Bayou

Love, J. (2009, June 2). Bayou. New York: Zuda Comics.

Author Website: no specific website for author

author interview: Hogan, J. (n.d.) Creator Interviews: Jeremy Love's American Style. Retrived from http://www.graphicnovelreporter.com/content/jeremy-loves-american-style-interview

Author Info: Jeremy Love was born in North Carolina and grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Sacramento, California. He got started in comics ten years ago when him and his brothers self-published a comic, Chocolate Thunder, together. When talking about the inspiration for Bayou, Love says "I’ve always been interested in the mythology of America. The south, in particular, seems like a haunted place. You have this region that is covered with blood but produces so much beauty. I never really felt connected to African mythology until I started reading Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus tales. Seeing how elements of African mythology were interwoven with American folklore was the spark. What led me to the Uncle Remus tales was Disney’s Song of the South, a film I’ve always had mixed feelings about. I felt I as an African American creator could reclaim that mythology. I thought this world would be the perfect place to stage an epic fantasy tale. I could mash up elements of the Civil War, blues, African mythology, Southern Gothic and American folklore and show how they form a tapestry that is the American South." Bayou started off as webcomic series and was later published in print; Bayou: Volume 1 contains the first four chapters of the story.

Review One: [Review of the book Bayou]. (2009, May 25). Publisher's Weekly.

Extremely beautiful, scary and wonderful, this Web comic takes readers to a pair of almost familiar, frequently threatening worlds. We first journey back in time to Mississippi, 1933, where a black sharecropper's daughter, Lee Wagstaff, is learning how to be strong in a segregated society. While Lee and her white friend, Lily, are playing near the bayou where black victims of racial violence are thrown, Lily is abducted by a monster-but Lee's father is blamed. To save him from a lynch mob by rescuing her friend, Lee enters the parallel universe of Dixie, where Southern folklore comes to life in disturbing echoes of our world. There she meets the eponymous character, a hulking creature living alone in a shack, troubled by disturbing memories and threatened by hateful embodiments of the South's violent past. When Lee convinces Bayou that he doesn't have to remain a victim, the two of them set off on a joint quest for understanding and redemption. Love's script and art, laid out in big blocks like Sunday comics, are lovely and eloquent; Morgan's coloring fills the panels with hazy sunlight and menacing darkness.

Review Two: Jones, C. (2009, July 1.) [Review of the book Bayou]. Booklist.

Lee Wagstaff warns, The Bayou is a bad place. Ain't nuthin' good ever happened around here. At the outset of this powerhouse historical fantasy comic, Lee's white friend, Lily, is snatched and swallowed whole by a dim-witted giant from the bog, and Lee's father is accused of kidnapping the girl. Lee returns to the Bayou, determined to follow the creature, rescue Lily, and prove her father's innocence. What ensues is a journey that honors the tenacious spirit of African Americans living in the Depression-ravaged Jim Crow era of the deep South. Originally a webcomic and beautifully translated to the printed page, in many ways Bayou is to Alice in Wonderland what O Brother, Where Art Thou? is to The Odyssey, as Love combines southern lore and African folktales to create a dark, haunting otherworld that Lee ventures into. Some events are disturbing the opening scene, in which Lee enters the Bayou to retrieve the body of a boy who met his demise in an Emmett Till-like manner, is particularly haunting, and his blank eyes will linger in the mind long past reading. Indeed, the fact-based atrocities depicted throughout are far more chilling than any of the fantastical horrors Lee encounters. Dauntless readers will be captivated by the grotesque beauty on display here.--

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you believe that Lily was a bad friend? Why or Why not?

2. Create your own ending for the story.

Quote:

Pg. 152 "YOU KIDDIN' ME! You a damn fool and I'm sick of your whining! I'm the little girl, I'm the one that should be whining and crying, not you!"