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Sakura Hime and the Prince

I read Sakura Hime: The Legend of Princess Sakura, Vol. 3

I posted a review at the Comic Book Bin (which has FREE smart phone apps).

Leroy Douresseaux on DARK RAIN: A NEW ORLEANS STORY (OGN)

DARK RAIN: A NEW ORLEANS STORY
DC COMICS/VERTIGO

WRITER: Mat Johnson
ARTIST: Simon Gane
COLORS/GREY TONES: Lee Loughridge
LETTERS: Pat Brosseau
COVER: Simon Gane, Daymon Gardner, Nessim Higson
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2161-4; paperback
160pp, 2-Color, $19.99 U.S., $22.99 CAN

Three years after DC Comics/Vertigo published his graphic novel, Incognegro, I was wondering if and hoping that author Mat Johnson would return to comic books. He has. It’s with a wonderful new graphic novel, Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story.

Mat Johnson is an award-winning author who has drawn acclaim for his books, such as the novel, Hunting in Harlem, and the non-fiction, The Great Negro Plot. He has also written for DC Comic’s Vertigo imprint. He wrote the 2005 graphic novel, Hellblazer: Papa Midnite, (originally published as a miniseries) and the aforementioned, Incognegro (2008), which I consider to be one of the great comics work of the first decade of this new century.

His latest graphic novel is Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story, which has simultaneously been released in hardcover and paperback editions. Drawn by Simon Gane with colors and gray tones by Lee Loughridge, Dark Rain is largely set in New Orleans and takes place in 2005 during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The story focuses on two small-time ex-cons, the kind of guys who do prison time for one stupid mistake, and they’re both in need of cash. Dabney Arceneaux is an African-American combat veteran who can’t get a business loan and is behind on child support to an obnoxious ex-wife. Emmit Jack is a Cajun who just wants to get paid.

It is Emmit who gets a message from back home in New Orleans that his old employer, the Banque de Congo Square, is under duress and ripe for the picking, thanks to Hurricane Katrina’s strike against New Orleans. Jack convinces Dabney to help him get back to New Orleans for a bank robber payday. However, an old military acquaintance of Dabney’s, one Colonel Driggs, the head of the ruthless private security force, “Dark Rain,” also has his eyes on the Banque de Congo Square prize. All three men will find that the Big Easy is going to change their lives – whether they like it or not.

Back during those last three days of August 2005, the television media showed lots of images from inside New Orleans, as the city’s social structure and infrastructure cracked and, in many cases, fell apart. Some of the media showed images of citizens stranded on rooftops and trapped in and around the New Orleans Superdome. Other media realized how photogenic and newsworthy African-Americans are when we are in a state of agitation and keenly focused on what they called incidents of looting. That makes great television and draws ratings from those who need almost daily affirmation of what bad eggs colored folk are. And media like FOX News gave those people all the video footage of looting they could stand and more.

What only a few media outlets reported on were members of the Gretna Police Department shooting at Black people as those “refugees” tried to cross the bridge (the Crescent City Connection) to safety and leave New Orleans. You probably never heard that men from the white enclave, Algiers Point, formed vigilante groups and hunted black men “like pheasant” (their words), killing an unknown number (perhaps as many as 18). Of course, you didn’t.

Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story doesn’t cover all the uncovered news, but what Mat Johnson does is scratch well-beneath the surface of what you’ve heard about the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s strike on New Orleans. What’s amazing is how Johnson dramatizes some of real life events of Katrina and folds them into a riveting and unusual take on the crime thriller. The characters involved, the plans for the heist, the pacing of the story, the starts and stops on the way to Congo Square: these elements make such a crazy rhythm for this story. It is, however, a rhythm the keeps you tied to the grand scheme of Dark Rain, the main plotline, which is seeing who gets the cash.

In the same narrative in which he is spinning this highly-original take on the bank robbery tale, Johnson is telling a very human drama full of full of hope and even humor. The characters have true grit, fully on display as they are determined to overcome rank greed and bullying racism. At the same, their shortcomings and sins make them perfect foils for a reality that doesn’t give them their way. Dark Rain makes me call Mat Johnson brilliant, and although he has only written three graphic novels to this point, he is already one of the best writers in comics.

I don’t want to speak of artist Simon Gane as if his part is something wholly separate from Johnson’s. Gane’s graphical storytelling makes it seem like Dark Rain was born as a comic book without being a script and pages of art first. Gane captures the nuances of Johnson’s story, but the fact that this British artist can capture institutional racism and blatant bigotry that is as American as American can be is impressive. Gane juxtaposes the light and the dark, and his compositions ably convey the humor Johnson often places in this story at the most unexpected moments.

Dark Rain: A New Orleans Story would fit as a Vertigo Crime novel because of the bank robbery, but it is Fantagraphics/Pantheon in its social/character drama/satirical side. Dark Rain may be a comic book, but it should take a place of importance among the stories that chronicle New Orleans’ visit from Hurricane Katrina.

A

Leroy Douresseaux on INCOGNEGRO - A Graphic Novel Review

INCOGNEGRO - OGN
DC COMICS/VERTIGO

WRITER: Mat Johnson
ARTIST: Warren Pleece
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1097-7; hardcover
136pp, B&W, $23.99 U.S.

[I wrote this review over three years ago. Since then, I’ve come to believe that Incognegro is one of the best comic books of 2001-2010, the first decade of this new century, along with comics like The Original Johnson, Nat Turner, Louis Riel, and Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit.]

Award-winning author Mat Johnson has drawn acclaim for his books, including the novel, Hunting in Harlem and the non-fiction work, The Great Negro Plot. His entry into comic books was the six-issue miniseries, Hellblazer: Papa Midnite (now a trade paperback), published to coincide with the 2005 Hellblazer comic-to-film, Constantine.

Vertigo, the DC Comics imprint, released Johnson’s second comics project this past February as their offering for “Black History Month.” This Black History graphic novel, entitled Incognegro, is an absolutely terrific graphic work of detective fiction. Just to get this out of the way: the art by Warren Pleece doesn’t reach Johnson’s heights. The black and white composition is inconsistent from one page to the next, and the juxtaposition of dark and light and warm and cool space is erratic. This is peculiar considering that Pleece is a seasoned and respected professional.

Set in the 1930’s, Incognegro has as its heart, Zane Pinchback, a Harlem, NYC-based reporter for the New Holland Herald. Although Zane is a Negro, his skin complexion is so light that he can pass for a White man. In fact, he does. Zane occasionally leaves the relative safety of Harlem and heads to the Deep South where he infiltrates the local White populace – going “incognegro.” This colored version of going incognito allows him to take pictures of the lynching of black men (portrayed here as a civic event like a county fair or church picnic, which was often true in real life), as well as learn the names of the respectable folks attending these ghastly, all-too-human events.

The novel opens with a lynching, during which Zane’s cover is blown. After barely escaping with his life, Zane returns to Harlem and demands a new and safer job from his boss at the Herald. The boss wants one more column written by the mysterious “Incognegro,” and he’s sure Zane will be interested in covering this next case. It’s in Tupelo, Mississippi, where Zane’s estranged brother, Alonzo “Pinchy” Pinchback, is scheduled to hang for the murder of a white woman.

Zane races to Tupelo, once again passing as a White man, but this time, his aimless friend, Carl, a light-skinned Negro who can also pass, is coming along in hopes of learning how Zane does it, so he can take over when Zane quits being “Incognegro.” In Tupelo, however, Zane and Carl discover that this murder is set in a place where a Black person’s life is always in mortal danger. A labyrinthine mystery, with a huge cast of shady, inbred crackers, confronts Zane, and to make matters worse, someone quite deadly has arrived in Tupelo right behind Zane. This new arrival is no stranger to the famous/infamous newspaper columnist, “Incognegro,” and he plans on putting an end to the faux-White man.

As a murder mystery, Incognegro is just as good as any crime/detective comic book series or graphic novel published by an American comic book company. Stylistically, in terms of setting, plot, mood, atmosphere, and to a certain extent in the way the characters behave, Incognegro has the flavor of the work of brilliant African-American writer and mystery novelist, Walter Mosley (in fact, a quote from Mosley is on the front of Incognegro’s dust jacket). This is a riveting tale of a man in mortal danger, doggedly determined to find out who the real culprit is before his brother is lynched. What adds to the drama and conflict is that all of Zane’s efforts, regardless of if he solves the case or not, may earn him a rope around his neck.

If Incognegro makes a great statement about that misnomer “Race,” it’s that a person, who can be identified as “Black” or “Negro,” even if he has a light complexion or skin color, will face the same horrors of prejudice and racism as a man who obviously looks “Black.” It’s a matter of status as much as it is birth. People like to believe that there is always someone beneath them. Perhaps, it is a group of people that they believe they are better than and always will be better than. In the time in which Incognegro is set, dirt poor ignorant white trash has something in common with respectable white people – as white people they were better than niggers.

Someone born a nigger being able to pass for White must have terrified White people (and probably still does for some). If it’s so easy to stop being a Black man and become a White man, then, being White may not really have as much value as Whites believed. Still, in the context of this book, being Black meant a mob of White devils could, on a whim, decide to murder you – as the villain learns in the end.

Congratulations to Mat Johnson for presenting a graphic novel that is as riveting as it is ingenious. Incognegro is a thoughtful mystery tale and a nasty reminder of the kind of violence and hate that has left a lasting wound on our beautiful nation.

A+

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