare.  With the upheaval of change causing so much turmoil in America, N’Dare wants to return to her home country in Africa.  David does not believe that they will be better off in Africa.  Will their marriage survive this crucial disagreement?

Meanwhile, Ororo’s strange powers began to manifest themselves.  Plus, Teacher arrives to tell Ororo that the lessons in picking pockets and thievery she learned from her first teacher, Achmed El-Gibar, are not enough to suit his purposes.

Storm #2 “Chapter Two” (May 2006):

The issue first offers series cover artist, Mike Mayhew's haunting cover painting of the shattered Munroe family photo.  The racist South African poacher continues to stalk Ororo, determined to capture her for the mysterious powers he has discovered she possesses.  A jealous rival turns out to be more ally than enemy.  Plus, a mysterious young man comes to the rescue.

Storm #3 “Chapter Three” (June 2006):

The mysterious young man is T'Challa, son of the King of Wakanda, T'Chaka.  T'Challa is on his “walkabout,” a “journey into manhood,” and he finds himself in a serious philosophical debate with “Teacher,” the man who teaches Ororo and the other “urchins” to be thieves.  T'Challa is drawn to Ororo, who is recovering from the poison of a tranquilizer dart used on her by de Ruyter.  Speaking of the white hunter, he calls his brother, Andreas de Ruyter a.k.a. “the Bull,” to help him capture Ororo, whom he calls the “Wind Rider.”

Storm #4 “Chapter Four” (July 2006):

Ororo has left with young T'Challa, and their romance begins in earnest.  Elsewhere,  Andreas de Ruyter learns who T'Challa is, and the Bull's past as an adversary of Wakanda is revealed.

Storm #5 “Chapter Five” (August 2006):

Ororo and T'Challa struggle with what they mean to each other in the wake of consummating their relationship.  Then, they are captured.

Storm #6 “Chapter Six” (September 2006):

Ororo settles matters with her rival, Zenja.  In a high-flying helicopter chase, T'Challa and Ororo have their final battle with the de Ruyter brothers.  Then, the young couple continue their journey together – one a warrior and one both a warrior and a woman.

THE LOWDOWN:  Black writers can bring different perspectives and diverse points-of-view to comic book storytelling.  In one single issue, Storm #1, Eric Jerome Dickey shows what different perspectives on storytelling and diverse points-of-view can mean to the mythology of one X-Men in particular, Storm, and to the X-Men, in general.  Dickey really puts Ororo through her paces, forcing her to endure many challenges and obstacles if she is to survive her life as a thief and as a denizen of a jungle refuge.

Over the course of the six issues that comprise the Storm miniseries, Dickey creates a coming-of-age story that resonates with African themes, but is also an universal story of a young person finding  herself and her place.  Ororo’s life is not difficult just because she is an orphan, but also because she is, in some ways, a stranger in Africa.  Dickey, as a Black man, understands the stress fractures that exist in what it means to be Black in a larger culture and how it relates to heritage.  When Ororo’s fellow thieves insist that she is not one of them, Dickey brings a sense of authenticity and realism to those accusations.  He hits right at the heart of the matter.  Africans may see Ororo as a Black American and not at all as an African, no matter what her mother, N’Dare’s origins are.  This is another way that Dickey makes Ororo's story a universal tale.  Storm is a story that is also about the search for identity, and everyone, regardless of his or her group origins, can identity with that.

I would be remiss if I did not also praise artists David Yardin and Lan Medina and their inkers, Jay Leisten and Sean Parsons.  Throughout this series, the art is consistently beautiful, and the storytelling is dramatic, action-packed, bracing, and romantic.  The art and graphical storytelling deftly conveys the setting, making it both exotic and familiar.  Matt Milla's colors glow and sparkle, and also make Storm shimmer, giving her blue eyes an otherworldly quality.  The high drama and action would fall flat without Randy Gentile's dynamic and dynamite lettering.

Eric Jerome Dickey had a superb creative team for Storm.  They are the reason that the one work of comics that he left behind is brilliant and hopefully will delight readers for a long time to come.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Eric Jerome Dickey and fans of the X-Men's African weather goddess, Storm, will want to read Dickey's Storm miniseries.

A
8 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


https://twitter.com/Marvel
https://www.marvel.com/
https://www.marvel.com/comics
https://www.comixology.com/Marvel_Comics


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

-----------------


Tuesday, December 22, 2020

#IReadsYou: Review HASS #4

HASS #4
APPROBATION COMICS

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER/CREATOR: B. Alex Thompson – @ApproBAT
PENCILS: Edgard Machiavello
INKS: Victor Moya
COLORS: Alivon Ortiz
LETTERS: Krugos
MISC. ART: Cesar Grego and Federico Santagati
COVERS: Cesar Grego and Federico Santagati
32pp, Color, $9.99 U.S. (2020)

Hass is a four-issue comic book miniseries from Approbation Comics.  Hass is written and created by B. Alex Thompson.  The third and fourth issues are drawn by Edgard Machiavello (pencils) and Victor Moya (inks).  Alivón Ortiz is the series' colorist, and Krugos is the series' letterer.

A racial drama and crime thriller, Hass centers on Joshua “Josh” Jones, a freshman attending a college “deep in the heart of Texas.”  First day on campus, Josh falls in love with fellow medical student, Maggie Stewart, but he has to work hard to get Maggie to give him a chance at romance.

Eventually, this relationship forces Josh to confront violence and racism, and to have an unfortunate tattoo branded on his chest.  Before long, Josh is hanging out with Maggie's racist, drug-dealing cousin, Cole Truitt, and his gang of misfits: Eugene “Shamrock” Walsh (also known as “Rocky), Edward Vargas, Randall Gavin, and Warren “Great” White (also known as “Sharky”).

Hass #4 opens with the cliffhanger where the third issue left us.  Josh finds himself in a “Mexican standoff” with a gang of Mexican-American drug dealers … at a redneck honky-tonk!  Josh may be smart enough to talk himself out of this predicament, but when changes come to Cole's gang, he finds himself on the outside.  It turns out, however, that nothing was ever what it seems.  There is a turncoat in Cole's gang, and Maggie and her ailing father's lives are in danger.  It all heads to an explosive climax at Josh's college, and there will be many violent false endings before there is a happy ending.

THE LOWDOWN:  Early in the series, the back cover copy describes Hass as “William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet” meets American History X” (the 1998 film).  Throw in your favorite undercover cop drama-thriller, dear readers, and you will be pretty close to the crazy fun that Hass offers.

B. Alex Thompson is the creator of the long-running indie, comedy-horror comic book series, Chaos Campus: Sorority Girls vs. Zombies.  As much as I love Chaos Campus, Hass is Thompson's best work to date.  He creates a scenario in Hass that allows him to explore various themes emerging from racism, as well as the violence that racism inspires or to which it directly leads.  Thompson explores the consequences of violence and its aftermath, and he also depicts the myriad ways in which racism, prejudice, and bigotry reveal themselves.

Pencil artist Edgard Machiavello was bold and unapologetic in delivering graphical storytelling for Hass #3; he took Thompson's dangerous ideas and kept them dangerous.  For Hass #4, Machiavello presents compositions that deliver on the furious pace of Thompson's finale for this series.  Inker Victor Moya brings nuance to the explosive nature of Machiavello's pencils.  As usual, Alivón Ortiz's colors accentuate the story by bring bright colors to the violence.  Krugos' lettering does what it has to do this issue, and that is to make sure that the story never slows down until the end.

Cover artist Cesar Grego once again delivers excellent cover art for the front and back covers and also drops a nice interior illustration.  This time, Grego's art captures the heat and the heart that define Hass #4.  As I have said before, I have never read another comic book that has explored American racism and prejudice in such a unique and complex way as Hass does.  Bold and different in ways that other comic books would not dare be, Hass is one of the decade's best indie comic books.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Readers looking for bold comic book storytelling and for the very best in comic books will want Hass.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


https://twitter.com/ApproBAT
http://alexthompsonwriter.com/
https://www.comixology.com/Approbation-Comics/comics-publisher/7396-0
www.ApprobationComics.com


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint or syndication rights and fees.

-------------


Thursday, November 19, 2020

#IReadsYou Review: KILLADELPHIA #6

KILLADELPHIA No. 6
IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Rodney Barnes
ART: Jason Shawn Alexander
COLORS: Luis Nct
LETTERS: Marshall Dillon
LOGO/GRAPHIC DESIGN: Brent Ashe
EDITOR: Greg Tumbarello
COVER: Jason Shawn Alexander
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Jae Lee with June Chung
28pp, Colors, 3.99 U.S.(June 2020)

Rated “M/ Mature”

“Sins of the Father” Part VI: “For God and Country”


Thinking about Breonna Taylor, shot to death in her home, I think it is surreal that the Louisville police said it was the Post Office's error.  I feel like Rodney Barnes and Jason Shawn Alexander are prophetic.  Talent borrows.  Genius steals.  Prophets go where neither talent nor genius can travel.

Launched by Image Comics last year, Killadelphia is a comic book series from writer Rodney Barnes and artist Jason Shawn Alexander.  The series focuses on a police officer caught in a lurid conspiracy, and its mastermind is the second president of the United States.  John Adams is a vampire, and he has made the corrupt, but historical city of Philadelphia vampire-ridden.  Colorist Luis Nct and letterer Marshall Dillon complete Killadelphia's creative team.

James “Jim” Sangster, Jr. is a Baltimore Police Department beat cop who comes home to Philly to deal with the final affairs of his recently murdered father, revered Philadelphia homicide detective, James Sangster, Sr.  Jimmy hated his father, but daddy is not dead; he is of the undead.  Now, the son, the vampire father, the chief medical examiner (Jose Padilla), and a rebellious vampire (Tevin “See Saw” Thompkins) are working to save “the City of Brotherly Love” from a vampire apocalypse and from its other hellish trials and tribulations.

Killadelphia #6 (“For God and Country”) opens as Jimmy Sr. gathers an army of law enforcement and first responders to ignite a disco inferno – Philly soul style – to stop the vampires from completing their takeover.  But the main event is when Jimmy and Tevin confront the founding father of this vampire nation, and someone will die – for real this time.  Meanwhile, it's “ladies first,” when a new conspiracy begins.

THE LOWDOWN:  In my review of Killadelphia #5, I wrote the following:

I believe that each society, even humanity as a whole, will get the apocalypse it deserves and it earns.  “You reap what you sow” ends up being more than just wisdom and being words from a religious text.  Were America to fall in a vampire, zombie, and monster-driven apocalypse, the nation would finally be harvesting its fated bumper crop, the bountiful yield of its plantation state.

As I write this review of Killadelphia #6, it is the morning that George Floyd will be laid to rest.  If you don't know who George is, I've already shaken off the dust of my feet.  Because George has to rest in peace, a lot of Americans can't be at peace.  Killadelphia #6 deftly and philosophically debates “Black Liberation” and emancipation in all their thematic glories – from oppression and revenge to mercy and uplift.

Rodney Barnes, a hugely imaginative comic book writer (who also writes for television), and Jason Shawn Alexander (Empty Zone), a fiery comic book and graphic artist, already created one of the best vampire comic books ever.  But that wasn't enough for these two muthas.  To say that Killadelphia is timely, while its conception likely began a year before George Floyd's killing, is to also understand that sometimes crafty storytellers are just plugged into something.

So, yeah, we are getting more than just a vampire comic book.  Fries do indeed go with that Killadelphia shake.  And also, I want to shout out, real loud, colorist Luis Nct's superb work on this issue and on this series overall.  His name will soon be synonymous with the phrase “nightmarish colors.”  Marshall Dillon still keeps Dodge City and Philadelphia under control with his lettering.

For your information: the first Killadelphia trade paperback collection (collecting issues #1 to 6), entitled Killadelphia, Volume 1: Sins of the Father, is scheduled to arrive in comic book shops and bookstores July 2020.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of vampire comic books will find that Killadelphia is an essential read.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Saturday, November 14, 2020

#IReadsYou Review: HASS #3

HASS #3
APPROBATION COMICS

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER/CREATOR: B. Alex Thompson – @ApproBAT
PENCILS: Edgard Machiavello
INKS: Victor Moya
COLORS: Alivon Ortiz
LETTERS: Krugos
MISC. ART: Cesar Grego
COVERS: Cesar Grego
32pp, Color, $9.99 U.S. (2019)

Hass is a racial drama and crime thriller comic book miniseries from Approbation Comics.  Hass is written and created by B. Alex Thompson.  The third issue is drawn by Edgard Machiavello (pencils) and Victor Moya (inks); colored by Alivón Ortiz; and lettered Krugos.

Hass is the story of Joshua “Josh” Jones, a freshman attending a college “deep in the heart of Texas.”  First day on campus, Josh falls in love with fellow student, Maggie Stewart, but he has to work hard to get Maggie to give him a chance at romance.  This relationship forces Josh to confront violence and racism... and a tattoo.  Before long, Josh is hanging out with Maggie's racist, drug-dealing cousin, Cole, and his gang of misfits: Rocky (or “Shamrock”), Vargas, Gavin, and Sharky.

Hass #3 opens a few months after the events depicted in the first two issues.  Josh is firmly ensconced with Cole's gang, which sees him participating in a little gay bashing.  Josh's Aunt Yvonne, Maggie, and his roommate, Asher, all try to direct Josh's activities in a more positive direction.  But when he experiences racism from the “Black side,” how will Josh react?  And will it pull him deeper into Cole's criminal and racist world.

THE LOWDOWN:  In my review of Hass #2, I noted that the copy on the back cover of the first two issues describes Hass as “William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet” meets American History X” (the 1998 film).  That is accurate... up to a point.  Hass is a powerful work of fiction that defies easy description

B. Alex Thompson, creator of the long-running indie, comedy-horror comic book series, Chaos Campus: Sorority Girls vs. Zombies, has created a scenario that allows him to explore various themes emerging from racism, as well as the violence that racism inspires or to which it directly leads.  Thompson explores the consequences of violence and its aftermath, and he also depicts the myriad ways in which racism, prejudice, and bigotry reveal themselves.

Cover artist Cesar Grego once again delivers cover art that explodes in the readers' faces with bold and unapologetic images and ideas.  Pencil artist Edgard Machiavello is also bold and unapologetic in delivering graphical storytelling that takes Thompson's dangerous ideas and keeps them dangerous.  Inker Victor Moya embellishes, but does not tame Machiavello's pencils.  As usual, Alivón Ortiz's colors accentuate the story by giving the art the heat, and Krugos' lettering captures the subversiveness of this narrative by keeping an even pace that does not let the action move the story too quickly.

I have never read another comic book that has explored American racism and prejudice in such a unique and complex way as Hass does.  Hass is bold and different in ways that other comic books would not dare be.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Readers looking for bold comic book storytelling and for the very best in comic books will want Hass.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


https://twitter.com/ApproBAT
http://alexthompsonwriter.com/
https://www.comixology.com/Approbation-Comics/comics-publisher/7396-0
www.ApprobationComics.com

The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint or syndication rights and fees.

-------------------


Sunday, October 25, 2020

Book Review: WANDERING IN STRANGE LANDS

WANDERING IN STRANGE LANDS: A DAUGHTER OF THE GREAT MIGRATION RECLAIMS HER ROOTS
HARPERCOLLINS – @HarperCollins

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

AUTHOR: Morgan Jerkins
ISBN: 978-0-06-287304-0; hardcover (August 4, 2020)
304pp, B&W, $27.99 U.S.

Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots is the new nonfiction book from Morgan Jerkins, magazine editor and writer, cultural critic, and bestselling author of the book, This Will Be My Undoing.  In Wandering in Strange Lands, Jerkins journeys across the United States in order to understand her roots, the Great Migration, and the displacement of black people across America.

At the center of Wandering in Strange Lands is the fact that between 1916 and 1970, six million black Americans left their rural homes in the South for jobs in cities in the North, West, and Midwest.  This movement is known as The Great Migration, and it was an event that transformed the complexion of America.  The Great Migration brought black people to new economic opportunities, but Morgan Jerkins argues that this massive movement also left African-Americans disconnected from their roots, their land, and their sense of identity.  Both sides of Jerkins family made the Great Migration, but to what extent?  Who were the family members left behind?  Who are the founders of her family lines?

Jerkins decided to fill in the gaps in her own personal story and in the gaps in the history of both her mother and her father's families.  She decided to do this by recreating her ancestors’ journeys across America, following the migratory routes they took from Georgia and South Carolina to Louisiana, to Oklahoma, and to California.

Jerkins follows in her people's footsteps, backwards and forwards, as she seeks to understand not only her own past, but also the lineage of her family and of the entire group of black people who have been displaced, disenfranchised, and disrespected throughout our history as a nation.  Jerkins conducts interviews with family, with friends, and with new friends who might be family.  She takes photos and collects hundreds of pages of transcription – all of this to gather those loose threads of her family’s oral histories that she might make something whole and hopefully complete.  Along the way, she is disabused of some of her notions, and she starts to wonder – who controls our stories?

THE LOWDOWN:  My paternal grandmother supposedly had American Indian heritage.  Her and her siblings were of so many different skin tones that when I met some of them, I did not realize that they were her siblings.  Three of my grandmother's brothers were part of the Great Migration, heading to Detroit for jobs in the automobile industry a long, long time ago.  I met them at my grandmother's funeral decades ago.

My maternal grandmother turned out to be the child of former slave, which means my mother was the grandchild of a former slave.  Also “the old white man” who came to play with me whenever I visited my maternal grandmother was actually her wayward husband and my mother's father.  My mother, who died a few years ago, was the keeper of detailed histories of both her and her husband's families.  Mama always had a story.  I never recorded them, and now, that she is passed, I feel helpless as I try to rediscover the stories from which I will regrow the family tree.

Wandering in Strange Lands is the story of someone, in this case, a young woman named Morgan Jerkins, who wants to braid the loose threads of the oral histories of both sides of her family.  She backtracks across the Great Migration to learn about the Gullah Geechee.  She plumbs the mystery of water, of root work, and of root doctors in the Lowcountry of Georgia and South Carolina.

Jerkins heads to Louisiana and visits Natchitoches and Cane River to meet the “Creole” people she once dismissed.  She travels south to the Louisiana cities of Lafayette and St. Martinville and discovers her connections to Voodoo.  Then, it's on to Oklahoma where threads of her family lead back to North Carolina and Florida and to the stories of the “Freedmen,” “by-blood Indians,” and the “Dawes Roll.”  Finally, Jerkins returns to California and to Los Angeles where the Great Migration took black people to a place where things were supposed to be much better than in rest of the racist United States... or so they believed.  But it wasn't.

I have been steadily writing reviews for almost twenty years, yet I don't have the words to describe the epic scope of Morgan Jerkins deeply personal story.  I can't describe the power this book has; sometimes, I thought it put some hoodoo on me.  Jerkins' journey to connect the disparate parts of her family history and their origins is her own story.  Somehow, she connects me with and into her story, and I think that she will do that to everyone who reads her book.

Morgan Jerkins makes Wandering in Strange Lands a nonfiction work of black history and of American history.  It is a book of religion and of culture, and it is an indictment of America's systemic white racism and pernicious white privilege.  The lens through which Jerkins tells this story is a microscope for her family's history and a telescope gathering in the star fields of black history.

In the awful year that is 2020, Wandering in Strange Lands might seem to be the book that was meant to be here.  It is not a prophetic work, but the prophets wanted it to be here now.  So...yeah... I'm saying it's a must-read.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Readers interested in the stories and oral histories of African-American families will find an essential book in Wandering in Strange Lands: A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

https://twitter.com/MorganJerkins


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for syndication rights and fees.

-----------------------

Amazon wants me to inform you that the link below is a PAID AD, but I technically only get paid (eventually) if you click on the ad below AND buy something(s).






Thursday, October 22, 2020

#IReadsYou Review: KILLADELPHIA #5

KILLADELPHIA #5
IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Rodney Barnes
ART: Jason Shawn Alexander
COLORS: Luis Nct
LETTERS: Marshal1 Dillon
LOGO/GRAPHIC DESIGN: Brent Ashe
EDITOR: Greg Tumbarello
COVER: Jason Shawn Alexander
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Neal Adams and Zeea Adams; Inhyuk Lee
28pp, Colors, 3.99 U.S.(March 2020)

Rated “M/ Mature”

“Sins of the Father” Part V: “The Sun Will Rise”


Killadelphia is a new comic book series from writer Rodney Barnes and artist Jason Shawn Alexander.  The series focuses on a police officer caught in a lurid conspiracy, and its mastermind is the second president of the United States.  John Adams is a vampire, and he has made the corrupt, but historical city of Philadelphia vampire-ridden.  Colorist Luis Nct and letterer Marshall Dillon complete Killadelphia's creative team.

James “Jim” Sangster, Jr. is a Baltimore Police Department beat cop who comes home to deal with the final affairs of his recently murdered father, revered Philadelphia homicide detective, James Sangster, Sr.  Jimmy hated his father, who is not dead, but is of the undead.  Now, son, vampire dad, the chief medical examiner (Jose Padilla), and a rebellious vampire (Tevin “See Saw” Thompkins) are working to save “the City of Brotherly Love” from a vampire apocalypse.

Killadelphia #5 (“The Sun Will Rise”) opens on the morning after the night of revolution.  Now, Mayor Gaskins and Lieutenant Zimmerman of the police department are in a state of denial, but Zimmerman will soon get the proof he needs in order to believe... in the unbelievable.  Meanwhile, a gospel and a history lesson (sort of) from See Saw.

I believe that each society, even humanity as a whole, will get the apocalypse it deserves and it earns.  “You reap what you sow” ends up being more than just wisdom and being words from a religious text.  Were America to fall in a vampire, zombie, and monster-driven apocalypse, the nation would finally be harvesting its fated bumper crop, the bountiful yield of its plantation state.

The thing about Rodney Barnes' writing in Killadelphia is that it seems less like fantasy or even speculative fiction, for that matter.  It seems like a beautifully composed point of view of an actual reality.  And when he isn't writing killer dialogue, Barnes fills exposition boxes with poetry, which makes the violence and bloody righteousness such a beautiful thing.

Artist Jason Shawn Alexander and colorist Luis Nct produce rich and lavish storytelling.  They are not simply creating pretty comic book art; they are telling a story with passion and poetry.  Still, the pages are resplendent, each a story all its own.  Meanwhile, Marshall Dillon acts as a quiet stenographer, lettering this gorgeous vampire tale with the resoluteness of a reporter chronicling the end of city where liberty was born lying.

Killadelphia #5 is another great entry in a killin'-it comic book series.

[This issue contains bonus art by Jason Shawn Alexander.]

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.




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Thursday, October 8, 2020

#IReadsYou Review: CHAOS CAMPUS: Extra Credit #9

CHAOS CAMPUS: EXTRA CREDIT No. 9
APPROBATION COMICS

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: B. Alex Thompson – @ApproBAT
ART: Ricardo Mendez
COLORS: Alivon Ortiz
LETTERS: Krugos
EDITOR: B. Alex Thompson
COVER: Ricardo Mendez
BACK COVER: Ricardo Mendez
24pp, Color, $4.99 U.S./$1.99 digital-comic (2018; digital release date – October 24, 2018)

Rated: Teen 13+ / 15+ Only – comiXology rating

Chaos Campus: Sorority Girls vs. Zombies created by B. Alex Thompson

“Connective Tissue”

Chaos Campus: Sorority Girls vs. Zombies is a zombie apocalypse comic book series that mixes in elements of comedy, horror, and adventure.  Chaos Chaos is set during a zombie invasion and follows the adventures of three members of the sorority, Epsilon Alpha Zeta Upsilon (EAZY):  ass-kickin’ Jamie Lynn Schaeffer, brainy and magic-wielding Paige Helena Patton, and sexy Brittany Ann Miller.

Chaos Campus: Extra Credit is a “side series” to the main series.  It offers readers something “extra,” and is also set in the continuity to the main series.  Both series are the creation of B. Alex Thompson and are published by Thompson's company, Approbation Comics.  Chaos Campus: Extra Credit is written by Thompson; drawn by Ricardo Mendez; colored by Alivon Oritz; and lettered by Krugos.

Chaos Campus: Extra Credit #9 finds the girls back on campus thanks to an inter-dimensional portal.  Paige is using her considerable supernatural power in an attempt to bring zombies back to life.  The girls are caught up in a bid to help a doctor, Ian, and his sister, Linz, rid themselves of an infection that has transformed them into something similar to vampires.  The laboratory of Linz and Ian's father could hold help for them, but it is having some nuclear meltdown issues...

Chaos Campus: Extra Credit #9 is not one of B. Alex Thompson's better efforts, but it is still enjoyable.  Why?  As I have written before, Thompson has refined his sexy Chaos Campus trio into the kind of comic book characters that can attract a following.  The story does not always have to be the best, because they are the best.  Obviously, they have caught my interest.

I find myself becoming more attracted to the art by Ricardo Mendez the more I see it.  His graphical storytelling is good, if not stylish, and I like his take on the Chaos Campus girls.  Mendez's art benefits from the strong coloring by Alivon Ortiz.  The colors are pretty and the effects and separations are spectacular; the reds really convey the sense of an impending nuclear disaster.  Letterer Krugo, as usual, gets the most out of his sound effects when they convey the sounds of zombies, gunfire, and action-violence.

So, for those who can't get enough zombie-action from the main series, try Chaos Campus: Extra Credit #9.  You, dear reader, can even get this “Extra Credit” from comiXology.

7 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


Buy Chaos Campus: Extra Credit #9 at comiXology.

www.ApprobationComics.com
www.AlexThompsonWriter.com


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint or syndication rights and fees.

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

#IReadsYou Review: FARMHAND #15

 

FARMHAND #15
IMAGE COMICS – @ImageComics

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

STORY: Rob Guillory
ART: Rob Guillory
COLORS: Rico Renzi
LETTERS: Kody Chamberlain
GRAPHIC DESIGN: Burt Durand
COVER: Rob Guillory
32pp, Colors, 3.99 U.S.(April 2020)

Rated “M/ Mature”

Farmhand created by Rob Guillory

Chapter 15: “The Knowledge of Good and Evil”


Farmhand is a dark fantasy comic book series from comic book creator, Rob Guillory.  Guillory is also known for his award-winning tenure on the long-running comic book, Chew (Image Comics), with writer John Layman.  Farmhand is written and illustrated by Guillory; lettered by Kody Chamberlain (who also designed the Farmhand logo); and currently colored by Rico Renzi.

Farmhand's central character is Ezekiel “Zeke” Jenkins, a husband, father, and graphic designer and illustrator.  He returns to his hometown of Freetown, Louisiana with his wife, Mae, and their children, Abigail and Riley.  Zeke's father, Jedidiah “Jed” Jenkins, and sister, Andrea (“Andy”), own and operate “Jenkins Family Farmaceutical Institute.”  The “farm” grows plant-based replacement human organs and tissue, and once upon a time, people, especially transplant recipients, saw this as a miracle.  But, since he returned, Zeke has discovered that the great miracle hides a great evil.

Early in Farmhand #14, Zeke gets a call from Randall Lafayette, summoning Zeke to “Uncle Randy's” house for some information exchange.  While there, Zeke has some kind of seizure and collapses to the floor unconscious.

Farmhand #15 (“The Knowledge of Good and Evil”) opens to find Zeke in some kind of dream state or some place between life and death.  And he sees it all – everything that happened that fateful day between his father, Jed; his late mother, Anna; and his father's partner, Monica Thorne.

When he regains consciousness, Zeke joins Randy, and the two head to the church of longtime family friends, Pastor John “Tree” Moore and his wife, Nancy.  Also, gathered at the church are Jed and eventually, Mae and Andrea... and of course, Monica.  Ms. Thorne wants to show herself – all her power and her army.  And nothing will be the same again.

THE LOWDOWN:  Farmhand #15 concludes Farmhand's third story arc, “Roots of All Evil” (a.k.a. Season Three), which began with issue #11.  Like plant life, Farmhand is ever-growing and evolving with a cycle of life and death that brings about change.  [Season One is Farmhand #1-5, “Reap What Was Sown” and Season Two is Farmhand #6-10, “Thorne in the Flesh.”]

“Roots of All Evil” is about revelation, however, more than it is about change.  Yes, there are new characters, but some of the most crucial moments of Farmhand's back story explode out of the ground, the way those amazing mutant crawfish explode out of the pond in Farmhand #12.  Farmhand's origin story seems to be about its own take on the Biblical bite of the apple, but there is more to the knowledge in “the knowledge of good and evil” than any one chapter can tell.  So I would not be surprised to see a future issue of Farmhand return to the events of the flashback depicted in issue #15

I have thought of Rob Guillory's storytelling as brilliant since the day I first got a preview of Farmhand #1, but it turns out that I had no idea of what was really coming.  It is hard to believe, but I must believe it since I have read it with my own eyes.  Every issue of Farmhand is fresh from the garden of Guillory's imagination, and each one offers something new or some new things.  While I await the next bumper crop, dear readers, you must go back to the beginning and discover Farmhand.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of dark fantasy fiction will want to be a Farmhand.

[This comic book also includes the one-page comic, “Freetown Funnies,” by Burt Durand.]

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


https://robguillory.com/
https://twitter.com/Rob_guillory
https://www.instagram.com/rob_guillory/


The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Sunday, September 20, 2020

#IReadsYou Review: HASS #2

HASS #2
APPROBATION COMICS

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER/CREATOR: B. Alex Thompson – @ApproBAT
ARTIST: Federico Santagati
COLORS: Alivon Ortiz
LETTERS: Krugos
MISC. ART: Cesar Grego
COVERS: Federico Santagati
32pp, Color, $9.99 U.S. (2019)

Hass is a racial drama and crime thriller comic book miniseries from Approbation Comics.  Hass #1 was first published in 2013, and it went on to earn two 2014 Glyph Comics Award nominations (“Best Cover” and “Best Writer”).

Hass is the story of Joshua “Josh” Jones, a freshman attending a college “deep in the heart of Texas.”  First day on campus, Josh falls in love with fellow student, Maggie Stewart, but he has to work hard to get Maggie to give him a chance at romance.  He will have to work even harder to confront the racism and the violence that his courtship of Maggie ignites.

Hass is written and created by B. Alex Thompson and is drawn by Federico Santagati.  Colorist Alivón Ortiz and letterer Krugos join the creative team for the second issue.

Hass #2 opens twelve hours after the incident that ended the first issue.  Josh is dealing with the terrible injury visited upon his body.  Neo-Nazi associates of Maggie tattooed a Nazi swastika on the left side of his chest.  Josh, furious with Maggie and no longer trusting her, sends her away.

Now, he plots revenge against his attackers, but what will he do when he meets the Neo-Nazis:  Cole (the leader), Rocky (or “Shamrock”), Vargas, Gavin, and Sharky?  What Josh ends up doing shocks even himself!

THE LOWDOWN:  The back cover copy of Hass #2, like the back cover of the first issue, describes Hass as “William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet meets American History X” (the 1998 film).  I think such a description makes for the kind of cover copy that can sell a comic book to curious readers.

So far, the first two issues of Hass offer some of B. Alex Thompson's (Chaos Campus: Sorority Girls vs. Zombies) best writing.  I prefer to describe Thompson's writing and Hass in general in bold strokes.  It is bold, visionary, daring, ballsy, and shameless.  It is also a pure joy to read.  In comic books like Hass, Thompson goes against the grain in writing a comic books in a manner similar to what British comic book writers like Alan Moore, Garth Ennis, and Warren Ellis did.

I do not want to spoil Hass #2, but I can say that this is the kind of comic book that DC Comics wishes it could publish through it “DC Black Label” imprint.  Hass is the kind of comic book DC's now-castrated Vertigo Comics imprint would have published.  Anyone who reads it will see that it is the kind of “mature readers” comic book that will cause a sensation and an urge to get copies in the way that Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's Preacher did a quarter-century ago.

Underneath some beautiful cover art, artist Federico Santagati turns Thompson's bold vision into some powerful graphical storytelling.  Santagati's dynamic and unconventional compositions are perfect for this unorthodox comic book.  As usual, Alivón Ortiz's color accentuates the story and captivates the imagination.  Krugos' lettering captures the subversiveness of this narrative and gives the story a rapid fire pace.  Yes, indeed; kudos to this creative team for making Hass #2 a grand winner.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Readers looking for bold comic book storytelling will want Hass.

10 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


https://twitter.com/ApproBAT
http://alexthompsonwriter.com/
https://www.comixology.com/Approbation-Comics/comics-publisher/7396-0
www.ApprobationComics.com

The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint or syndication rights and fees.

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