I can’t say enough good things about the award-winning webcomic, Bayou, by Jeremy Love (writer) and Patrick Morgan (artist).
Bayou was one of the first serial stories to debut on Zuda Comics, the webcomics initiative by DC Comics. For anyone who still believes that comics are all capes and tights, these pages will introduce you to the breathtaking possibilities of visual storytelling. Love and Morgan draw on a wealth of black folk cultural material in their historical representation of racism and poverty in the South.
The synopsis begins:
“South of the Mason-Dixon Line, lies a strange land of gods and monsters. Born from centuries of slavery, civil war, innocent bloodshed, hate and strife lurks a world parallel to our own. LEE WAGSTAFF is the daughter of a poor, sharecropper in a depression-era, Mississippi Delta town, called Charon. She’s an introspective, brave child and hard labor in the fields has made her sturdy and strong.”
Lee is a powerful heroine, at once vulnerable and fearless. In the story, she tries to keep her father from being lynched by saving a white friend from a “Southern Neverland” where animals are in control. There to help her is “a benevolent, blues-singing, swamp monster called BAYOU.” Br’er Rabbit makes his way into the story, as does a parasitic swamp villain named Bog. I can’t help but admire Lee’s determined pout and I love how her plaits turn into a fuzzy afro when she is pulled out of the swamp water.
Now this isn’t a story for children; the art is both beautiful with its glowing earth tones, and shockingly violent. Nor are the creators afraid to insert a little humor. (Watch out for the carnivorous “Jim Crows” in the fourth issue…!) Bayou is deeply inventive in its use of history and folklore, and joins other recently published graphic novels like Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow and Stagger Lee in depicting complex, thoughtful stories of black America during segregation. I can’t wait to see where Love and Morgan take the story, and I hope that this comic will appear in print soon.
Posted by Prof Fury on September 30, 2008 at 8:42 AM
Oh man, I’m way behind on my Bayou reading (as well as on other things, though hopefully that’s about to change) and this is a good reminder that I need to get caught back up!
Posted by liza on October 4, 2008 at 10:17 PM
Amazing. This is a great find. Hope it becomes a book soon.
Posted by Live Blogging My Presidential Politics-Free Week « The Bottom of Heaven on October 13, 2008 at 10:06 AM
[...] Post, no Jack & Jill Politics. No Newsweek this week. Until next Monday, it’s only webcomics, TV sitcoms, Pandora, and pictures of Barack Obama holding babies. I’m desperately hoping [...]
Posted by Lost & Found: Get Up! Edition « The Bottom of Heaven on November 21, 2008 at 11:29 AM
[...] Update: Great news for those who love the webcomic, Bayou, as much as I do. They’re making a book! And possibly an animated series! (Hat tip: [...]
Posted by James on November 21, 2008 at 9:08 PM
Wow! I used to work with Jeremy in my BET.com days. His company (gettosake) used to animate my online cartoon (The Drive In with James Hill).
He’s doing big things! I will have to start reading Bayou.
Posted by Claudia on November 22, 2008 at 12:20 AM
Are you serious!?!?! Small world, huh? Yes, please start reading Bayou – I’d really love to hear what you think about it…
Posted by TBoH’s Top 10 Villains in Black Popular Culture « The Bottom of Heaven on March 30, 2009 at 3:26 PM
[...] Okay, so I went way back for this one. The legend of the cold-blooded murderer, Stagger Lee, has been the subject of dozens of blues songs since the early 1900s including Mississippi John Hurt’s wonderful “Stack O’ Lee Blues.” That bad man, oh, cruel Stack O’ Lee! His story is unraveled in the excellent graphic novel by Derek McCulloch and Shepherd Hedrix, and he just recently popped up in my favorite webcomic, Bayou. [...]
Posted by The “Bayou” of Heaven « The Bottom of Heaven on January 7, 2010 at 10:21 AM
[...] a year ago, I wrote about my deep admiration and delight for the serial webcomic, Bayou by Jeremy Love. The comic has continued to earn critical acclaim [...]