Some of the chapters from Crooked Hallelujah were previously published individually. Ford lives in Virginia with her husband, the poet Scott Weaver, and daughter. Ford is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and her #OwnVoices novel-in-interlinked-stories offers a narrative featuring multiple generations of a matriarchal Cherokee family. Daniels and Passmore's social commentary on gentrification in the not-for-the-squeamish style of David Cronenberg brings a dark comedy to the country's urgent housing crisis.Įven before Kelli Jo Ford 's debut, Crooked Hallelujah (Grove, $26, reviewed below), was released, it garnered accolades: the seventh chapter, "Hybrid Vigor," won the Paris Review 's Plimpton Prize in 2019, and Ford's pre-publication manuscript won the 2019 Everett Southwest Literary Award from the University of Central Oklahoma. As slumlords build luxury condos in historically Black neighborhoods, a seemingly self-propelling force of slime emerges from every drain, toilet and cellar. Aya: Life in Yop City perhaps most closely finds an analogue as a West African Sex and the City, wherein young women contend with the pitfalls and rewards of love, friendship, and adulthood.īttm Fdrs (Fantagraphics, $24.99) by Ezra Claytan Daniels and Ben Passmore confronts the darker realities of urban life in a surreal neon palette. Readers who pick it up might find parallels between the youthful antics of Aya, Adjoua and Bintou and many Western coming-of-age stories. In Aya: Life in Yop City (Drawn & Quarterly, $24.95), readers see in the protagonist Aya an image of her own ascendant nation: anchored by tradition, yet curious to see all that lies beyond its bounds. During this postcolonial era, the Ivory Coast flourished and its illustrious capital, Abidjan, was an international destination, and both a playground and place of promise for its inhabitants. The neon marquees that punctuate each chapter, announcing Ella Fitzgerald, James Brown, Prince, Chris Rock and Jay-Z, remind readers that behind one of the country's foremost cultural institutions is American history itself.įrom Harlem, Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie take us to 1978 Yopougon, the working-class section of Abidjan. Smith's evocative shades of nightclub blue bring to life Fox's sprawling history of the Apollo Theater and its many legendary performers. Illustrator James Otis Smith worked with Ted Fox graphically to adapt Fox's 1983 Showtime at the Apollo: The Epic Tale of Harlem's Legendary Theater (Abrams ComicArts, $18.99).
Black cartoonists like Jackie Ormes, George Herriman and Ollie Harrington paved the way for the diverse voices and perspectives in today's comics, and the myriad styles in which Black artists practice their craft.
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