17: Bayou by Jeremy Love
Bayou written and illustrated by Jeremy Love
in short: Bayou is a webcomic presented by Zuda, a DC imprint. It presents the story of Lee Wagstaff, a young black girl in the south of the 1930s. When a white playmate of hers is snatched up by a monster from the nearby swamp, her father is accused of kidnapping. Now, it is up to Lee to brave the fantastical and terrifying world of the bayou to rescue her friend and save her father's life. It can be read for free here.
in which it is all about me: I can't read it on my computer (laptop or desktop, it doesn't matter) because the flash always crashes my browser. Seeing as I am a mature adult, I am able to calmly accept this fact and would never dream of throwing anything resembling a tantrum over this. Instead I wait patiently for the next volume with a heart that is light and free.
actual analysis: I ♥ this so much. I love its creepifying horror, its lush magical realism, how it's very much grounded in its setting and how Love uses it to enhance his story rather than bog it down. And, of course, I love Lee Wagstaff. Lee is brave and impetuous with a big mouth and more self-sufficiency than someone so young should have, and yet is still so very much a little girl. She's plucky, without any of the annoying precocious implications.
The bayou is a mirror of the world Lee lives in where the symbols and the metaphors and the shared memory of racism has become so dense that it takes on physical form. So Lee is chased by things like literal Jim Crows. This isn't the type of fantasy story where escaping into a fantasy land means escaping real world implications, and I love it for that.
The first volume is really just the introduction of the story and I'm really itching for more.
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