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6th out of 10 books
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Bayou Vol. 1 (Bayou #1)
by
Jeremy Love
The first title from the original webcomics imprint of DC Comics!
South of the Mason-Dixon Line lies a strange land of gods and monsters; a world parallel to our own, born from centuries of slavery, civil war, and hate.
Lee Wagstaff is the daughter of a black sharecropper in the depression-era town of Charon, Mississippi. When Lily Westmoreland, her white playmate, is snatch...more
South of the Mason-Dixon Line lies a strange land of gods and monsters; a world parallel to our own, born from centuries of slavery, civil war, and hate.
Lee Wagstaff is the daughter of a black sharecropper in the depression-era town of Charon, Mississippi. When Lily Westmoreland, her white playmate, is snatch...more
Paperback, 160 pages
Published
June 2nd 2009
by Zuda
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In truth, I have been reading this graphic novel on-line at http://www.zudacomics.com/node/112. It is thus far(because it is not complete) one of my favorite graphic novels---nix that---STORIES--of all time. It is a beguiling and heady mix of African American folklore, Southern folklore, history and fantasy; the storytelling is transcendent and the artwork is beautiful even when depicting horrors. The story takes place in Depression era Mississippi, and the main characters are a small African ...more
Hands down one of the best "superhero" comics I've ever read! The superhero is tiny little Lee Wagstaff from Charon, Mississippi, and Bayou is her giant hulking sidekick. Here's why I love Lee:
"Look at you! You a big ol' monster with arms like tree trunks! You can whup just about anything in the whole wide world! Whatchoo got to be scared of some bossman fo'? If I was big as you, I'd be the bossman! We find your bossman and we find Lily and you can just march right up to th...more
Sara
added it
Bayou, which originated (and is still being released) as a webcomic, follows Lee, the daughter of an African American Mississippi sharecropper in the 1930s. Lee is a young girl, but wise beyond her years. She knows that a young black man in her town was lynched for whistling at a white woman, and she knows that nothing good ever came out of the bayou near her home. Her best friend is Lily, the daughter of her white landlady, but when Lily s favorite necklace is lost in the bayou, Lee is accused...more
I don't know where to start in reviewing Bayou. I don't think this is going to be a review as much as a glorification.
I'll start with something I didn't really notice until I finished and I was flipping through all the pages: the LIGHT. Underwater. Yellow sunlight. Red-orange sunset. Pink dawn. The black of a jail cell. Murky brown at the bayou. Blue to carry a shotgun across the field.
This is a beautiful story to look at, often at the same time it's horrifying.
I wa...more
I'll start with something I didn't really notice until I finished and I was flipping through all the pages: the LIGHT. Underwater. Yellow sunlight. Red-orange sunset. Pink dawn. The black of a jail cell. Murky brown at the bayou. Blue to carry a shotgun across the field.
This is a beautiful story to look at, often at the same time it's horrifying.
I wa...more
I read this comic while it was still available online via Zuda comics and was blown away. This is the story of Lee Wagstaff, a little African-American girl living in the South in the 30's. This alternate reality South is populated not only by the real people and tensions of our world, but by the gods and monsters bred by them. After Lee's friend, Lily, a little white girl, goes missing and Lee's father is wrongly beaten and imprisoned for it, she goes on a quest to save him. For Lee knows a secr...more
Down south in a time of great depression lives a young black sharecropper's daughter, Lee Wagstaff, and white friend Lily Westmorelend. One day Lily loses a locket...well really its stolen by a strange creature known as Bog. Seems Bog has taken a liking to Lily and swallows her whole not too long later. Only Lee's daddy is blamed and is going to be hanged unless Lee can save him. She enters the swamp and a mysterious alternate world. A world of gods, ghosts, and monsters from times long since fo...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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The horrors Lee has to face are real, racism, hatred, lynchings, but they're also mythical, magical. The monsters are real, some terrifying, some helpful. This is where, if I'm honest I kind of got lost in the swamp myself. Jeremy Love says in an interview that the story leaves the real world and "we then move to the world of Dixie. Dixie is a strange Southern neverland that exists parallel to our own. The world was formed from the blood, war, and strife that plagued the South." The c...more
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As an adult, I rarely get excited about comics anymore. Either I love the artwork but hate the weak storyline, or love story but can't stand the lousy excuse for art accompanying it. Bayou by Jeremy Love ails from neither of these. It is one of the most beautifully illustrated stories I've ever seen, and has characters and plotlines that just get awesomely curiouser and curiouser!
I stumbled upon the site for Zuda Comics (an imprint of DC Comics) back around late 2007/early 2008 to fin...more
I stumbled upon the site for Zuda Comics (an imprint of DC Comics) back around late 2007/early 2008 to fin...more
"Bayou," a graphic novel by Jeremy Love, begins with a warning: "The bayou is a bad place. Ain't nuttin' good ever happened there." With that, the protagonist, a young black girl named Lee, is sent into the bayou to retrieve the body of a boy not much older than herself who was murdered for whistling at a white woman. We immediately see the courage and determination of this little girl. Lee has developed a friendship with Lily, a young white girl. The two of them later go to ...more
I had no idea what I was in for when I started this. It's a dark fairy tale similar in tone to Pan's Labyrinth (and just as gory). In the postwar South, a swamp monster snatches Lee's white playmate Lily, and Lee's father is blamed. She must venture into the unknowns of the swamp to find Lily, and to clear her father's name.
Nothing is any scarier than you might find in a Grimm tale, but of course seeing it illustrated adds to the impact. (I, for one, find the idea of swimming underwa...more
Nothing is any scarier than you might find in a Grimm tale, but of course seeing it illustrated adds to the impact. (I, for one, find the idea of swimming underwa...more
I wanted to like this book so much more than I actually did. The premise is pretty interesting, but this book is filled with the most generic tropes of a post-war racist South that it was almost painful to read. Within the first few pages we get the standard "black child and white child are playmates, but they can never truly be friends because they come from completely different worlds" device. And of course, when something happens to the white girl, the black girl's father is immedia...more
Bayou is a graphic novel starring a young, fiesty black girl, Lee. She saw a winged-Billy Glass (his soul?) in the water once, when she was sent to retrieve his body. The bayou is a bad place, she says, and she ain’t never going back in there again.
But soon after, her white friend Lily disappears, and her father is accused of being responsible for her disappearance. But Lee knows it is not, because she saw with her own eyes, a monster ate Lily up by the bayou. Determined to save both...more
But soon after, her white friend Lily disappears, and her father is accused of being responsible for her disappearance. But Lee knows it is not, because she saw with her own eyes, a monster ate Lily up by the bayou. Determined to save both...more
Like a lot of great things, I happened upon Bayou via a Boing Boing post, and wanted to just take a look at it, to see what it was about.
An hour and half and 217 pages later, I snapped out of the trance I was in while reading this. I simply couldn't stop.
Bayou tells the tell of a Lee, a young black girl living in 1930s Mississippi, with her sharecropper father. Her friend, a young white girl named Lily, loses her necklace while her and Lee are playing down by the bayou, a...more
An hour and half and 217 pages later, I snapped out of the trance I was in while reading this. I simply couldn't stop.
Bayou tells the tell of a Lee, a young black girl living in 1930s Mississippi, with her sharecropper father. Her friend, a young white girl named Lily, loses her necklace while her and Lee are playing down by the bayou, a...more
Leslie
rated it
It is 1933 in Charon Mississippi and 10-year-old Lee Wagstaff’s father has fallen into trouble; and, in a way, it is the bayou’s fault. “The bayou is a bad place. Ain’t nuthin’ good ever happened there.” When Lee’s white playmate Lily gets eaten by a monster in the bayou and effectively goes missing, Lee has to find a way to get her back before her father is lynched by the local and not-so-local racists. Overcoming her terror of things seen and unseen in the bayou, Lee dives in and begins a jour...more
Lee Wagstaff is the daughter of a black sharecropper in the depression-era town of Charon, Mississippi. When a terrifying creature emerges from the swamp and snatches her white playmate, Lily, Lee's father is hauled off to jail and accused of kidnapping and murder. Lee has to brave the bayou to try and find Lily before her father is lynched; she meets an odd, blues singing, swamp monster called Bayou who reluctantly agrees to help her. The bayou is full of terrifying monsters but they are nothin...more
Beautifully drawn and wonderfully imaginative fantasy set in the Jim Crow South. I love the way that Love slowly builds up his uniquely southern fantasy mythos.
As wonderful as the story and art are, this print edition is seriously flawed in its reproduction. It's printed too dark with a paper stock that, while eco-friendly, adds to the washed out look. In sunny scenes, the effect is actually pretty nice, giving the book a warm dreamlike feel, but in nighttime scenes (a good half of ...more
As wonderful as the story and art are, this print edition is seriously flawed in its reproduction. It's printed too dark with a paper stock that, while eco-friendly, adds to the washed out look. In sunny scenes, the effect is actually pretty nice, giving the book a warm dreamlike feel, but in nighttime scenes (a good half of ...more
Lee is a black sharecropper's daughter in the early 1900s. When her white friend Lily goes missing, Lee's father is blamed for her kidnapping. But Lily saw what really happened, and to save her father from getting hanged, she starts off on a journey to Dixie, an alternative South filled with monsters and talking animals, to try and find the man who really kidnapped Lily.[return][return]The story is amazing. It doesn't pull any punches in its depictions of race relations, so it's not an easy read...more
This was a brilliant graphic novel focusing on race in the South (Mississippi, to be exact) circa the 1930's. I was amazed at how it personified actual stereotypes, and endlessly impressed with the management of the story. You cannot help but cheer for Lee and her father as they, more or less, are forced to battle the injustices of the entire South. I cannot wait to read the next installment, and think that everyone should pick this up. "Bayou" might not be your cup of tea, but it ...more
Korri
rated it
People have long understood the power that myths have over cultural imagination. Whether or not myths are true, the fact that we invest so much emotional energy in and cultural captial on them is telling. This print installment of Jeremy Love's webcomic is set in 1933 Charon, Mississippi, both a real place and time as well as a spot endowed with a mythical name in honor of General Bogg's ferocious stand against Sherman during the Civil War. Charon ferried souls into Hades in Greek mythology. Ch...more
Think Gaiman's Sandman arc where the girl is living in her storybook world. It's like that, only it's the Reconstruction-era South, and it's darker. Lee has to save her father, unjustly accused of killing a white girl, who was actually eaten by the Bog. Aided by Bayou, the embodiment of the swamp, and Billy Glass, the winged spirit of a boy lynched for whistling at a white woman, Lee searches the Louisiana landscape for the girl.
Bayou incorporates old Southern stories, songs, and chara...more
Bayou incorporates old Southern stories, songs, and chara...more
Found this on my way to another book at the library. Fabulous artwork. Disturbing subject matter...lynching and monsters. The imagery is terrific. Would have given it at least one more star if the story finished one of its arcs within this volume.
As it is, a lot of characters are introduced but not filled out, and we're left waiting for Volume 2. So many characters that at a couple of points I flipped back and forth to make sure I hadn't missed something.
Still, I'l...more
As it is, a lot of characters are introduced but not filled out, and we're left waiting for Volume 2. So many characters that at a couple of points I flipped back and forth to make sure I hadn't missed something.
Still, I'l...more
Hm. Weird.
I picked this up saying oh it won't be very good - standard-issue comic book illustration. But I like southern swamp stories, and I'll usually give them a chance, especially this short. So this wasn't fantastic, a bit preachy-messagey to start out with (the South! hard for black folks in the 30s!) but dipped farther and farther into the surreal. In full, if somewhat monotonous (though pretty!) color, it is also enjoyable to look at on a warm summer morning. Don't think the story'...more
I picked this up saying oh it won't be very good - standard-issue comic book illustration. But I like southern swamp stories, and I'll usually give them a chance, especially this short. So this wasn't fantastic, a bit preachy-messagey to start out with (the South! hard for black folks in the 30s!) but dipped farther and farther into the surreal. In full, if somewhat monotonous (though pretty!) color, it is also enjoyable to look at on a warm summer morning. Don't think the story'...more
Hands down one of the best "superhero" comic I've ever read! The superhero is tiny little Lee Wagstaff from Charon, Mississippi, and Bayou is her giant hulking sidekick. Here's why I love Lee:
"Look at you! You a big ol' monster with arms like tree trunks! You can whup just about anything in the whole wide world! Whatchoo got to be scared of some bossman fo'? If I was big as you, I'd be the bossman! We find your bossman and we find Lily and you can just march right up to tha...more
Yowza! Nasty race relations in the deep South in the early 1930s, dumped on the shoulders of a particularly brave and winsome little girl, with a fantasy element adding a nightmarish but also fascinating depth. The artwork is outstanding, and the text and flow of the story complement it perfectly. I zoomed through this volume with speeding heart and bated breath, exhilarated by young Lee's adventures in the uncanny bayou but also terrified for her. Can't wait to read volume 2. (Oh - and des...more
Flat out, the greatest first volume of a new comic series I've ever read. When I read and reread, the character design is flawless, the sketchy-style connect with me as a reader, the dialogue is as believable as Twain - there are simply no weak links in this first collection. The universe that Love creates is awe-inspiring and is as beautiful and romantic as it is heart-breaking and infuriating. Since I have a habit of getting into a comic series 10 years after its original publication, it's exc...more
A tale told in the days of the late 1800’s in the times of plantations, slave relations and the like, the book have so many facets that they cover in the pages, it’s simply amazing. Unfolding like a classic fairy tale touched with bits of “The Wizard of Oz”, “Brer Rabbit”, and other such bits of entertainment history, it manages to be pretty enthralling throughout. To add to the fantasy nature of it, they play up the horror side just a bit more than others giving the book a great spooky tinge.
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I actually really liked the drawings in this book. Sometimes it's hard to rate graphic novels because I feel differently about the art and the story itself. The story is okay - it is the story of a black girl who goes to save her father from prison by proving he didn't kidnap a little white girl. In truth - she was eaten by a bayou monster, which actually seems like a pretty good fate for her. The main character has to confront the other monsters of the bayou in her quest to find the white girl....more
A very well made graphic novel about twentieth century racism in America. I enjoyed the beginning of it more, seeing as it was very realistic (the fact that Lee, being blamed for something she did not do, is penalized because of her colour). The second part of the story kind of had me straying, although the imagery and dialogue was tremendously introduced. Although it wasn’t really my style of graphic novel, if I do get my hands on the second volume, mind you, I still would read it.
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I was on the edge of my seat right at the first page of the book. The setting is the 30s in the south when racism is so evident. Lee Wagstaff lives with her father, who she loves greatly and would do anything for (you can see this from the very beginning of the book) and he loves her just as much.
Their lives take an unfortunate turn, however, when Lily Westmoreland, a young white girl who was playing with Lee, goes missing and due to a huge misunderstanding, Lee's father is accused an...more
Their lives take an unfortunate turn, however, when Lily Westmoreland, a young white girl who was playing with Lee, goes missing and due to a huge misunderstanding, Lee's father is accused an...more
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