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Bayou #Vol 1
Bayou, Vol. 1
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 snatched by agents of an evil creature known as Bog, Lee's father is accused of kidnapping. Lee's only hope is to follow Lily's trail into this fantastic and frightening alternate world. Along the way she enlists the help of a benevolent, blues singing, swamp monster called Bayou. Together, Lee and Bayou trek across a hauntingly familiar Southern Neverland, confronting creatures both benign and malevolent, in an effort to rescue Lily and save Lee's father from being lynched.
BAYOU VOL. 1 collects the first four chapters of the critically acclaimed webcomic series by Glyph Award nominee Jeremy Love.
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 snatched by agents of an evil creature known as Bog, Lee's father is accused of kidnapping. Lee's only hope is to follow Lily's trail into this fantastic and frightening alternate world. Along the way she enlists the help of a benevolent, blues singing, swamp monster called Bayou. Together, Lee and Bayou trek across a hauntingly familiar Southern Neverland, confronting creatures both benign and malevolent, in an effort to rescue Lily and save Lee's father from being lynched.
BAYOU VOL. 1 collects the first four chapters of the critically acclaimed webcomic series by Glyph Award nominee Jeremy Love.
160 pages, Paperback
First published June 2, 2009
15 people are currently reading
1552 people want to read
About the author
Jeremy Love
28 books39 followersJeremy Love is an award-winning writer, illustrator, and animator. His critically acclaimed serialized graphic novel Bayou, from DC/Zuda, was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Digital Comic and won five Glyph Awards. Making his debut over a decade ago, Love has also worked on creator-owned projects for Dark Horse (Fierce, Shadow Rock), on established properties such as G.I. Joe, Batman, and Fraggle Rock, and on various animated projects.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 287 reviews
May 3, 2012
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 secret...it wasn't her father that stole away Lily, it was the spirits of the Otherworld who inhabit the nearby swamp that took her away. And so little Lee Wagstaff heads into the frightening unknown world of the bayou, where she meets a staunch friend and ally, the gentle giant named after the Bayou itself and, like Alice, she goes through the looking glass into a world both like and unlike her own.
The art is beautiful and moving and the story is a powerful one that pulls no punches when dealing with the realty of racism and hatred in the South. This realism is expertly mixed with the magical Otherworld in a way I've only ever seen equalled by Sean Stewart. The danger of magic and the high cost of dealing with it are effectively portrayed and the nightmares spawned by the hatred of the landscape are only equalled by the pathos of some of the Otherworld creatures, like simple Bayou himself or the spirit of Lee's lynched friend Billy Glass.
Lee's adventures soon go off track, as they are wont to when we cross the border of the real and the unreal, and she soon finds herself entangled in the politics and machinations of the bayou; a world no less complex, and dangerous, than her own.
I highly recommend checking out this comic and hope to track down the other volumes of Lee's story soon.
The art is beautiful and moving and the story is a powerful one that pulls no punches when dealing with the realty of racism and hatred in the South. This realism is expertly mixed with the magical Otherworld in a way I've only ever seen equalled by Sean Stewart. The danger of magic and the high cost of dealing with it are effectively portrayed and the nightmares spawned by the hatred of the landscape are only equalled by the pathos of some of the Otherworld creatures, like simple Bayou himself or the spirit of Lee's lynched friend Billy Glass.
Lee's adventures soon go off track, as they are wont to when we cross the border of the real and the unreal, and she soon finds herself entangled in the politics and machinations of the bayou; a world no less complex, and dangerous, than her own.
I highly recommend checking out this comic and hope to track down the other volumes of Lee's story soon.
February 5, 2023
A dark Southern fantasy graphic novel about race. A young girl, Lee Wagstaff, journeys into a parallel world to save her innocent father from being hanged for the murder of a white girl. Violence pervades this world of anthropomorphized animals and monsters, just as it does her reality, but she won't give up. Love is a gifted storyteller and a capable artist. His scenes are grotesque and menacing where they need to be, and sweet where Lee and her family connect with each other. I can tell I'm missing some of the layers while reading it, due to my own ignorance, because so much history and mythology is clearly wrapped up in Lee's journey. It's a compelling story, though, even if like me you don't know enough to fully process all the references.
The only problem: Bayou was never completed. The two printed volumes, and the Comixology run of issues #1-15, each collect all the material that seems to have been published, and it's been 5+ years since the last issue. I'm glad I read it anyway, but I know for some folks the lack of an ending would be understandably annoying.
The only problem: Bayou was never completed. The two printed volumes, and the Comixology run of issues #1-15, each collect all the material that seems to have been published, and it's been 5+ years since the last issue. I'm glad I read it anyway, but I know for some folks the lack of an ending would be understandably annoying.
February 22, 2011
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 American girl named Lee and her buddy, an as yet mysterious-yet-gentlehearted monster named Bayou. Lee and Bayou are on a quest to save her father from a lynching; he is erroneously accused of kidnapping a white girl and Lee is out to find the girl who is being kept in a Southern Gothic Wonderland where ghosts and mythical creatures dwell in an uneasy peace under a Boss named Bog. Other, recognizable goodies and baddies -so far- include Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby, a murderous Stagger Lee and a nightmarish reclamation of the Golliwog.
Bayou is a Best Digital Comic nominee for the 2010 Eisner Awards; read it now as it's being served up fresh on-line! AND buy the books as they are published and support this great comics artist!
Bayou is a Best Digital Comic nominee for the 2010 Eisner Awards; read it now as it's being served up fresh on-line! AND buy the books as they are published and support this great comics artist!
August 19, 2016
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 want to claim that Bayou, at least as of this first volume, isn't fantasy as much as magical realism. The fantastic elements aren't part of normal life (except insofar as they're the gigantic iridescent shadows of normal life) but neither are they more terrifying or abnormal to Lee, the protagonist, than those parts of her reality that she must deal with at the side of her father or other adult relatives.
My favorite pages are those on which we see Lee through Bayou's eyes. In one, as she prepares to do something Bayou hasn't the courage for, she isn't wearing her patched dress but a flowing gown and gold around her neck and in her ears and hair. Later, when she cries for Bayou to help her, he sees her straining against a chain. Whom is Bayou remembering?
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 want to claim that Bayou, at least as of this first volume, isn't fantasy as much as magical realism. The fantastic elements aren't part of normal life (except insofar as they're the gigantic iridescent shadows of normal life) but neither are they more terrifying or abnormal to Lee, the protagonist, than those parts of her reality that she must deal with at the side of her father or other adult relatives.
My favorite pages are those on which we see Lee through Bayou's eyes. In one, as she prepares to do something Bayou hasn't the courage for, she isn't wearing her patched dress but a flowing gown and gold around her neck and in her ears and hair. Later, when she cries for Bayou to help her, he sees her straining against a chain. Whom is Bayou remembering?
April 9, 2014
Set in the small town of Charon in Mississippi during the Depression-era, segregation is in full swing and racism so pervasive that a black man is lynched for whistling at a white woman – that’s all it takes! It’s a grim time especially for Lee Wagstaff whose father is accused of kidnapping her white friend Lily Westmoreland and taken to jail, on no evidence, where he’ll surely be killed without trial.
But Lee knows different because she saw the monster in the swamp who ate her friend and holds her still in the alternate world that exists alongside ours: the Southern Neverland. And with the help of a friendly blues-loving giant called Bayou, Lee must venture into the dark and magical world to bring back Lily and save her dad.
Bayou reads a lot like a Southern version of Pan’s Labyrinth. The period setting, the young girl heroine able to see and exist in the real world and the fantasy world, and Bayou acting as her guide a la the Faun. It’s a book that would be appropriate for young adults but dances along the line between light and dark – one moment revealing the ugly depths of racism and then the mischievous playfulness of the Southern Neverland that Bayou exists in. And, as cheesy as it may sound, as odd-looking as the inhabitants of the fantasy world are, the real monsters are the white supremacists who murder people for their race.
Jeremy Love does an excellent job of both writing and drawing a compelling and enjoyable book in Bayou Vol 1. The colours feel a bit muted, a little dusty like you would get from chalk or pencils, but it’s the only aspect of the art that I wasn’t completely satisfied with. Otherwise, Love perfectly captures the atmosphere of the time – the menace in the air due to the oppression of the blacks, as well as the look of the characters and their world. It’s especially effective when he begins introducing the fantasy elements like winged human sprites, giant monsters with child-like faces, and animal-headed guards – their appearances are startling amidst the realism and draws the reader further into the narrative.
Bayou Vol 1 is a smashing good read with great characters, strong plot, lovely art – the only real complaint is how short it is at around four issues. I’ve ordered Vol 2 to see how what happens next in Lee and Bayou’s story, and instilling that desire in the reader is really the mark of a good book.
But Lee knows different because she saw the monster in the swamp who ate her friend and holds her still in the alternate world that exists alongside ours: the Southern Neverland. And with the help of a friendly blues-loving giant called Bayou, Lee must venture into the dark and magical world to bring back Lily and save her dad.
Bayou reads a lot like a Southern version of Pan’s Labyrinth. The period setting, the young girl heroine able to see and exist in the real world and the fantasy world, and Bayou acting as her guide a la the Faun. It’s a book that would be appropriate for young adults but dances along the line between light and dark – one moment revealing the ugly depths of racism and then the mischievous playfulness of the Southern Neverland that Bayou exists in. And, as cheesy as it may sound, as odd-looking as the inhabitants of the fantasy world are, the real monsters are the white supremacists who murder people for their race.
Jeremy Love does an excellent job of both writing and drawing a compelling and enjoyable book in Bayou Vol 1. The colours feel a bit muted, a little dusty like you would get from chalk or pencils, but it’s the only aspect of the art that I wasn’t completely satisfied with. Otherwise, Love perfectly captures the atmosphere of the time – the menace in the air due to the oppression of the blacks, as well as the look of the characters and their world. It’s especially effective when he begins introducing the fantasy elements like winged human sprites, giant monsters with child-like faces, and animal-headed guards – their appearances are startling amidst the realism and draws the reader further into the narrative.
Bayou Vol 1 is a smashing good read with great characters, strong plot, lovely art – the only real complaint is how short it is at around four issues. I’ve ordered Vol 2 to see how what happens next in Lee and Bayou’s story, and instilling that desire in the reader is really the mark of a good book.
February 7, 2010
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 immediately blamed. Despite how realistic such occurrences may have been during the Jim Crow era, it just feels hokey and generic here. So many other works have already done it so much better. It would be one thing if the author were using this setting to as a thoughtful commentary on race, but it turns out the racist South is just a pretext for the rest of his story.
However, the above just sets a backdrop for the real appeal of the book: a fantasy realm which evinces an amalgam of "Alice in Wonderland" and Southern Gothic storytelling. Unfortunately, Volume 1 ends shortly after our protagonist, Lee, enters the magic bayou in search of her friend. This was an odd time to end the story. There was no resolution, and there wasn't any cliffhanger. It just ends...right in the middle of the journey. We're given a hint as to the struggle between good and evil in this realm, but nothing really hooked me in for the next volume. The art is impressive, but it doesn't make up for an otherwise underwhelming book.
However, the above just sets a backdrop for the real appeal of the book: a fantasy realm which evinces an amalgam of "Alice in Wonderland" and Southern Gothic storytelling. Unfortunately, Volume 1 ends shortly after our protagonist, Lee, enters the magic bayou in search of her friend. This was an odd time to end the story. There was no resolution, and there wasn't any cliffhanger. It just ends...right in the middle of the journey. We're given a hint as to the struggle between good and evil in this realm, but nothing really hooked me in for the next volume. The art is impressive, but it doesn't make up for an otherwise underwhelming book.
October 5, 2010
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 characters are re-imagined images from the South like Cotton-Eyed Joe, Jim Crows that are downright scary birds, Jubal the Bloodhound on a horse, and Bayou himself, a giant creature who lives in a shack. I felt like I was set down in the middle of a fantasy land where I didn't know the rules or characters. I found the mix of the realistic and fantastic confusing. I'm not sure why, usually I'm all for the combination, but in this case it left me feeling off-kilter. Of course, in the same interview he states one of the inspirations behind Bayou was Alice in Wonderland, a story I'm not too fond of.
Maybe it was in part to the artwork which added another dimension to the story, the visual aspect that is missing in novels. The story is very violent, which is to be expected based on the themes and the artwork is both beautiful and menacing, magical and frightening. The scenes of Lee swimming in the bayou are just eerie.
I can't say I enjoyed reading this, but I am interested to see where it goes, to maybe get my bearings in Dixie.
Maybe it was in part to the artwork which added another dimension to the story, the visual aspect that is missing in novels. The story is very violent, which is to be expected based on the themes and the artwork is both beautiful and menacing, magical and frightening. The scenes of Lee swimming in the bayou are just eerie.
I can't say I enjoyed reading this, but I am interested to see where it goes, to maybe get my bearings in Dixie.
January 17, 2010
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 that ol' fool and tell him to give him your chilluns or you goin' pound him good!"Sigh, and the artwork is AWESOME ~ dark, haunting, drenched in rich watercolors... with really cute bugs and animals.
December 6, 2013
Review is for the first two trades, as they were read bac-to-back.
"BAYOU, which tackles racism and violence in 1930s Mississippi, is as hypnotic as it is unsettling." — 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 snatched by agents of an evil creature known as Bog, Lee's father is accused of kidnapping. Lee's only hope is to follow Lily's trail into this fantastic and frightening alternate world. Along the way she enlists the help of a benevolent, blues-singing swamp monster called Bayou. Together, Lee and Bayou trek across a hauntingly familiar Southern Neverland, confronting creatures both benign and malevolent, in an effort to rescue Lily and save Lee's father from being lynched. BAYOU VOL. 1 collects the first four chapters of the critically acclaimed webcomic series by five-time Glyph award winner Jeremy Love.
This would have gotten a five-star rating had it been printed on larger sized better quality paper in a nice hardcover edition... oh, and it should have included more issues.
Looking forward to the 3rd volume... and the hardcover versions if those ever do appear.
"BAYOU, which tackles racism and violence in 1930s Mississippi, is as hypnotic as it is unsettling." — 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 snatched by agents of an evil creature known as Bog, Lee's father is accused of kidnapping. Lee's only hope is to follow Lily's trail into this fantastic and frightening alternate world. Along the way she enlists the help of a benevolent, blues-singing swamp monster called Bayou. Together, Lee and Bayou trek across a hauntingly familiar Southern Neverland, confronting creatures both benign and malevolent, in an effort to rescue Lily and save Lee's father from being lynched. BAYOU VOL. 1 collects the first four chapters of the critically acclaimed webcomic series by five-time Glyph award winner Jeremy Love.
This would have gotten a five-star rating had it been printed on larger sized better quality paper in a nice hardcover edition... oh, and it should have included more issues.
Looking forward to the 3rd volume... and the hardcover versions if those ever do appear.
May 20, 2016
Touch of history and magic. Fantastic read.
I talk about this book here - https://youtu.be/mJqgwgDPCuE
I talk about this book here - https://youtu.be/mJqgwgDPCuE
January 17, 2018
Bayou is about a man and his daughter that live in the past and it is during a racist time period. The white officers made lee to dive into the bayou and find a dead black kid named billy to give him a proper burial. When she gets to billy his soul is swimming and he has wings then she comes back up with his body. The next day she lee and her friend lily were playing and lily wanted to go to the bayou but lee knew their were strange things in the bayou her mother got killed by the bayou so she did not want anything to do with it. Lily ran down their and of course Lee followed her and when they got their Lily dropped her new necklace she got and asked lee to dive in and get it for her. She did not want to so when Lily's mom asked her where her new necklace is she said it was stolen that lee stole it. Lee being black and Lily being White the cops came and Lee's dad gave her a beating then the police took Lee's dad to jail. When that happened lee ran away and went to the bayou then she met the bayou monster and he gave her a gun to fight the forest. The only way to save her father was to find the necklace that was all that was in volume 1
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March 13, 2021I see reviewers describing this book as Pan’s Labyrinth in the Jim Crow South, and I think that’s accurate. It deftly balances real-life horror with scary supernatural elements, in this case taken from folklore. The violence is shocking but effective while the fantasy stuff is mysterious. I think the storytelling is maybe a bit too simple, and I’m here and there on the art, but it’s a unique project overall.
August 29, 2021
As usual I always rate graphic novels with 5 stars but I will warn you that this one is DARK. I wouldn’t recommend to anyone who is triggered by race relations in the south during Jim Crow era and everything that goes with that…this does not brush over this topic lightly. This is a violent story. You may think cartoons are fun and sweet but you would be very wrong.
June 18, 2019
Strange, haunting, beautiful, and a little off putting, but VERY intriguing. Lots of historical aspects in it too. Can't wait to read the next one.
June 2, 2019
It kind of lost me at the end, and I’m bummed it was a cliffhanger, but I loved the artwork for this. It’s a tough story, and it wasn’t exactly fun to read, but I’m curious to see what happens next.
August 12, 2013
Bayou is the product of DC's efforts a few years back to embrace the Internet comic book scene.
Although like the comic book scene itself, much less DC's efforts to embrace it, Bayou has lsot a considerable amount of luster since its original release.
There's the idea that you should feel bad about that, on any number of levels, and also that Bayou asked for such a fate from the start. Creator Jeremy Love does a lot of things very right in this collection, and he does one thing very crucially wrong: the ending of the story is not at the end of the volume.
And for a story like Bayou, that's very, very wrong. Imagine reading Maus like that. Think literary critics would still be in love with it if they had had to read it in installments? Installments don't work for every audience. And while Internet comics are even more about installments than print comics (they're the bastard offspring of newspaper comics, but serialized), for something like Bayou, that's just not the way to go.
So, Bayou. Think of it as Maus meets Beasts of the Southern Wild, a tale of 1930s segregation that's a little like the underrated Ving Rhames film Rosewood if it had been crossed with Alice in Wonderland.
Sorry, sometimes I can get carried away with associations. The story is about a little girl who gets in trouble when her white friend accuses her of theft, which actually gets her father in trouble instead, and then the white friend disappears and the girl must try to retrieve both her estranged friend and the lost item, so that she can save her father from an angry lynch mob.
And she runs into some fantasy characters.
And the story doesn't end.
Part of the problem is in one of those last few sentences. The reader, if they're invested at all in the story, will be wondering how exactly the girl's father is going to survive a lynch mob that already killed another black social offender (in a way that evokes Emmett Till) at the start of the story. That alone is indication that Love didn't entirely think his story through. He wants an interminable amount of time to even introduce the fantasy elements, believing that a few early hints will suffice. And maybe they do. The whole point of Bayou is an examination of race relations.
Which makes it more relevant in 2013 with Trayvon Martin (whom some observers have dubbed the new Emmett Till) than when Bayou was originally released. And maybe that will work in the story's enduring appeal, although I would hasten for Love to release a complete edition (if he hasn't already), rather than repeat the mistakes of his own past.
Bayou happened at all because of an opportunity DC provided for him. Love won the chance to see it published probably because it contradicted all expectations. And probably because it did it also spelled the end of the experiment DC had been conducting, because in the end Bayou was never an Internet comic to begin with, but a whole graphic novel waiting to happen.
And perhaps if it had been born as such, the rough edges could have been smoothed before its release. Although there's still plenty here to admire.
Although like the comic book scene itself, much less DC's efforts to embrace it, Bayou has lsot a considerable amount of luster since its original release.
There's the idea that you should feel bad about that, on any number of levels, and also that Bayou asked for such a fate from the start. Creator Jeremy Love does a lot of things very right in this collection, and he does one thing very crucially wrong: the ending of the story is not at the end of the volume.
And for a story like Bayou, that's very, very wrong. Imagine reading Maus like that. Think literary critics would still be in love with it if they had had to read it in installments? Installments don't work for every audience. And while Internet comics are even more about installments than print comics (they're the bastard offspring of newspaper comics, but serialized), for something like Bayou, that's just not the way to go.
So, Bayou. Think of it as Maus meets Beasts of the Southern Wild, a tale of 1930s segregation that's a little like the underrated Ving Rhames film Rosewood if it had been crossed with Alice in Wonderland.
Sorry, sometimes I can get carried away with associations. The story is about a little girl who gets in trouble when her white friend accuses her of theft, which actually gets her father in trouble instead, and then the white friend disappears and the girl must try to retrieve both her estranged friend and the lost item, so that she can save her father from an angry lynch mob.
And she runs into some fantasy characters.
And the story doesn't end.
Part of the problem is in one of those last few sentences. The reader, if they're invested at all in the story, will be wondering how exactly the girl's father is going to survive a lynch mob that already killed another black social offender (in a way that evokes Emmett Till) at the start of the story. That alone is indication that Love didn't entirely think his story through. He wants an interminable amount of time to even introduce the fantasy elements, believing that a few early hints will suffice. And maybe they do. The whole point of Bayou is an examination of race relations.
Which makes it more relevant in 2013 with Trayvon Martin (whom some observers have dubbed the new Emmett Till) than when Bayou was originally released. And maybe that will work in the story's enduring appeal, although I would hasten for Love to release a complete edition (if he hasn't already), rather than repeat the mistakes of his own past.
Bayou happened at all because of an opportunity DC provided for him. Love won the chance to see it published probably because it contradicted all expectations. And probably because it did it also spelled the end of the experiment DC had been conducting, because in the end Bayou was never an Internet comic to begin with, but a whole graphic novel waiting to happen.
And perhaps if it had been born as such, the rough edges could have been smoothed before its release. Although there's still plenty here to admire.
October 24, 2013
In 1955 a 14 year-old black teenager from Chicago, Emmett Till, was murdered in Mississippi while visiting relatives. His body was discovered at the bottom of the Tallahatchie river weighted down with a piece of cotton-gin equipment that was secured around his neck with barbed wire. The offense that apparently warranted such punishment was that the boy had whistled at, or attempted to flirt with, a 21-year old woman. The woman's husband and friends of his were acquitted at trial, where the defence's argument consisted of such ludicrous statements as that the body could not be identified as Emmett's and that Emmett was likely back in Chicago hidden away by his family. As crazy as this story sounds, it is historical fact.
A version of this story is the opener for Bayou, where our young heroine Lee Wagstaff, dives down into the Bayou to help recover the body. It sets the tone for the race relations that are the central concern of this beautifully drawn story. Lee's white friend, Lily, goes missing and her father stands accused. In a race against time our little heroine must find a way to prove her father's innocence before the lynch mob breaks him out of the jail cell to string him up. This is pretty grim stuff.
The bayou, where Lily disappeared, is a mythical place, filled with fantastical beings both friendly and frightening. Many will be familiar to anyone who knows a bit about African American folklore. What makes Love's graphic novel so fantastic is how he mixes the horrors of the historical reality with the wonders and wisdom of the folkloric fantasy. Brilliant.
My only gripe is that the story is cut up, in typical comic book fashion, into volumes. There must have been some editorial mix up or something because volume 1 feels like we only got partway into the first act, leaving the reader with too many questions and not nearly enough answers.
A version of this story is the opener for Bayou, where our young heroine Lee Wagstaff, dives down into the Bayou to help recover the body. It sets the tone for the race relations that are the central concern of this beautifully drawn story. Lee's white friend, Lily, goes missing and her father stands accused. In a race against time our little heroine must find a way to prove her father's innocence before the lynch mob breaks him out of the jail cell to string him up. This is pretty grim stuff.
The bayou, where Lily disappeared, is a mythical place, filled with fantastical beings both friendly and frightening. Many will be familiar to anyone who knows a bit about African American folklore. What makes Love's graphic novel so fantastic is how he mixes the horrors of the historical reality with the wonders and wisdom of the folkloric fantasy. Brilliant.
My only gripe is that the story is cut up, in typical comic book fashion, into volumes. There must have been some editorial mix up or something because volume 1 feels like we only got partway into the first act, leaving the reader with too many questions and not nearly enough answers.
November 14, 2011
Bayou is a dark bit of graphica, filled with racism, murder, kidnapping, golliwogs, faeries, and all other sorts of magic from the bayou region. And it's here that Jeremy Love takes us away to, back to a time when folktales and monsters lived as real as anything else.
Lee Wagstaff--prepubescent, imaginative, strong--is the daughter of a black sharecropper. Set in a time and place where racism is alive and flourishing, the graphic novel is unflinching when dealing with life. We see firsthand the abuse the characters go through, from the hanged remains of a young black boy to the beating of a young white Lily by her megalomaniacal mother. As it happens, Lily and Lee are friends, even though neither of their parents are too keen on the idea. And as it happens, Lily's loyalty is tested when she "loses" her locket to the bayou. Lily tells her mother that Lee stole it, but soon the two girls are back to the bayou, looking for the necklace. And this time the bayou has a more sinister plan.
This event sets off the rest of the book, where we watch Lee's desperate quest to retrieve her kidnapped friend and save her doomed father. The trip is surreal and exciting, and it's easy to sympathize with Lee as she journeys deeper and deeper into the bayou.
Bayou Vol. 1 obviously does not contain a full story, as it's an ongoing series. Still, the story is provocative and easily leaves the Reader wanting some resolution. If you've an interest in folklore, America's dark history, or want something different, then definitely check out Love's Bayou.
Lee Wagstaff--prepubescent, imaginative, strong--is the daughter of a black sharecropper. Set in a time and place where racism is alive and flourishing, the graphic novel is unflinching when dealing with life. We see firsthand the abuse the characters go through, from the hanged remains of a young black boy to the beating of a young white Lily by her megalomaniacal mother. As it happens, Lily and Lee are friends, even though neither of their parents are too keen on the idea. And as it happens, Lily's loyalty is tested when she "loses" her locket to the bayou. Lily tells her mother that Lee stole it, but soon the two girls are back to the bayou, looking for the necklace. And this time the bayou has a more sinister plan.
This event sets off the rest of the book, where we watch Lee's desperate quest to retrieve her kidnapped friend and save her doomed father. The trip is surreal and exciting, and it's easy to sympathize with Lee as she journeys deeper and deeper into the bayou.
Bayou Vol. 1 obviously does not contain a full story, as it's an ongoing series. Still, the story is provocative and easily leaves the Reader wanting some resolution. If you've an interest in folklore, America's dark history, or want something different, then definitely check out Love's Bayou.
August 27, 2016
This review is for both volume 1 and volume 2, since I basically mainlined them.
I really truly loved these volumes. They are fantastic! They are also disturbing proof to me that I need to make reading diversely a higher priority goal. Like, I always have it in the back of my mind, but I do not often follow through on that. This is bad. I need to work harder on it.
I basically could not stop reading the first volume of this. I was so horrified by the racism that Lee and her father face that I felt almost sick to my stomach, and I just couldn't help but root for Lee and hope that she would be able to overcome the obstacles in her path. Lee, for the record, is an amazing character.
The second volume introduces more of a fantastical element to the story. There are hints of it in the first volume, but it's all out there in the second. It reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, but with so much more menace and horror. I loved the creatures that Lee encounters and seeing just what they get up to. The drawings are pretty fantastic as well.
My big disappointment from this is that it is apparently not finished. I have spent a lot of time searching for more of this story, but it does not seem to exist yet. I did see some rumors that volume 3 would be out in 2015? Except it's 2016, so obviously not. I just hope that the rest of the story eventually gets published because I am all in for it.
I really truly loved these volumes. They are fantastic! They are also disturbing proof to me that I need to make reading diversely a higher priority goal. Like, I always have it in the back of my mind, but I do not often follow through on that. This is bad. I need to work harder on it.
I basically could not stop reading the first volume of this. I was so horrified by the racism that Lee and her father face that I felt almost sick to my stomach, and I just couldn't help but root for Lee and hope that she would be able to overcome the obstacles in her path. Lee, for the record, is an amazing character.
The second volume introduces more of a fantastical element to the story. There are hints of it in the first volume, but it's all out there in the second. It reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, but with so much more menace and horror. I loved the creatures that Lee encounters and seeing just what they get up to. The drawings are pretty fantastic as well.
My big disappointment from this is that it is apparently not finished. I have spent a lot of time searching for more of this story, but it does not seem to exist yet. I did see some rumors that volume 3 would be out in 2015? Except it's 2016, so obviously not. I just hope that the rest of the story eventually gets published because I am all in for it.
September 18, 2012
Plot-driven. Atmospheric, Violent, Whimsical. Dialect-rich, Engaging.
Set in the Mississippi Bayou during the 1930s, this story incorporates both the racist attitudes of the times and the mythical beliefs focused around the bayou. We follow Lee, a young black girl, as she attempts to find her white friend that was eaten by a monster of the bayou, before her father is lynched for the white girl's supposed rape and murder. Filled with fantastical creatures and scary monsters, this is a fairytale that contains all of the classic violence and horror of the original fairytales.
NOTE: Depicts violence towards adults, children, and animal people. Scenes depicting racist beatings and use of the n-word.
Recommended for those who enjoy Jeff Lemire, Castle Waiting, Vol. 1, Jane Yolen, and Mercury.
Set in the Mississippi Bayou during the 1930s, this story incorporates both the racist attitudes of the times and the mythical beliefs focused around the bayou. We follow Lee, a young black girl, as she attempts to find her white friend that was eaten by a monster of the bayou, before her father is lynched for the white girl's supposed rape and murder. Filled with fantastical creatures and scary monsters, this is a fairytale that contains all of the classic violence and horror of the original fairytales.
NOTE: Depicts violence towards adults, children, and animal people. Scenes depicting racist beatings and use of the n-word.
Recommended for those who enjoy Jeff Lemire, Castle Waiting, Vol. 1, Jane Yolen, and Mercury.
June 18, 2014
WOW. The first volume was wonderful. Set in the deep South in the 1930s, Bayou is the story of a courageous little black girl on a quest to save her father from being lynched for a kidnapping that he had no part in.
She descends into a Lewis Carroll-esque Mississippi bayou to find the missing girl. The bayou is populated with monsters and godlike beings, personifications of concepts and artifacts from the Jim Crow era. There's a sheet-headed creature named Nathan, which I assume is a reference to the Civil War general who founded the KKK. The evil but unseen Bossman's son is a smiling giant named Cotton-Eyed Joe who swallows people whole. There's a heroic dog named Woodrow, a second sheet-headed fiend called Jefferson, a murder of Jim Crows, and a murderous creature called a golliwog which looks like a cross between a racist old-fashioned black caricature and Gollum. I wish I understood more of the references...was Woodrow Wilson an equal-rights activist? Who does Jefferson refer to, the former president? I have some googling to do.
Bayou is beautiful, colorful, expressive. Just gorgeously drawn. A powerful contrast to the horrors of the plot and setting.
She descends into a Lewis Carroll-esque Mississippi bayou to find the missing girl. The bayou is populated with monsters and godlike beings, personifications of concepts and artifacts from the Jim Crow era. There's a sheet-headed creature named Nathan, which I assume is a reference to the Civil War general who founded the KKK. The evil but unseen Bossman's son is a smiling giant named Cotton-Eyed Joe who swallows people whole. There's a heroic dog named Woodrow, a second sheet-headed fiend called Jefferson, a murder of Jim Crows, and a murderous creature called a golliwog which looks like a cross between a racist old-fashioned black caricature and Gollum. I wish I understood more of the references...was Woodrow Wilson an equal-rights activist? Who does Jefferson refer to, the former president? I have some googling to do.
Bayou is beautiful, colorful, expressive. Just gorgeously drawn. A powerful contrast to the horrors of the plot and setting.
July 6, 2012
WOW. I am so blown away. This is such a powerful graphic novel! I really admire for Jeremy Love for going where others often fear to tread with regards to racism, sexual violence and death in the south -- and all of this under the surface of a fairy tale-like story of a girl trying to save her father from the noose. I mean, this is heavy stuff but I am blowing through it.
The art work is also of a superior quality. Some really vivid and challenging images. I wish we had read this in my college Critical Race Theory class.
Lee Wagstaff is the Ophelia of Pan's Labyrinth - coping with an incredibly violent environment through imagination and fantasy. But is it her imagination?
Wrought with allegory, metaphor and powerful symbolism - Bayou should be required reading for everyone!
The art work is also of a superior quality. Some really vivid and challenging images. I wish we had read this in my college Critical Race Theory class.
Lee Wagstaff is the Ophelia of Pan's Labyrinth - coping with an incredibly violent environment through imagination and fantasy. But is it her imagination?
Wrought with allegory, metaphor and powerful symbolism - Bayou should be required reading for everyone!
March 2, 2010
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 the book), much detail is lost. I can hardly make out the characters' faces on about a dozen pages. I strongly dislike the Zuda webcomics reader, but seeing how much sharper Bayou is in digital form, I'd recommend that version over the book.
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 the book), much detail is lost. I can hardly make out the characters' faces on about a dozen pages. I strongly dislike the Zuda webcomics reader, but seeing how much sharper Bayou is in digital form, I'd recommend that version over the book.
November 22, 2010
Good fantasy will often have a rousing story, intricate plot, and developed characters--great fantasy will always be an allegory for our world and Bayou's brutal allegorical fantasy world is the result of the harsh reality of America's Deep South in 1933 after hundreds of years of slavery, brutality, the Civil War, Reconstruction and Jim Crow.
This is beautiful, brutal, and highly recommended.
I've been doing some searching for young adult fantasy written by people of color and it is very hard to find. Any suggestions people could throw my way would be appreciated.
This is beautiful, brutal, and highly recommended.
I've been doing some searching for young adult fantasy written by people of color and it is very hard to find. Any suggestions people could throw my way would be appreciated.
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January 30, 2010A fascinating, haunting book. It's not often that a book successfully combines elements as complex as folklore, lynching, and an Alice in Wonderland style trip, but this one does it beautifully. I fear some folks might think, from the style and cover, that this is for younger readers -- it's definitely not. It also points out just how much comics lack diversity, and how much more remains to be explored within the format.
October 29, 2009
i like the concept of this book. i like the illustrations, which are both welcoming and dark. i love Lee, the strong girl main character. but by the time the Jim Crows arrived, i thought the tropes had been taken just a little too far. it's an intriguing story and an intriguing approach for a difficult subject matter. i guess where the next part of the story goes will determine how much i like this volume.
June 24, 2010
The drawings are beautiful, the storyline has a lot of lovely mystical elements to it. And it's always good to find quality graphic novels that deal with race because there aren't enough of them (though some of the characters are a little stereotypical...but it's a pre-civil rights era story so that comes with the territory.)
My complaints are the small format, crappy newsprint paper, and typos. This book deserves to have more respect for itself!
My complaints are the small format, crappy newsprint paper, and typos. This book deserves to have more respect for itself!
July 23, 2014
This was awesome. I love the deep, deep South, where nightmares, dreams and reality seem to meld so easily. The deep seated lore and a dark history not far gone only add to the eerie feeling of the place. So this story, with what look to be swamp-dwelling animated corpses and the ghost of a drowned boy, is set in the perfect environment. There are even personified animal characters toward the end of the volume that lend an Alice in Wonderland feel. I can't wait to read the next volume!
February 7, 2017
Really engaging world. I love the way that Love draws nonhuman characters.
Two little girls play by a spring, and one of them disappears. The other girl's father is wrongfully blamed. Racism, lots of blood, and a pretty horrifying dinner table all come into play.
The mixed-media effect of the illustrations is really interesting too - many panels include visible pencil line tracings.
It's all about the monster/creatures for me, tho.
Two little girls play by a spring, and one of them disappears. The other girl's father is wrongfully blamed. Racism, lots of blood, and a pretty horrifying dinner table all come into play.
The mixed-media effect of the illustrations is really interesting too - many panels include visible pencil line tracings.
It's all about the monster/creatures for me, tho.
February 7, 2017
Where to start with this book ... this is what good art (and good literature) should do. Push you past your comfort zone. Make you have visceral gut reactions. And realize that this piece of historical fiction is still being played out across America today. Great work Jeremy Love!
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